At the end of February the monthly examinations were held.
“How did you do, Os?” asked Creelton, after they had returned to their rooms.
“I feel I hammered it hard. How did you do, Creel?”
“Oh, I biffed it. I’ve good recitation marks and hope to stand number one this month. I’d like to cook Himski and Bollup this month.”
“I hope you did well,” said Ralph heartily. “I suppose you fellows in the first section will all stay there, but I hope I may pull up into the second.”
“That would be a good rise for you, Os; I hope you will. You’ve been working hard at math this month and will probably land in the third section if you don’t make the second.”
While Ralph, Creelton, Bollup and Streeter were returning together from drill a few days later, Bollup said: “Hello, there’s a crowd at our bulletin-board; I guess our math marks are posted.”
They all ran up to the board, Bollup leading. As soon as he had looked at the bulletin-board he gave a yell and cried:
“Jumping Jehoshaphat! Ralph Osborn! Just look at those marks. By the tall American green-eyed prophet, you made a 4.0 on every daily recitation in the month, and to make matters worse, knocked a cold 4.0 on the exam!”
Ralph looked with staring eyes. He had the sensation of the man who has won the capital prize in a lottery. Many were the exclamations of surprise from his classmates when they saw what Ralph had done. Most of the fourth section had risen in class rank, and much credit was given to Professor Scott’s illuminating instruction by the young men who had been in his section; and now all of these declared they had known that Osborn had been doing excellent work and they were not at all surprised he had landed first in the class. But Ralph in his secret heart felt that Professor Scott had been very generous to him in his daily marks.