"But I wonder whether we have to stand so much nonsense
from a petty young official like a mere corporal?"
"I'm afraid we do," nodded Dick. "Now, see here, Greg, can't you
make a good guess as to why we're put through such a grilling?"
"I'll confess I can't see any human reason in it," declared Candidate
Holmes.
"Why, what did we come here to learn to be?"
"Soldiers."
"Are we soldiers yet!"
"Of course not," Greg admitted.
"Do you think these people at West Point have time to coax and
pamper us along!"
"Probably not. But can't they--or can't that fellow Brayton--be decent
with us?"
"Now, look right here," counseled Candidate Prescott wisely. "We
want to be soldiers, but as yet we're only ignorant, unregenerate,
untaught young cubs. To the older cadets we must seem like pitiful
beasts."
"No, we don't,"' sneered Candidate Holmes. "We don't seem
anything at all. No cadet here, unless he's obliged to notice us,
even looks at us. We're less than nothing."
"That's true," nodded Dick thoughtfully. "And I'll wager it will be
pretty nearly as bad all the time we're plebes.
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