The cavalry escaped this task but was busy with tactics of its own. Under Jim, who was its chief, it was required to drill and go for a canter across the country. That used up most of the afternoon and the sun was beginning to sink when they returned. At school, during the term, the cavalrymen got quite a bit of practice, but it was the plan of the colonel to teach his boys to ride every day during the encampment, so that they might become used to having horses under them a good many hours at a stretch. Many a young man found himself stiff and sore before the end of the week.
The artillery was busy with what they called “silent drill.” Artillery practice was always pretty expensive and only during the fall and the last few weeks of summer encampment did the colonel allow any firing of the fieldpieces. During the summer the artillerymen were instructed in the art of finding the range, wheeling the guns into position, effectively concealing them from an enemy, especially an enemy in the air, and tearing down and rebuilding the guns.
With all of these activities the first day in camp sped by with astonishing rapidity. This first day was different from the ones that followed, for once the camp was settled the work decreased materially. So busy had the boys been that there was no time for a swim or any fun on that initial day of camp life. A few hardy souls managed to stay awake and talk and sing songs around the campfires, but most of the young men stumbled to bed at the first possible moment.
The three friends had not had much of a chance to see each other that day, and at night they were too tired to do much in the way of talking. In common with many others they sought their beds before taps.
“If I’m going to be as tired as this every night I’ll never enjoy this camping trip,” Jim grumbled as he undressed.
“You won’t be,” Don observed. “This was an unusual day for all of us, but we’ll get used to it. With all our outdoor life, this systematic drill, exercise, and work makes us feel the grind.”
“I don’t see why we have to take regular exercises.” Terry yawned and stretched out on his cot. “Seems to me that we get enough to keep us physically fit as it is.”
“Yes, but the kind of routine exercises that we get help to keep us limbered up,” Don returned. “Otherwise, we’d get a whole lot of one kind of training and not much of another. You and I get plenty of leg and arm exercise but Jim would be riding all day if he stuck to his particular branch of the corps.”