And now, with examinations over, and no remaining doubts or fears,
there was probably no happier boy in all the "menagerie" than Geordie
Graham. As for the hundred young fellows in civilian dress, "herded"
three and four in each room, and wrestling with their first experiences
of cadet life, it is safe to say most of the number were either
homesick or in some way forlorn. Nothing so utterly destroys the
glamour that hovers over one's ideas of West Point as the realities
of the first fortnight. Of his three room-mates _pro tempore_, Bennie
Frazier had already announced time and again that if a beneficent
Creator would forgive him the blunder of coming here at all, he'd
square accounts by quitting as quick as he possibly could. Winn, a tall
Kentuckian, wanted to resign, but was too plucky. Connell, a bulky
young Badger, had written two terrific screeds to his uncle, the member
from Pecatonica, denouncing the cadet officials as brutes, bullies,
and tyrants, which documents were duly forwarded with appropriate
complaint to the War Department, and formed the text for a furious
leader in the _Pecatonica Pilot_, clamoring for the abolition of West
Point. The letters were duly referred to the Superintendent United
States Military Academy for remark, and by him to the commandant of
cadets, by which time Mr. Connell was a duly accredited high private in
the rear rank of Company B, and had almost forgotten the woes of early
barrack days, and was not a little abashed and dismayed when summoned
before the grave, dignified Colonel to make good his allegations. It
took him just ten seconds to transfer any lingering resentment for the
cadet corporals to the avuncular M. C., whom with boyish inconsistency
he now berated for being such a fool as to make a fuss about a little
thing like that. Among the new cadets were a very few who, as sons of
army officers, knew perfectly well what they had to expect. These and a
number of young fellows who, like Graham, had come on months or weeks
beforehand and placed themselves under tuition, were well prepared for
the ordeal of the entrance examinations as well as for other ordeals
which followed.
Even among them, however, were many who looked upon life with eyes of
gloom. The ceaseless routine of drill, drill, of sharp reprimand, of
stern, unbending discipline, wofully preyed upon their spirits. Their
hearts were as sore as their unaccustomed muscles. But with Pops all
was different. He had reached at last the goal of his ambition. He had
won his way through many a discouragement to the prize of a cadetship.
Now he was ready, even eager, to be tried and tested in every way,
to show his grit, and to prove his fitness for the four years' race
for the highest prize of all, the diploma and commission. The drill
that made his comrades' muscles ache was a bagatelle to him. From
earliest boyhood he had watched the recruits at setting-up, and not
only learned and practised all, but with Bud and Dick for his squad
would often convulse the officers at Verde and Supply by his imitation
of Sergeant Feeny's savage Hibernian manner. The cadet yearling who
was drill-master of the four to which Pops was assigned saw at once
that he had a "plebe corporal"—a young fellow who had been pretty well
drilled—and all the more did he rasp him when anything went amiss. Many
of the new-comers had been through squad-drill at military schools or
in cadet companies, but never under such rigid, relentless discipline
as this. Every cadet drill-master carried the steel rammer of his rifle
as a drill-stick, and was just about as unbending as his rod of office.
Poor Frazier was in hot-water all the time—as well as in the sulks.
"I belonged to the high-school cadets for two years, and everybody
that ever saw us drill said we could lay over anything in the whole
country," he protested, "and now here's this measly little stuck-up
prig, that probably never knew anything about drill until he entered
here last year, correcting and finding fault with everything I do.
I ain't going to stand it, by thunder! I've written to my father to
come on again, and just have this thing attended to right off." And
Frazier's handsome boyish face was flushed with wrath, and clouded
with a sense of wrong and indignity. "It seems to me if I were in your
place I wouldn't stand being abused either, Graham. I heard Mr. Flint
snapping at you again this morning."
Pops was busily engaged dusting for the tenth time the iron
mantel-shelf and the little looking-glass. He half turned. "Wa-e-l," he
said, while a grin of amusement hovered about the corners of his mouth,
"Flint was all right, I guess. Your squad was just in front of us, and
when I saw Connell stumble over your heels and try to climb up your
back, I laughed out loud. He caught me chuckling."
"Yes, and abused you like a pick-pocket, by jingo! If my father were an
officer in the regular army, as yours is, it wouldn't happen twice to
me."
"No, nor to me either," chimed in Connell. "I'll bet you he'd sing a
mighty different tune if he knew you were the son of a Major."
[Illustration: THE AWKWARD SQUAD]
"Well, there's just where you're 'way off," answered Geordie, after
the manner of the frontier. "Of all places in creation this is the one
where one's dad cuts no figure whatever. I've often heard old officers
say that the boys who got plagued and tormented most in their time were
the fellows whose fathers were generals or cabinet ministers. Fred
Grant wouldn't have had half as hard a time if his father hadn't been
President. Frazier's whole trouble comes from letting on that he knew
all about drill before he got here; that's the truth of it. I get along
smoothly by pretending never to have known anything."
"Oh, a lot you have! If that snob Loring ever speaks to me as he spoke
to you this morning about laughing in the ranks, I'll—I'll just let him
have my fist between the eyes, and he'll see more stars than he ever
saw before, if he is a color corporal. What'll your father say when he
hears that he threatened to put you in a cell just for laughing when
that Pike County fellow knocked his hat off trying to salute?"
"Well, he didn't say cell, in the first place, and father wouldn't hear
it from me, at least, if he had. It's an understood thing at home that
they're to ask no questions, and I'm to tell no tales until plebe camp
is over and done with. Plebes don't begin to have the hard times now
that they had thirty years ago, and if they could stand it then, I can
now. All you've got to do is simply make up your mind to grin and bear
it; do just as you're told, and say nothing about it. If this thing
worries you now, when only our drill-masters and instructors get at
us, what are you going to do, Frazier, when you're marched over there
into camp next week and turned over to the tender mercies of the whole
corps?"
"I'm going to fight the first man that offers me an indignity of any
kind, by thunder!"
Geordie burst into one of his merry laughs, just as a light foot came
bounding up the iron stairway. Bang! A single knock at the door. Up
sprang the four boys, heels and knees together, heads up, eyes straight
to the front, arms and hands braced against the sides, the palms of
the latter turned outward as far as the youngsters could force them
and thereby work their shoulders back, each young fellow facing the
centre of the bare and cheerless room. Enter Cadet Corporal Loring, his
jaunty gray coat fitting like wax, not a crease nor a wrinkle anywhere,
every one of his three rows of bell buttons glistening, his gold
chevrons gleaming, his white collar, cuffs, gloves, and trousers simply
immaculate, everything so trig and military, all in such wondrous
contrast to the sombre garb of the four plebes. His clear-cut face is
stern and dignified.
"What is the meaning of all this noise?" he asks. "Who was laughing as
I came in?"
"I was, sir," promptly answers Graham.
"You again, Mr. Graham? This is the third time since reveille I've had
to reprimand you for chuckling like a school-boy—twice in ranks, and
now again at inspection. What were you laughing at this time, sir?"
inquired Mr. Loring, majestically.
"At something Frazier said, sir."
"_Mr._ Frazier, sir. Never omit the handle to a gentleman's name on
duty or in official intercourse. Only among yourselves and off duty can
you indulge in familiarity; _never_, sir, in conversation with superior
officers." (Oh, the immensity of distance between the plebe and the
yearling corporal!) "And you are room orderly, too, Mr. Graham, and
responsible for the appearance of things. Where should the broom be,
sir?"
"Behind the door, sir."
"Then where is it, sir?"
And for the first time poor Pops sees that in the heat of argument,
Frazier, dusting off his shoes with that implement, had left it across
the room in the alcove. Still, it was his own business to see that
it was in place, so he had nothing to say beyond, "I didn't notice it
until just now, sir."
"Exactly, Mr. Graham; if you had been attending to your duty instead
of giggling over Mr. Frazier's witticisms you would have escaped
punishment. Report at my office immediately after supper this evening,
sir." And then, after finding perhaps a pin-head of dust behind
the looking-glass, and further rebuking Mr. Graham for unmilitary
carelessness, the young gentleman proceeds to carry dismay into the
next room.
And that evening, after supper, as ordered, Pops tapped at the awful
door, was bidden to enter and listen to his doom. Cadet Lieutenant
Merrick sat in judgment. For levity in ranks, dust on mantel, broom out
of place at inspection, new Cadet Graham was directed to walk post in
the hall until drum-beat at tattoo.
Outside the door, standing meekly in the hallway, awaiting summons to
enter, were half a dozen of his comrades, about to be sentenced to
similar punishment for blunders of greater or less magnitude. Some
looked woe-begone, some foolish, some were laughing, but all assumed
the required expression of gravity as Mr. Loring came forth with his
victim. In two minutes our Geordie found himself slowly pacing the
hallway on the second floor, with strict orders to keep his little
fingers on the seams of his trousers, the palms of his hands to the
front, and to hold conversation with nobody except in the line of duty.
For a moment he could not but feel a little wrathful and disheartened,
but again McCrea's words came to his aid: "Remember that the first
thing that will be sorely tested is your sense of subordination—your
readiness to obey without question. No soldier is considered fit to
command others until he can command himself. They purposely put a
fellow through all manner of predicament just to test his grit. Don't
let anything ruffle your temper, and they will soon find you need
no lessons." And so, like a sentry, he patiently tramped his post,
listening to the music of the band at an evening concert out on the
Plain, and keeping watchful eye for the coming of cadet officials.
Along towards nine o'clock up came Cadet Lieutenant Merrick, commanding
the plebes; and "Pops," as he had been taught, halted, faced him, and
stood attention.
"Why are you on punishment to-night, sir?" was the question.
Pops colored, but answered promptly, "Laughing in ranks, broom out of
place, and some other things, sir."
"Yes, I remember. Go to your quarters now, and keep your face straight
on duty hereafter."
Involuntarily Geordie raised his hand in salute, as for years he had
seen the soldiers do after receiving orders from an officer, then
turned to go.
"One moment, Mr. Graham. Whose squad are you in?"
"Mr. Flint's, sir."
"Did he teach you that salute?"
"No, sir," stammered Geordie.
"Where did you learn it?"
"Among the soldiers, sir, in the garrison."
"Ah, yes, I've heard of your case. That'll do, sir."
[Illustration: PLEBE DRILL]
Back in his room Pops found his three comrades in excited discussion.
Something tremendous had happened. While Geordie, obedient to his
orders, had gone to report to the cadet officer, Frazier, exulting in
his knowledge of the Point, had persuaded Connell to trust himself to
his guidance and go out for a walk. For half an hour after returning
from supper the new cadets were allowed release from quarters, and
permitted to visit each other and stroll about the grounds as they
might see fit, but were cautioned not to venture over towards camp. The
Graduating Class had now been gone, with the happy furlough men, an
entire week. The rest of the corps, the new First and Third Classes,
had marched into their summer quarters over across the cavalry plain,
among the beautiful trees south of old Fort Clinton. The new cadets,
still in the garb of civil life, were "herded together," as the old
cadets expressed it, at the barracks, and thither the older cadets
now were forbidden to go. Except in the mess-hall, three times a day,
they were seen, therefore, only by their barrack instructors and their
squad drill-masters. As a result of this plan the wholesale system
of hazing, plaguing, and tormenting that prevailed at the Point some
thirty years ago was wellnigh prevented. Not so, however, the impulse.
Just so long as human nature remains as it is and has been since
creation, "boys will be boys," and rare indeed are the boy-natures
which know not the longing to play tricks upon new-comers, especially
at school or college. Even among mature men the impulse lingers. Added,
therefore, to the line of demarcation mentioned in the interest of
discipline between the plebe and the upper-class man there ever exists
the temptation to have sport at the expense of the new-comers, and only
by most stringent measures has the spirit been controlled to the extent
that it is.
So long as Geordie and his comrades kept to the neighborhood of the
barracks, however, they were safe. A few of their number had been run
up into the rooms of the yearlings the day before camp, where they
were instantly surrounded by a frantic mob of young fellows mad with
exultation at being at last released from plebehood, and eager to
try on the new boys the experiments lavished on them a twelvemonth
previous. The officer in charge caught sound of the affair, however,
and made instant descent upon the division, only, of course, to find
the suspected room deserted, and all the others crowded by old cadets,
and the only faces that looked in the faintest degree conscious
of guilt or wrong were those of the luckless plebes themselves,
who, cautioned against entering the barracks of the elders, were
nevertheless caught in the act, and could never explain any more than
they could help their presence on dangerous and forbidden ground.
Benny Frazier was loud in his ridicule of Winn, who was one of the
party entrapped. No yearling and no squad or party of yearlings could
get him where he didn't mean or wish to go, he frequently said; and
for no other reason than that he had been officially warned to keep
away from camp had Benny become possessed with the longing to cruise
thither. Old cadets couldn't cross sentry posts and nab them, he
argued. "We'll just aggravate them by coming so near, and yet keeping
aloof." Poor, crestfallen, indignant Benny! He and Connell had sallied
forth, had gone strolling over the plain and along the south side of
camp, between the field battery and the tents, had smilingly declined
the eager invitation of the yearlings, who crowded down along the post
of the sentry on Number Five, urging them to enter and make themselves
at home. In the consciousness of his superior wisdom Benny had even
ventured upon an expressive gesture with his thumb at the tip of his
nose, his fingers wiggling in air. Poor boy! There were instant and
stentorian shouts for the corporal of the guard. Down at a run from
the guard-tent came a patrol. Eager hands pointed the way; eager
voices clamored for their arrest. Benny and Connell were surrounded
in an instant. Glistening bayonets were levelled at their throbbing
hearts. "March!" was the order, and amid the jeers and rejoicing of a
hundred young scamps in gray and white the two poor plebes were sternly
marshalled to the guard-tents, and into the awful presence of the cadet
officer of the day, charged with having disobeyed the sentinel's order
not to pass between the guns, and, far worse, of having made insulting
gestures to a sentry in the solemn discharge of his duty. It was an
impressive moment. There stood the stern young cadet captain in his
tall plume and crimson sash and gold-laced sleeves, astounded at the
effrontery of these young yet hardened reprobates.
"Is this possible?" he demanded, slowly, impressively. "Who and what
are you who have dared to insult the sacred office of the sentinel,
the soldier to whose lightest word even the commander-in-chief must
show respect? Who and what are you?"
"We didn't mean any harm," whimpered Benny. "We're only new cadets."
"_What!_"
And here every one in the surrounding group—officer of the day, officer
of the guard, corporals and privates, awed spectators—all fell back
into attitudes expressive of horror and dismay.
"_What!_" exclaimed the cadet captain. "Are you mad? Mad!" he
continued. "Is it credible that you, chosen by the deluded
Representatives of your States to represent a proud community in an
honorable profession—you dared to signalize your admission here by one
of the most flagrant offences known to military law? Send at once for
the Superintendent, Officer of the Guard. This is beyond my powers.
Into the guard-tent with them! Batten down the walls. Station sentries
at each side, Mr. Green. Put two of your most reliable men at the door,
with orders to shoot them dead if they stir a muscle. Orderly, go at
once for the commandant, and warn the officers that mutiny has broken
out among the new cadets."
And so in another instant the luckless boys were bundled into the
guard-tent, with bristling bayonets at every opening, with sentries on
every side discussing in awe-inspiring tones the probable fate of the
mutineers. And here might they have been held in limbo for hours had
not Cadet Corporal Loring found them absent at inspection, and learned
from Mr. Winn, sole representative of the quartet, that Frazier had
invited Connell to take a walk, and shrewdly suspecting that they had
been trapped over at camp, had reported matters to Mr. Merrick, his
immediate superior, and was sent over to the rescue. Of course, on
hearing the nature of their crime, he too was properly shocked, and
could find no words to express his consternation. All the same, he got
them out of the guard-tent and over to barracks before the army officer
on duty as commandant of new cadets happened in, and had barely time to
get them to their room before that gentleman came to inquire if their
charges were all safe for the night. Pops found Connell grievously
alarmed, but Frazier was only loudly indignant.
"All I'm afraid of is that now I won't get in the first squad to have
muskets," he said. "We were going to have 'em in the morning."
But when morning came it was Geordie, not Frazier, who was put in the
first squad, and Benny couldn't understand it. He who had been the best
soldier of the high-school cadets was left behind.