CHAPTER I.
THE MILITARY ACADEMY.
“Well, now, I am disgusted.”
“So am I. I call it a most unusual proceeding.”
“That is a very mild term to be applied to it. I call it an outrage. The Professor has deliberately gone to work to disgrace the school and every student in it.”
“That’s my opinion. I shall give my father a full history of the case in the next letter I write to him; and I incline to the belief that he will order me to pack my trunk and start for home.”
“I know that is what my father will do. Why, fellows, just think of it for a moment! What if this street gamin, who has been brought here as the Professor’s pet, should accidentally win a warrant at the next examination?”
“Or a commission! That would be worse yet. Wouldn’t a gentleman’s son look nice obeying his orders—the orders of a bootblack?”
“I’ll never do that. I’ll stay in the guard-house until I am gray-headed first.”
“Well, I won’t. I’ll go home first.”