Dick Prescotts First Year at West Point

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Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point?by H. Irving Hancock

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Title: Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point
Author: H. Irving Hancock
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6426] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 11, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT ***

Etext of Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point Or Two Chums in the Cadet Gray
By H Irving Hancock
The Saalfield Publishing Company Akron, Ohio New York Made in U. S. A. Copyright MCMX By The Saalfield Publishing Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
"TWO TINY SPECKS OF NOTHING"
CHAPTER II.
THE TYRANNY OF THE CADET CORPORAL
CHAPTER III.
THE "LUCKY" ONES TAKE UP THE NEW LIFE
CHAPTER IV.
GREG'S CASE OF "BLUES"
CHAPTER V.
CANDIDATE DODGE IS CRITICAL
CHAPTER VI.
IN THE HANDS OF THE YEARLING HAZERS
CHAPTER VII.
A SUDDEN GRIND AT MATH
CHAPTER VIII.
DICK BONES TROUBLE
CHAPTER IX.
PLEBE PRESCOTT'S FIRST FIGHT
CHAPTER X.
THE "BEAST" WHO SCORED
CHAPTER XI.
HOW CADET DODGE HELD POST NUMBERTHREE
CHAPTER XII.
PRESCOTT GETS NUMBER THREE
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SENTRY MAKES A CAPTURE
CHAPTER XIV.
POOR GREG CAN'T EXPLAIN
CHAPTER XV.
GREG OVERHEARS A PRETTY GIRL'S TRIBUTE
CHAPTER XVI.
TAPS SOUND ON SUMMER
CHAPTER XVII.
MR. DODGE GOES CANVASSING
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PLEBE CLASS CHOOSES ITS PRESIDENT
CHAPTER XIX.
THE PROWLER IN QUARTERS
CHAPTER XX.
CONCLUSION
DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT
CHAPTER I
"TWO TINY SPECKS OF OF NOTHING"
"HOW do you feel, Dick! As spruce as you did an hour ago!"
Candidate Greg Holmes put the question with a half-nervous laugh. He spoke in a whisper, too, as if to keep his agitation from reaching the notice of any of the score or more of other young men in the room of Mr. Ward, the aged notary at West Point.
"I'll be glad when I see some daylight through the proceedings," Dick Prescott whispered in answer.
"I'm glad they allow us to talk here in undertones," pursued Greg.
"If we weren't allowed to do so, some of us would go suddenly crazy, utter a whoop and spring through one of the windows," grinned Dick.
For the tenth time he thrust his hands into his pockets-then as quickly drew them out again.
All of the young men now gathered in the room were candidates for cadetships at West Point; candidates who had been appointed by the Congressmen or Senators of their home districts or states, and who must now pass satisfactory physical and mental examinations, after which they would be enrolled as cadets in the United States Military Academy. Those of the cadets who thus passed the preliminary examinations, and who maintained good health and good standing in their classes during the following four years and three months would then be graduated from the Military Academy and forthwith be appointed second lieutenants in the Regular Army of the United States.
Hived in this room, awaiting their turn, a spirit of awe had gripped all these nervous young men.
Some of them dreaded a failure in the coming bodily tests before the keen-eyed, impartial surgeons of the United States Army.
Probably half of the boys in the room feared that they would fail in the academic exam inations.
Boys? Some of the candidates didn't look the part. They had the physiques and general appearance, many of them, of men; for a candidate may be anywhere between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two years of age.
From all over the country they came. When the new, or plebe class should finally be assembled and put to work, that class would represent practically every state in the Union.
Readers of a former series of books, "THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS SERIES," will not need to again be introduced to Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes. Such readers will well remember these two manly young Americans as members of that famous sextette, "Dick & Co.," famous in the annals of the good old Gridley High School.
Nor will such readers need to be told how Dick won, over the heads of forty competitors, the nomination of Congressman Spokes, the boy carrying all before him in a rigid competitive examination at the