“Sir, may I offer a suggestion?”
“Certainly, Mr. Osborn; what is it?”
“I would request that that letter be published to the battalion with your order that the writer of it, if a midshipman, should report to you.”
The superintendent thought a moment and then said: “I won’t publish the letter, that could do no good, but I will have an order read requiring the writer of a letter to me signed ‘Indignant Fourth Classman’ to report to me. Now, Mr. Osborn, whenever a charge of any kind is made against any person in the Navy it is always investigated. So I have directed Professor Scott to go over your papers himself, and then to come here with them. I expect him here in a few moments—here he is now. Good-morning, professor.”
“Good-morning, admiral. I have been over Mr. Osborn’s papers, and——”
“One minute, professor; just read this letter and you will know why I had you go over Mr. Osborn’s semi-annual examination papers in mathematics.”
The professor read the letter, and then indignantly threw it down on the desk. “That’s contemptible, sir; in his work Mr. Osborn has shown thorough comprehension. In his algebra questions Mr. Osborn stumbled somewhat on a few of the problems but in every case displayed a good knowledge of the principles involved. A number of answers he obtained by original methods; this has pleased me very much. In spite of his low marks last month—I looked into that—he has shown a real knowledge, and has not made his good marks by means merely of a good memory. But his geometry paper is magnificent, admiral,” continued Professor Scott, enthusiastically. “Had I been the one to have first marked his paper I would have called attention to a beautiful piece of original work. In the December examination he stumbled over the problem in geometry of proving the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. He clean forgot how to do it; the same problem was given in the semi-annual, and Mr. Osborn proved it in his own way by a method I have never before seen or heard of. I have examined every book we have in the department and can find no mention of this method. I talked with every one of my assistants and all were delighted with Mr. Osborn’s method. I suppose the method must be known; it’s not possible that Mr. Osborn could be the original discoverer of it, but I’ve never seen the method before nor can I find any one who has; admiral, here it is——” and Professor Scott took one of the sheets of Ralph’s paper on which was written the following:
Question:
Prove the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle, is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.