for in everything but books, in everything that bore directly on the
training of a soldier and which depended upon myself, as, for example,
drill, riding, marksmanship, and a knowledge of the manual, I did as
well, or far better, than any of my classmates. But I could not, or
would not, study, and instead of passing high in my class at the end
of the plebe year, as my natural talents seemed to promise I would do,
I barely scraped through, and the outlook for the second year was not
encouraging. The campaign in Mexico had given my grandfather a
knowledge of Spanish, and as a boy he had drilled this language into
me, for it was a fixed belief of his, that if the United States ever
went to war, it would be with some of her Spanish-American neighbors,
with Mexico, or Central America, or with Spain on account of Cuba. In
consequence he considered it most essential that every United States
officer should speak Spanish. He also argued that a knowledge of
French was of even greater importance to an officer and a gentleman,
as it was, as I have since found it to be, the most widely spoken of
all languages. I was accordingly well drilled in these two tongues,
and I have never regretted time I spent on them, for my facility in
them has often served me well, has pulled me out of tight places, put
money into my pocket, and gained me friends when but for them I might
have remained and departed a stranger among strangers. My French
accordingly helped me much as a "yearling," and in camp I threw myself
so earnestly into the skirmish, artillery, and cavalry drills that in
spite of my low marks I still stood high in the opinion of the cadet
officers and of my instructors. With my classmates, for some reason,
although in all out-of-door exercises I was the superior of most of
them, I was not popular. I would not see this at first, for I try to
keep on friendly terms with those around me, and I want to be liked
even by people of whom I have no very high opinion and from whom I do
not want anything besides. But I was not popular. There was no