of you good people when I tell you that
I have just received a letter from Mrs. Schermerhorn, asking me to join
her this week instead of next, and bring Peter with me."

"Oh! father, please let me stay!" interrupted Peter; "can't you tell ma
I've joined the army for the war? We all want to stay like everything!"

"And forage for yourselves?" said his father, laughing. "No, the army
must give you up, and lose a valuable member, Master Peter; but just
have the goodness to listen a moment. The review shall take place, but
as the camp will have to break up on Saturday instead of Monday, as I
had intended, the performances must come off to-morrow. Does that suit
your ideas?"

The boys gave a delighted consent to this arrangement, and now the only
thing which dampened their enjoyment was the prospect of such a speedy
end being put to their camp life. "Confound it! what was the fun for a
fellow to be poked into a stupid watering place, where he must bother to
keep his hair parted down the middle, and a clean collar stiff enough to
choke him on from morning till night?" as Tom indignantly remarked to
George and Will the same evening. "The fact is, this sort of thing is
_the_ thing for a _man_ after all!" an opinion in which the other _men_
fully concurred.

But let us return to the piazza, where we have left the party. After a
few moments more spent in chatting with Mr. Schermerhorn, it was decided
to accept Colonel Freddy's polite invitation, which he gave with such a
bright little bow, to inspect the camp. You may be sure it was in
apple-pie order, for Jerry, who had taken the Zouaves under his special
charge, insisted on their keeping it in such a state of neatness as only
a soldier ever achieved. The party made an extremely picturesque
group--the gay uniforms of the Zouaves, and light summer dresses of the
ladies, charmingly relieved against the background of trees; while Mr.
Schermerhorn's stately six feet, and somewhat portly proportions, quite
reminded one of General Scott; especially among such a small army; in
which George alone quite came up to the regulation "63 inches."

Little Jessie ran hither and thither, surrounded by a crowd of adorers,
who would have given their brightest buttons, every "man" of them, to be
the most entertaining fellow of the corps. They showed her the battery
and the stacks of shining guns--made to stand up by Jerry in a wonderful
fashion that the boys never could hope to attain--the ins