Two days later the new teacher arrived and was introduced to the cadets by Captain Putnam. Mr. Pluxton Cuddle proved to be a large man, fully six feet two inches in height and weighing at least two hundred pounds. He had a shock of heavy black hair, a heavy black moustache, and heavy black eyebrows. When he spoke his voice was almost a rumble, and he had a manner of shifting his eyes constantly and of rubbing his hands together as if soaping them well.
“I am sure we shall get along well together, young gentlemen,” he said in a voice that could be heard out on the campus. “Education is a great thing, a grand thing, and while you are at this institution you must make the most of your opportunities. My heart goes out to all boys who desire to elevate themselves mentally, and you who love to study will find me your best friend. In a few days I shall feel more at home here, and then we will see how much of precious study we can crowd into the all but too short hours of school life.” And having said this he bowed profoundly and sat down.
“Phew! but he’s a corker!” whispered Pepper to Jack. “I rather think he’ll make us sit up and take notice, eh?”
“Right you are, Pep,” answered the young major. “If I am any judge he’ll be even stricter than old Crabtree.”
“Looks like a chap who would carry out his ideas, once he had made up his mind,” came from Andy.
“Silence in the classroom!” called out Captain Putnam, and then, after a few words more, he left the new teacher and the students alone. Mr. Pluxton Cuddle got to work at once, and that day the boys studied more mathematics, astronomy and physics than ever before. They found that Mr. Cuddle was a regular “slave driver,” as Dale called him. Even Joe Nelson, studious as he was, shook his head.
“He’d want to keep a fellow at it every minute,” he observed. “I don’t mind boning away, but I want a breathing spell now and then.”
In the mess hall Pluxton Cuddle made himself even more disliked than in the classrooms. Hardly had the cadets at his table begun to eat when he commenced to find fault.
“The food is really cooked too much,” he said. “It is not healthy for the human stomach to eat food so well-done. And, boys, do not overload your stomachs. An overloaded stomach befogs the brain. To grow up clear-brained one must eat little and only that which is rare-done.”
“Gracious! does he want to starve us?” cried Pepper.