A look of intense happiness wreathed his father's face and tears glistened in his eyes. But Dick raced on into the back room, where he found his mother.
"All the luck in the land is mine, mother!" he whispered, bending over and kissing her. "I won out! I go to West Point when the month of March comes!"
Mrs. Prescott was upon her feet, her arms around her boy. She didn't say much, but she didn't need to. After a moment Dick disengaged himself.
"Mother, Laura Bentley will be glad to know this news. She's at the ball of the senior class to-night, but I'll see if I can get her father on the 'phone, and tell him the news for her."
But presently it was Laura's own sweet voice that answered over the wire.
"You?" demanded Dick. "Why, I thought you'd be at the ball!"
"Did you think I could be happy all the evening, wondering how you were coming on with your great wish?" asked Laura quietly. "Say, oh, Dick! How did you come out?"
CHAPTER XXI
Gridley Seniors Whoop It Up
"Oh, so many, so many congratulations, Dick!" came the response to Prescott's eagerly imparted information.