| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| [I.] | The Boy, | 9 |
| [II.] | Means to an End, | 14 |
| [III.] | The Night Express, | 21 |
| [IV.] | Ready for Duty, | 26 |
| [V.] | The Flag, | 36 |
| [VI.] | A Lonely Candidate, | 54 |
| [VII.] | In for It, | 60 |
| [VIII.] | Rubs the Wrong Way, | 67 |
| [IX.] | Camp Hard, | 73 |
| [X.] | Band Concert, | 78 |
| [XI.] | On Guard, | 88 |
| [XII.] | Off Guard, | 92 |
| [XIII.] | A Blue Christmas, | 97 |
| [XIV.] | Camp Golightly, | 106 |
| [XV.] | Signaling for Help, | 112 |
| [XVI.] | Re-enforcements Ready, | 117 |
| [XVII.] | Three Cheers and a Tiger, | 124 |
| [XVIII.] | High Summer, | 129 |
| [XIX.] | The Visitors' Seats, | 138 |
| [XX.] | Just Thee and Me, | 142 |
| [XXI.] | Me Only, | 150 |
| [XXII.] | Girls, | 157 |
| [XXIII.] | The Grim Gray Walls, | 167 |
| [XXIV.] | Ninety-nine Days to June, | 173 |
| [XXV.] | Furlough, | 180 |
| [XXVI.] | Cherry, | 189 |
| [XXVII.] | Off Limits, | 199 |
| [XXVIII.] | On Exhibition, | 209 |
| [XXIX.] | Skirmishing, | 218 |
| [XXX.] | A Morning Talk, | 226 |
| [XXXI.] | The Summer Girl, | 238 |
| [XXXII.] | Laying Foundations, | 245 |
| [XXXIII.] | Building Thereon, | 258 |
| [XXXIV.] | Ambushes, | 272 |
| [XXXV.] | Of Course, | 278 |
| [XXXVI.] | San Carlos, | 284 |
| [XXXVII.] | Rushed into Camp, | 288 |
| [XXXVIII.] | High Ground, | 293 |
| [XXXIX.] | More Girls, | 299 |
| [XL.] | On Fort Put, | 305 |
| [XLI.] | Up Crownest, | 321 |
| [XLII.] | Christmas Leave, | 332 |
| [XLIII.] | The Hundredth Night, | 343 |
| [XLIV.] | Pressing On, | 355 |
| [XLV.] | Nothing Serious, | 360 |
| [XLVI.] | Trying Letters, | 364 |
| [XLVII.] | Mrs. Congressman, | 369 |
| [XLVIII.] | The Guard-House in June, | 376 |
| [XLIX.] | Flirtation and Other Places, | 388 |
| [L.] | Fairyland, | 398 |
| [LI.] | The Home Stretch, | 404 |
| [LII.] | The Big Reception, | 414 |
| [LIII.] | The First Post, | 420 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| FACING PAGE | |
| The Flag, | Title |
| The Barracks in Winter, | [97] |
| The Color Guard, | [109] |
| Mounting Heavy Guns in Fort Clinton, | [170] |
| Cadet Room in Barracks, | [300] |
| Parade Rest in Camp, | [377] |
| Flirtation, | [392] |
| Cadet Boat and Crew, | [401] |
INTRODUCTION TO THIS TALE OF A
POSSIBLE CADET
Some of my friends in a certain cadet class beset me to write a West Point story; promising me incidents at will, a plot, a name, and a tactical officer for "the villain." Perhaps it was because I declined this last sensational detail that they backed out of all the rest, and having given my boat a shove into deep water, left me to row and pilot as best I might.
However, help came from other men, in other classes. I was cheered on in my work, and given story after story, with full leave to use them as I chose; and so it falls out that my book is quite true.
Not that all the happenings ever came to any one cadet, or within the bounds of any four years' course. But they have almost all, at some time, been part of somebody's cadet life at West Point. With what men, or in what years, it does not matter: the last decade of the nineteenth century nearly enough covers the whole.