llows, these waifs, were from no
State or place in particular. They hadn't even an officer with them, but
were hurrying on to their destination under command of a veteran gunner,
"lanced" for the purpose at the recruiting station. He had done his best
for his men. Ruefully they looked through the dust-covered interior and
inspected the muddy trucks and brake-gear. "She wheezes like she had
bronchitis," said the corporal, "and the inside's a cross between a
hen-coop and coal-bin. You ain't going to run that old rookery for a
car, are you?"

"Best we've got," was the curt reply. Yet the yardman shook his head as
he heard the squeal of the rusty journals, and ordered his men to pack
in fresh waste and "touch 'em up somehow." Any man who had spent a week
about a railway could have prophesied "hot boxes" before that coach had
run much more than its own length, but it wouldn't do for an employee to
say so. The corporal looked appealingly at his fellow-passengers of the
Rio Grande train. There were dozens of them stretching their legs and
strolling about the platform, after getting their hand-luggage
transferred and seats secured, but there was no one in position or
authority to interpose. Some seemed to feel no interest.

"Get your rations and plunder aboard," he ordered, turning suddenly to
his party, and, loading up with blankets, overcoats, haversacks, and
canteens, the recruits speedily took possession of their new quarters,
forced open the jammed windows to let out the imprisoned and overheated
air, piled their boxes of hard bread and stacks of tinned meat at the
ends and their scant soldier goods and chattels in the rude sections,
then tumbled out again upon the platform to enjoy, while yet there was
time, the freedom of the outer air, despite the torrid heat of the
mid-day sunshine.

In knots of three or four they sauntered about, their hands deep in
their empty pockets, their boyish eyes curiously studying the signs and
posters, or wistfully peering through the screened doors at the
temptations of the bar and lunch counter or the shaded windows of the
dining-room, where luckier fellow-passengers were taking their fill of
the good cheer afforded. Two of the number, dressed like the rest in
blue flannel shirts, with trousers of lighter hue and heavier make,
fanning their heated faces with their drab, broad-brimmed campaign hats,
swung off the rear end of the objectionable car, and, with a quick
glance about them, sta