"I'm manager for you two half-witted fellows, ain't I?" queried
Reade.
"What have you been saying to Mr. Drayne?" asked Dave.
"Just watch father and son, and see how they seem to be enjoying their talk," chuckled Tom. "There, what do you see now? I thought it would end like that."
This was the first time it had occurred to the elder Drayne that his son's character would be inquired into. In fact, Mr. Drayne had had half an idea that the United States Military Academy was a place that made a specialty of reforming wild boys and making useful citizens of them.
CHAPTER XX
When the Great News Was Given Out
At just nine o'clock Congressman Spokes came on to the platform followed by two other men.
One of these latter was a town official, who, in a very few words, introduced the Member of Congress.
Congressman Spokes now addressed the young men upon the vocations they were seeking to enter. He explained that neither the Military nor the Naval Academy offered an inducement to boys fond only of their ease and good times.
"At either school," warned the Congressman "you will find ahead of you years of the hardest work and the strictest discipline. No boy whose character is not good can hope to enter these schools of the nation. It is not worth any boy's while to enter unless he stands ready to sacrifice everything, his own ideas and prejudices included, to the service of his country and his flag."