"Say, boys, let's kick up the devil. P—has gone out."
Now it so happened that P—'s chum was present, but in his alcove, and this was not known to the Seps. When the Sep had finished speaking, this chum came forth and "went for" him. He made the Sep assume the soldier's position, and then commanded, "Second, exercise!" which command the Sep proceeded to obey.
Another cadet coming in found him vigorously at it, and queried, "Well, mister, what's all that for?"
"Eccentricity of Mr. M—, sir," he promptly replied.
The word eccentricity was not interpreted by the cadet, of course, as the Sep meant it should be, but in the sense we use it when we speak of the eccentricity of an orbit for instance.
Hence it was that Mr. M—asked, "Well, sir, what's the expression for my eccentricity?"
There is another incident remotely connected with my first tour of guard duty which may be mentioned here.
At about eleven o'clock A.M., in obedience to a then recent order, my junior reported at the observatory to make the necessary observations for finding the error of the Tower clock. After an elaborate explanation by an officer then present upon the graduation of the vernier and the manner of reading it, the cadet set the finders so as to read the north polar distance of the sun for that day at West Point apparent noon. When it was about time for the sun's limb to begin its transit of the wires, the cadet took position to observe it. The instructor was standing ready to record the times of transit over each wire. Time was rapidly passing, and not yet had the cadet called out "Ready." The anxious instructor cautiously queried:
"Do you see any light, Mr. P—?,"
"No, sir."