Page:The Rover Boys at School.djvu/260

242 and soon the cadets were putting up the tents, while the cooking detail was preparing supper. The evening meal consisted of nothing but bread, coffee, and beef stew, but never did plain, fare taste better, with such pure mountain air for sauce.

"It's just boss!" said Tom on the second day in camp. "Living in a tent suits me to death."

The next day, however, he changed his tune, for it rained in torrents, and everybody got soaked to the skin. "Ugh!" said Tom. "I wasn't thinking of this when I said it suited me to death." All made the best of it, and luckily the storm did not last over twenty-four hours. Then the sun came out warmly, and that was the last of the rain while the encampment lasted.

A week had passed by, when one afternoon Dick, Tom, and Sam received permission to visit the town of Rootville, a mile away. They were to be gone not over three hours, and were to purchase some medicine needed by several cadets who had taken cold during the damp spell.

The boys walked to Rootville in high spirits and readily procured the drugs desired. Then they wandered around from place to place, taking in the sights.

There was a depot, and as was natural they