The system of marking deportment at Riverpark was, in many respects, an excellent one. Every evening, at retreat, one of the older cadets was appointed to act as officer of the day for the following twenty-four hours. It was his duty to make entry in the “officer of the day’s book” of such offences as were reported to him by the principal, the teachers, or the cadet-officers, and of such also as came under his own notice in the schoolroom, where he occupied a position at the desk throughout the day.
On Friday evenings it was the duty of the adjutant to go, attended by a clerk, to the office of the principal, and while the clerk read from the book the reports of offences, the principal would assign the number of demerit marks to each, and the adjutant would record them on his list opposite the name of each offender.
He also kept a list of merit marks, a certain number of which cancelled a certain greater number of demerit marks. If the excess of demerit marks reached a certain amount, it made the offender a delinquent for a day; a certain greater amount extended the term of his delinquency to two days, three days, a week, and so on.
The balance against some of the more careless and mischievous boys was always so large as to put them on what was known as perpetual delinquency. Of this last class “Plumpy,” as the fat boy was affectionately called by his companions, was a conspicuous and shining example.
A delinquent was not allowed to leave the grounds under any pretext. Besides that, he was confined to the schoolroom during the hour or two of every afternoon when the other boys were at leisure, at play, walking in the country, boating on the river, or visiting the town. This confinement came especially hard on Saturday afternoons, when the hours of permitted absence extended from two to six o’clock, and there was a general exodus from the school of all but the unhappy delinquents.
It was the duty of the adjutant to keep these deportment lists and records in his possession, and to make up from them the tables of conduct that entered into the term reports and determined each student’s standing.
The three students who, at the close of each year, bore the highest rank in studies and deportment formed the honor grade, and each of them was entitled to wear the honor-grade chevron.
It was not easy at first for Finkelton to comprehend this somewhat complicated method of keeping the records, and he asked Brightly one day to come up and explain it to him. Brightly replied, somewhat abruptly, that he believed he had fulfilled his entire duty when he turned the papers over, and that he knew of no reason why he should spend his time in the labors of an office from which he derived neither profit nor honor.
But the next day his better nature came to the rescue, and he went up to Finkelton’s room to acknowledge his fault, and to offer assistance.