Dick Prescotts Third Year at West Point | Page 2

she suddenly
remembered something that made her feel more at ease.
"Why, I saw an officer and some soldiers on a train, the other day," she
cried. "The officer had at least eight or ten soldiers with him, under his
command. I remember what a fine-looking young man he was. He had
what looked like two V's on his sleeve, and I remember that they were
yellow. What kind of an officer is the man who wears the two yellow
V's?"
"A non-commissioned officer, Mrs. Davidson; a corporal of cavalry."
"Was he higher that you'll be when you graduate from West Point?"
"No; a corporal is an enlisted man, a step above the private soldier. The
sergeant is also an enlisted man, and above the corporal. Above the
sergeant comes the second lieutenant, who is the lowest-ranking
commissioned officer."
"Oh, I am sure I never could understand it all," sighed Mrs. Davidson.
"Why don't they have just plain soldiers and captains, and put the
captains in a different color of uniform? Then ordinary people could
comprehend something about the Army. But in describing that young
soldier's uniform, I forgot something, Mr. Prescott. That young soldier,
or officer, or whatever he was, beside the two yellow V's, had a white
stripe near the hem of his cuff."
"Just one white stripe?" queried Dick.
"Just one, I am sure."
"Then that one white stripe would show that the corporal, before
entering the cavalry, had served one complete enlistment in the
infantry."

"Oh, this is simply incomprehensible!" cried the new pastor's wife in
comical dismay. "I am certain that I could never learn to know all these
things."
"It is a little confusing at first," smiled Dick's mother with another show
of pride. "But I think I am beginning to understand quite a lot of it."
Mrs. Davidson went out of the bookstore conducted by Dick's parents
in the little city of Gridley. Dick sighed a bit wearily.
"Why don't Americans take a little more pains to understand things
American?" he asked his mother, with a comical smile. "People who
would be ashamed not to know something about St. Peter's, at Rome, or
the London Tower, are not quite sure what the purpose of the United
States Military Academy is."
Yet, though some people annoyed him with their foolish questions, he
was heartily glad to be back, for the summer, in the dear old home town.
So was his chum, Greg Holmes, also a West Point cadet, and, like
Prescott, a member of the new second class at the United States
Military Academy. Both young men had now been in Gridley for
forty-eight hours. They had met a host old-time friends, including
nearly all of the High School students of former days.
Readers of "_Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point_" and of "_Dick
Prescott's Second Year at West Point_," are familiar with the careers of
the two chums, Prescott and Holmes, at the United States Military
Academy. The same readers are also familiar with the life at West Point
of Bert Dodge, a former Gridley boy, but who had been appointed a
cadet from another part of the state. Our old readers are aware of the
fact that Dodge had been forced out of the Military Academy for
dishonorable conduct; that it was the cadets, not the authorities, who
had compelled his departure, and that Dodge resigned and left before
the close of his second year.
Readers of these volumes of the _High School Boys' Series_ know all
about Bert Dodge in the course of his career at Gridley High School.
Dodge, back in the old days in Gridley, had been a persistent enemy of

Dick & Co., as Prescott and his five chums had always been called in
the High School. Of those five chums Greg, as is well known, was
Dick's comrade at West Point. Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell were now
midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Their
adventures while learning to be United States Navel officers, are fully
set forth in The Annapolis Series. Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton had
chosen to go West, where they became civil engineers engaged in
railway construction through the wild parts of the country, as fully set
forth in the _Young Engineers' Series_.
Just after Mrs. Davidson left the bookstore there were no customers left,
so Dick had a few moments in which to chat with his mother.
"What has become of the fellow Dodge?" asked the young West
Pointer.
"Oh, haven't I told you?" asked his mother. A shade of annoyance
crossed her face, for she well knew that it was Dodge who, while at
West Point, had nearly succeeded in having her son dismissed from the
Service on a charge of which Dodge, not Dick, was guilty.
"No, mother;