"The plan pleases me; but of course we can't tell how it would work without a trial."
"It would work first rate. As the matter now stands, no officer has any inducement to please anybody but the principal and the instructors, who give him his marks. By my plan he would have to keep on the right side of his inferiors in rank, or they would throw him over at the next election."
"And there would be lots of electioneering for office," laughed Beckwith.
"Well, that would give us a little excitement. Besides, we are all to be American citizens, and we ought to learn how these things are done. Under this plan Cantwell wouldn't behave as he does now in the cabin. He is nothing but a lump of selfishness. He wouldn't take all the breast of the chicken, or drown his coffee with the last gill of milk on board. I have been thinking of this thing for a week, and have talked it over with some of the fellows. All that I have spoken with like it first rate."
"I do."
"I am going to get up a petition to the principal, asking him to make this change in the system, and I want to get every fellow's name upon it."
"I will sign, for one," replied Beckwith. "But you haven't said a word about the commodore, De Forrest."
"That's only a kind of ornamental office, and I don't care much about it any way; but I think that only the captains should be eligible to the position."
Precisely as men do such things on a larger scale, De Forrest, satisfied that he had added one adherent to the "cause" he was advocating, passed on to "buzz" another officer on the same subject. The students connected with the squadron were enjoying a picnic on one of the uninhabited Aland Islands. It was a lovely spot, for the island was nearly covered by a beautiful grove of pines, and one slope of it had a green carpet of verdure. The sixteen boats of the squadron and of the yachts were moored at the shore, and there was not a ripple on the sea to disturb them. The ship's band had played all the pieces they knew; and a great variety of games had been tried, with but indifferent success. The boys declared that it could be no picnic at all without the ladies. Possibly the attendance of Mrs. Kendall and Mrs. Shuffles suggested this idea to them; and, though these ladies were young, lively, and agreeable, the meagreness of the female representation on the occasion seemed to be only an aggravation. Doubtless all of them had attended picnics and other social gatherings, where the gentler sex is the charm of the occasion, and they could not help feeling the loneliness of the situation. Besides, the locality itself was suggestive of utter isolation from the rest of the world.
All around them was a multitude of islands, but not a habitation of any kind could be seen; not a human being, not a quadruped, not even a bird enlivened the scene. The water was as calm as the repose of a mountain lake, with not a single white sail to relieve the gaze of the beholder. The squadron was anchored behind an island, where it could not be seen. And the boys knew that they were north of the sixtieth parallel of latitude,—nearer to the north pole than any of them had ever been before; and the consciousness of this fact seemed to add to the lonesomeness of the place. The days were very long and the nights very short, and it was quite impossible to feel at home in such a region.