CHAPTER XIV.
POOR GREG CAN'T EXPLAIN The weeks slipped by, though not without the friction of sincerely hard work.
Dick, Greg and many of their classmates, toiling, marching, drilling under the hot sun that shone on the West Point plain and drill areas, acquired deep coats of manly tan on faces, necks and hands.
In many a story of West Point life the summer encampment is made to appear "the good old summer time" of an Army career.
The West Point cadet knows better.

It is a season of the hardest work.
At an hour when most city-dwelling boys are turning over in bed for another long and luxurious "snooze" the West Point cadet is up and doing in earnest.
There is much instruction that the young man has to absorb.
Merely to take part is not enough.

The young man must make himself proficient in such branches of the soldier's art as cavalry tactics, drill, horsemanship, scouting, artillery tactics and drill, with drill at the guns of different calibers, and target practice with field, siege, mountain, mortar, howitzer and seacoast guns, with a lot of work in the service of mines.
Infantry tactics, with unceasing drill and a lot of target practice, provide a great amount of work.
Then there is a wide range of work to be mastered in practical military engineering, with the building of field fortifications, obstacles, spar and trestle bridges, pontoon bridges, military reconnoissance and sketching, map-making, surveying, military signaling and telegraphy, wireless and telephone service, the making of war material, the managing and handling of pack trains, field manoeuvres, and--well, it's not a season of ideal play! It was toward the end of this busy season of outdoor life that Greg got into his most serious trouble up to that time, with an upper class man.
The day had been unusually hot, even for West Point.

Those of the upper class men who felt the call to the evening's hop had dressed with utmost care and departed for the ballroom and the glances of soft eyes.
An unusually large number, however, were in camp this evening.
Tattoo sounds at 9.30.Men who wish are privileged to make up their beds and turn in at this hour.

Greg was among the large number who went to sleep soon after tattoo this sultry night.