have such hard work as your roommate," went on Trotter,
favoring Dalzell with a sidelong look. "And, now, one parting
bit of advice, mister. Keep it at all times in mind that you
must keep away from demoralizing association with the forty per cent."
Statistics show that about forty per cent of the men who enter
the U.S. Naval Academy fail to get through, and are sent back
into civil life. Hence the joy of keeping with the winning "sixty."
The next morning the members of the three upper classes had embarked
aboard the three big battleships that lay at anchor in the Severn.
It was not until two days afterwards that the battleships sailed,
but the upper class men did not come ashore in the interval.
Soon after the delivery of uniforms to the new fourth class men
began and continued rapidly.
Dave and Dan, having been among the first to have their measure
taken, were among the earliest to receive their new Naval clothing.
A tremendously proud day it was for each new midshipman when he
first surveyed himself, in uniform, in the mirror!
The regular summer course was now on in earnest for the new men.
On Mondays those belonging to the first and second divisions marched
down to the seamanship building, there to get their first lessons
in seamanship. This began at eight o'clock, lasting until 9.30.
During the same period the men who belonged to the third and
fourth divisions received instruction in discipline and ordnance.
In the second period, from 10 to 11.30 the members of the first
and second division attended instruction in discipline and ordnance
while the members of the third and fourth divisions attended seamanship.
In the afternoon, from 3 to 4.45, the halves of the class alternated
between seamanship and marine engineering.
All instruction proceeded with a rapidity that made the heads
of most of these new midshipmen whirl! From 5 to 6 on the same
afternoon the entire fourth class attended instruction in the
art of swimming--and no midshipman hope to graduate unless he
is a fairly expert swimmer!
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were devoted to athletics and
recreation.
A midshipman does not have his evenings for leisure. On the first
five evenings of each week, while one half of the class went to
the gymnasium, the other half indulged in singing drill in Recreation
Hall.
"What's the idea of making operatic stars out of us?" grumbled
Dan to his roommate on day.
"You always seem to ge
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