"Can't we hit up the pace a bit?" asked Tom.

"Yes," nodded Dick. "All who want to travel fast can hike right
ahead. Just keep on the main road."

Tom, Greg and Dan immediately forged ahead, taking long, rapid
steps.

"But don't go in the water until we come up," Dick called after
them. "Remember, the morning is hot, and you'll be too overheated
to go in at once."

"Eh?" muttered Tom, with a sidelong look at his two fast-time
companions. "Humph!"

Then they fell back with the wagon again.

"There doesn't seem to be any way to beat the clock to breakfast,"
observed Dan, after he had walked several rods down the road.

"I've talked with old soldiers," Dick went on, "who have told
me all sorts of tales of war time, about the commissary train
not catching up with the fighting line for four days at a stretch.
Yet here you fellows feel almost ill if you have to put off breakfast
half an hour. What kind of men would you boys make if it came
to the stern part of life?"

"If going without breakfast is part of the making of a man," said
Danny Grin solemnly, "then I'd rather be a child some more."