canvasman's hand.

The lads had been hurled from their sleeping place by a rough
tentman in a hurry to get at his work. The chill of the early
dawn was in the air. The boys stood, with shoulders hunched
forward, shivering, their teeth chattering, not knowing where
they were and caring still less. They knew only that they were
most uncomfortable. The glamor was gone. They were face to face
with the hardships of the calling they had chosen, though they
did not know that it was only a beginning of those hardships.

"B-r-r-r!" shivered Teddy.

"T-h-h-h-at's what I say," chattered Phil.

"Say, are you kids going to get busy, or do you want me to help
you to?"

Phil did not object to work, but he did not like the way the
canvasman spoke to them.

"I guess you'll have to do your own work. Come on, Teddy; let's
take a run and warm ourselves up."

Hand in hand the lads started off across the field. The field
was so dark that they could scarcely distinguish objects about
them. Here and there they dodged wagons and teams that stood like
silent sentinels in the uncertain light.

"Turn a little, Teddy. We'll be lost before we know it, if we