go in with the bunch."

"That officer wasn't either chesty or snobbish," rejoined Darrin.

"Then you will kindly explain what he tried to do to me?"

"That's easy enough. That Naval officer recognized in you a rather
common type--the too-chummy and rather fresh American boy. Down
here in the service, where different grades in rank exist, it is
necessary to keep the fresh greenhorn in his place."

"Oh!" muttered Dan, blinking hard.

"As to your not wanting to go into the service," Dave continued,
"if you should fail, tomorrow, in your physical examination, you
would be as blue as indigo, and have the blue-light signal up
all the way back home."

"I don't know but that is so. Yes; I guess it is," Dalzell assented.

"Now, there are at least ninety-nine chances in a hundred that
you're going to pass the Navy doctors all right, Dan," his chum
went on. "If you do, you'll be sworn into the Naval service as
a midshipman. Then you'll have to keep in mind that you're not
an admiral, but only a midshipman--on probation, at that, as
our instructions from the Navy Department inform us. Now, as
a new midshipman, you're only the smallest, greenest little boy
in the whole service. Just remember that, and drop all your jolly,
all your freshness and all your patronizing ways. Just listen
and learn, Dan, and study, all the time, how to avoid being fresh.