Receiving the word from his superior, the brigade adjutant next
read the orders, after which he was ordered to take his post.

While this was going on Midshipman Cranthorpe had formed his awkward
squad to the rear, behind the first battalion.

Now orders rang out crisply for battalion commanders to take charge.
Thereupon each battalion commander marched his command in column
of squads into the mess hall; battalion commanders preceding their
battalions, company commanders preceding their companies and the
junior officers of each company following the company. Last of
all came Midshipman Cranthorpe's awkward squad.

And very awkward, indeed, these young men felt. Each had a burning
conviction that he was being watched curiously by hundreds of
pairs of eyes. The new men might as well have saved themselves
their worry. Barely an upper class man in the hall was paying
any heed whatever to these self-conscious plebes.

The meal, a mid-day dinner, was an excellent one. Few of the
new men, however, had any notion of what it consisted.

Mess hall was left with almost the same amount of formality.
In the short recreation period that followed the new men, painfully
conscious that their caps were the only part of the uniform they
wore, were hurried away by Midshipman Cranthorpe.

Now they were quickly assigned to the rooms that they would occupy
during their first year at the Naval Academy.