It was with sighs of relief that they eased their heavy packs from
their shoulders and dropped them thumping to the floor.
"Gosh!" exclaimed Billy, "I don't mind carrying a pack that weighs
sixty pounds or even eighty; but after a time this pack of mine
gets to weigh about two tons, and that seems just a little bit too
much."
"You told a whole bookful that time," said Tom ruefully. "It is
surprising how those packs keep getting heavier all the time.
Another half mile, and I think the straps would have been through
my shoulders altogether."
"Well, there's no use worrying about what might have happened,"
laughed Frank, "seeing that we've arrived safe and sound. While
we're in barracks we'll be able to get three square meals a day,
and that appeals to me more, even, than getting rid of the old
pack."
Frank had hardly finished speaking when an officer approached and
called: "Attention!" Then followed roll call, and the boys,
together with a number of their comrades, were assigned to a
barracks next but one to that in which they had stopped. This, of
course, necessitated shouldering the heavy packs once more, but by
this time the boys had come to expect things like this, so took it
all as a matter of course, and soon found themselves in the
quarters that were to be theirs until the order came once more to
march.
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