“I came through with honors,” Dave declared unblushingly.

“Honors?” repeated Belle delightedly.  “Oh, Dave, I didn’t know you were one of the honor men of your class.”

“Yes,” laughed Midshipman Dave, though there was a decidedly serious look in his fine face.  “Belle, I consider that any fellow who gets by the examiners has passed with honors.  So we’re all honor men that are now left in the class.  Several of the poor fellows had to write home last June asking their parents for the price of a ticket homeward.”

“But, now that you’ve got half way through, you’re pretty sure to go the rest of the way safely,” Belle insisted.

“That’s almost too much of a brag to make, Belle.  The truth is, no fellow is safe until he has been commissioned as an ensign, and that’s at least two years after he has graduated from the Naval Academy.  Why even after examination, you know, a fellow has to go to sea for two years, as a midshipman, and then take another and final examination at sea.  A whole lot of fellows who managed to get through the Academy find themselves going to pieces on that examination at sea.”

“And then—­” went on Belle.

“Why, if a fellow can’t pass his exams, he’s dropped from the service.”

“After he has already graduated from Academy?  That isn’t fair,” cried Belle Meade.

“No, it isn’t quite fair,” assented Midshipman Dave, with a shrug of his shoulders.  “Yet what is one going to do about it?  It’s all in the game—­to take or leave.”

“Who ever made the Naval Academy and the service so hard as that?” the girl wanted to know.

“Congress, I guess,” laughed Dave, “but acting, very likely, on the advice of a lot of old admirals who are through themselves, and who expect the youngsters to know as much as the very admirals.  Why, Belle, when I was a few years younger, and first began to dream about going to the Naval Academy I had a mental picture of a very jolly life, in which we sailed the seas and absorbed our knowledge.  I had an idea that the midshipman’s life was made up mainly of jolly larks ashore and afloat, with plenty of athletics to keep us from ever feeling dull.  Of course, I knew we had to do some studying, but I didn’t imagine the studies would be hard for a chap who had already gone through a good High School.”

“Your High School studies did help, didn’t they?” demanded Belle.

“They helped somewhat in the exams, to enter Annapolis, but they’ve never helped me with any of the studies that I’ve had to tackle as a midshipman.”

“Oh, well, you’ll get through,” the girl predicted with cheery confidence.

“I shall, if it’s really in me,” Dave promised.  “But I’m not going to do any bragging, Belle, until I’m safely through and have been out of the woods for a long time.”

“And you won’t do any bragging then, either.  It isn’t in your line.  What’s Dan Dalzell going to do while he’s home on leave?”