Bollup and Ralph thought this a great joke and laughed uproariously.
“I’ll tell you about it, Dorothy,” Ralph said. “You see we have cadet officers at the Academy, whose rank is indicated by the number of stripes on their coat sleeves. And we have petty officers, or non-commissioned officers as they call them in the army, whose rank is shown by eagles, which we call buzzards, on their sleeves. Now the presumably poorest, least deserving of the first class get no rank, are high privates, and they have no mark at all on their sleeves. And I get a clean sleeve, which is really all I deserve. And your brother Tom gets four stripes which makes me very happy,” and indeed Ralph looked it.
“Let me see Himski’s letter,” cried Bollup; “I want to see it myself,” and he took it and started to read it aloud.
“Dear Os,” he commenced, “the assignments of the cadet officers of our class are announced and Bollup gets the four stripes which for ten thousand reasons should have gone to you, the best all around man in the class and number one to boot. You get a clean sleeve, old man; this goes to prove that the officers who made out the stripe list are as great a set of ninnies as usual.”
Bollup stopped and looked up ruefully. “Well,” he said, “Himski isn’t very complimentary to me, is he?”
“I think Mr. Himski is just right,” said Gladys decidedly. “The idea of those officers giving Tom four stripes and Ralph nothing! Why, that’s ridiculous. Tom isn’t fit to be cadet lieutenant-commander of anything. All he thinks of is having a good time and getting good Sunday dinners and walking around so that people can see what a great man he is. Now my idea of the highest cadet officer, the one in command of all the midshipmen, is that he should be ambitious to have them well drilled and to act right. But Tom! You heard him talk, and he meant just what he said. He’ll make a precious fine senior midshipman, won’t he?” and Gladys tossed her head indignantly.
“You know a lot about it, don’t you?” remarked her brother, sullenly; “you’d better come next year and show me how to run it.”
“Tom will do splendidly, Gladys,” said Ralph, anxious to defend his friend; “don’t you worry. I’m awfully glad he’s our four striper; they couldn’t have found a better one in our class. You’ll be proud of your brother next June when you come to see him graduate.”
“Of course I will, Ralph; but why didn’t those officers give you some stripes? you certainly deserve them.”
“Oh, I have a bad record. You see I was court-martialed for hazing; that killed my chances.”