CHAPTER I

BOUND FOR HOME


"HURRY Up, Sam, unless you want to be left behind!"

"I'm coming!" shouted Sam Rover, as he crossed the depot platform on
the run. "Where is Tom?"

"He went ahead, to get two good seats for us," answered Dick Rover. He
looked around the crowd that had gathered to take the train. "Hi,
there, Songbird, this way! Come in this car, Hans!"

"Say, aren't you fellows coming aboard?" came a voice from the nearest
car, and a curlytopped head with a pair of laughing eyes appeared.
"Folks crowding in to beat the band! Come on in if you want seats."

"We'll be in directly," answered Sam, and followed his brother Dick to
the car steps. Here there was quite a jam, and the Rover boys had all
they could do to get into the car, followed by half a dozen of their
school chums. But Tom Rover had managed to keep seats for all, and
they sat "in a bunch," much to their satisfaction. Then the train
rolled out of the station, and the journey homeward was begun.

The term at Putnam Hall Military Academy was at an end, and the school
days of the three Rover boys at that institution were now a thing of
the past. Each had graduated with honors, yet all were a trifle sad to
think that there would be no going back to a place where they had made
so many friends.