“Give them back!” Apple said, as he and I stood. He was all set to pitch into a fight. That was the last thing we needed.

I stepped between him and Klein, hoping to prevent one. “Now!” I said, putting out my hand. “Both of them.”

“Or you’re gonna make me?” Klein mocked, pretending to be frightened. He was putting on for his friend’s benefit, and Lukowski was eating it up. “Hillbilly here’s trying to scare us. What are we going to do?”

He started to pull the letters out of reach, and I grabbed his arm. He jerked back, and . . .

Whatever would have happened next between us didn’t, because Compton was suddenly on us, demanding, “What’s going on?”

Klein dropped the pages so they floated to the floor. “Nothing,” he said. “We was just joking around.”

“Then after this, keep the horseplay outdoors.”

Compton looked from one to the other of us, his eyes settling on me. “I don’t think you much want to make it here, Trawnley.”

Monday began the workweek routine, and for the next few days, everyone, including me, was flat out too busy to get into trouble.

The 0545 wake-up was followed by reveille bugled to the tune of “You can’t get ’em up, you can’t get ’em up, you can’t get ’em up in the mornin’,” only Reese and Compton did get us up and outside in time for calisthenics at 0600. And then there was washing and dressing, straightening the quarters and breakfast, formation and assignments at 0800, and then a long day of work projects Sergeant Mackey said were planned to “strength, toughen, and test.”

Or wear us out.

Monday, when we knocked off work at 4:30 P.M.—1630, according to the army and the CCC—we pretty much collapsed till call to colors.

Tuesday, though, a few rallied for a softball game, and by Wednesday we’d chosen up semipermanent teams. Sam turned out to be a pretty good pitcher, and I played shortstop. It was a rousing good game that ended when Nate batted a home run with two runners on base. It gave our side a victory that we celebrated loudly, and Apple, who was playing outfield for the other side, flashed him a thumbs-up.

Thursday we took our first long hike. “We’re going to get you in shape to put in eight healthy hours a day in the outdoors,” Sergeant Mackey told us, as we got ready. “Because when you leave here, most of you will be going to outside jobs, planting trees or clearing weeds, building parks.”

“Do we get to choose?” someone asked.

The sergeant laughed. “Nope.”

“But we won’t be split up?” Apple asked. “We’ll all go to the same place?”

“That’s right. Now, you wouldn’t be asking all these questions just to put off a little walking, would you?”