“I have,” was the decided answer.
“To the military academy?” asked Lester, in louder and more incredulous tones.
“That’s the very place. The systematic drill and training you will there receive, will be of the greatest benefit to you, if you are only willing to profit by them. That school has made men of Don and Bert Gordon already.”
“I should say so,” sneered Lester, suddenly recalling some items of information that had come to him in a round-about way. “Don has been in a constant row with the teachers ever since he has been there.”
“That is not true. He got himself into trouble when he first entered the school, and lost his shoulder-straps by it; but he has toned down wonderfully under the influence of those three boys he brought home with him, and he is bound to make his mark before his four years’ course is completed.”
“But, father, do you know that the teachers are awful hard on the boys—that if a student looks out of the wrong corner of his eye, or breaks the smallest one of the thousand and more rules that he is expected to keep constantly in mind, he is punished for it?” asked Lester, who was almost ready to cry with vexation. It was bad enough, he told himself, to be sent away to any school against his will; but it was worse for his father to select a military academy, and then to hold that embodiment of mischief and rebellion, Don Gordon, up to him as an object worthy of emulation. Lester had no desire to learn the tactics, and he dreaded the discipline to which he knew he would be subjected.
“I heard all about it during my talk with Don and Bert,” replied his father. “A strong hand and plenty of work are just what you need.”
“But do you know that Bert is first sergeant of the company to which I shall probably be assigned, and that one of its corporals is a New York boot-black? Do you want me to obey the orders of a street Arab?”
“He could not have attained to the position he holds unless he had proved himself worthy of it. The majority of the students, however, are the sons of wealthy men, and they are the ones I want you to choose for your associates. Make friends with them and bring some of them home with you, as Don and Bert did, or go home with them, if they ask you. My word for it, you will see plenty of sport there, if you will only do your duty faithfully. Gordon’s boys are impatient to go back; and yet there was a time when Don disliked school as heartily as you do.”