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."