Dave Darrins Third Year at Annapolis | Page 3

the whole corps of cadets travel over to Philadelphia. There, on Franklin Field, before an average of thirty thousand yelling spectators, the great annual game of the two great national academies is fought out."
"You haven't gone to see the annual game at Philadelphia before this, have you?" asked Miss Meade.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because, Belle, both years, at Thanksgiving time, Danny boy and I have found ourselves so far behind in our studies that we just took the time to stay behind and bone, bone, bone over our books."
"And you think this year will be different?"
"Oh, yes; when a man is half way through Annapolis the studies become easier to him. You see, in two years of the awful grind a fellow, if he lasts that long, has learned how to study in the right way. I'm going to get two tickets, Belle, so that you and your mother can go to see the game. And of course good old Dick can do as much for Laura Bentley and her mother. You'll come, of course, to root your hardest for the Navy, just as Laura will go and root for the Army. By the way, have you heard whether Dick and Greg expect to play on the Army eleven?"
"When they were here this summer they said they hoped to play football with the Army. That's all I know, Dave, about the plans of Dick and Greg."
"I hope they do play," cried Midshipman Darrin cheerily. "Even with two such old gridiron war horses as Dick and Greg against us, I believe that the Navy team, this year, has some fellows who can take the Army scalp with neatness and despatch."
Dave rambled on, for some time now, with of the athletic doings at the Naval Academy. It was not that he was so much interested in the subject--at that particular moment--but it was certainly fine to have Belle Meade for an interested listener.
"Well, you're half way through your course," put in Belle at last. "You passed your last annual examinations in June."
"Yes."
"How did you stand in your exams?"
"I came through with honors," Dave declared unblushingly.
"Honors?" repeated Belle delightedly. "Oh, Dave, I didn't know you were one of the honor men of your class."
"Yes," laughed Midshipman Dave, though there was a decidedly serious look in his fine face. "Belle, I consider that any fellow who gets by the examiners has passed with honors. So we're all honor men that are now left in the class. Several of the poor fellows had to write home last June asking their parents for the price of a ticket homeward."
"But, now that you've got half way through, you're pretty sure to go the rest of the way safely," Belle insisted.
"That's almost too much of a brag to make, Belle. The truth is, no fellow is safe until he has been commissioned as an ensign, and that's at least two years after he has graduated from the Naval Academy. Why even after examination, you know, a fellow has to go to sea for two years, as a midshipman, and then take another and final examination at sea. A whole lot of fellows who managed to get through the Academy find themselves going to pieces on that examination at sea."
"And then--" went on Belle.
"Why, if a fellow can't pass his exams, he's dropped from the service."
"After he has already graduated from Academy? That isn't fair," cried Belle Meade.
"No, it isn't quite fair," assented Midshipman Dave, with a shrug of his shoulders. "Yet what is one going to do about it? It's all in the game--to take or leave."
"Who ever made the Naval Academy and the service so hard as that?" the girl wanted to know.
"Congress, I guess," laughed Dave, "but acting, very likely, on the advice of a lot of old admirals who are through themselves, and who expect the youngsters to know as much as the very admirals. Why, Belle, when I was a few years younger, and first began to dream about going to the Naval Academy I had a mental picture of a very jolly life, in which we sailed the seas and absorbed our knowledge. I had an idea that the midshipman's life was made up mainly of jolly larks ashore and afloat, with plenty of athletics to keep us from ever feeling dull. Of course, I knew we had to do some studying, but I didn't imagine the studies would be hard for a chap who had already gone through a good High School."
"Your High School studies did help, didn't they?" demanded Belle.
"They helped somewhat in the exams, to enter Annapolis, but they've never helped me with any of the studies that I've had to tackle as a midshipman."
"Oh, well, you'll get through," the girl predicted with cheery confidence.
"I shall, if it's really in me," Dave promised.