general favorite.

Besides the professors there was the military instructor and
drillmaster, Colonel Bull, a fat little man with a great deal of
self-importance, who looked after the physical side of the boys'
instruction, while the professors attended to the mental side.

There were a number of motor-boats, several of the boys going partners
in these, and there were also rowboats and canoes, a considerable
number of the Hilltop boys being accustomed to the water, and
spending a good deal of their time on it.

Harry Dickson and Arthur Warren, chums of Jack and Dick, had a boat
together, as did Herring and Merritt, and there were several boys
who had boats alone, like Percival and Jack, one of these being a
little fellow, the smallest boy in the Academy, who had his full
name, Jesse W. Smith, painted on the stern of his boat, which he
managed alone with considerable dexterity.

Percival's boat was a costly affair, and was fitted with cushions
and an awning, had silver trimmings and was lined inside with
mahogany and other costly woods, being a very handsome affair, but
no better as a boat, as its owner himself remarked, than Jack's
made-over craft.

"That's the way I do things, Jack," he said when the boys were out
on the river in his boat after bringing Jack's down to the camp.
"I can't begin to make the speed with this boat that you can with
yours, but I have a regular floating palace, as you might say. Why,
the Hudson River boats are not any better fitted up than this, size