"What's your name? And don't say 'sir' to me!" roared Astro.

"Coglin, sir," gulped the boy.

"Don't say 'SIR'!"

"Yes, sir--er--I mean, O.K.," stuttered Coglin.

"And don't say O.K., either," Roger chimed in.

"Yes ... all right ... fine." The boy's face was flushed with
desperation.

Astro stepped forward, his chin jutting out. "For your information," he
bawled, "the correct manner of address is 'Very well.'"

"Very well," stammered Coglin.

Astro shook his head and turned back to Tom and Roger. "Have you ever
seen a greater display of audacity and sheer gall?" he demanded. "The
nerve of these three infants assuming that they could ever become Space
Cadets!"

Tom and Roger laughed, not at the three Earthworms, but at Astro's
sudden eloquence. The giant Venusian cadet usually limited his comments
to a gruff Yes or No, or at most, a garbled sentence full of a veteran
spaceman's oaths. Then, resuming his stern expression, Roger faced the
three boys.