Every young man was advised to save himself some possible trouble and disappointment by going, first of all, to his family physician for a thorough examination.  If serious bodily defects were found, that would save the young man from the trouble of going further in the matter.

But at the Wilburville town hall there was to be another physical examination, which every young man must pass before he would be admitted to the mental examinations, which were to last into the evening.

Dick Prescott read this announcement and thrilled over it.

For two years or more he had been awaiting this very opportunity.

Every Congressman once in four years has one of these cadetships to give to some young man.

Sometimes the Congressman would give the chance to a boy of high social connections, or else to the son of an influential politician.  A cadetship was a prize with which the Congress man too often paid his debts.

Good old General Daniel E. Sickles was the first Congressman to formulate the plan of giving the cadetship to the brightest boy in district, the young man proving his fitness by defeating all other aspirants in a competitive examination.

Since that time the custom had grown up of doing this regularly.  It is true, at any rate of most of the states of the Union.  In some western and some southern states the cadetship is still given as a matter of favor.

The young man who receives the appointment goes to the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He is now a “candidate” only.  At West Point he is subjected to another searching series of physical and mental examinations.  If he comes out of them successfully he is admitted to the cadet corps, and becomes a full-fledged cadet.

The candidate must report at West Point on the first of March.  If he succeeds in entering the corps, and keeps in it, four years and three months later the young man is graduated from the Military Academy.  The President now commissions him as a second lieutenant in the Regular Army.  Thus started on his career, the young man may, in later days, become a general.

While the cadet is at West Point he is paid a salary that is just about sufficient for his needs and leaves enough over to enable him to buy his first set of uniforms and other equipment as an army officer.

West Point is no place for idlers, nor for boys who dislike discipline.  It is a severe training that the cadet receives, and the education furnished him by the United States is a magnificent and costly one.  It costs Uncle Sam more than twenty thousand dollars for each cadet he educates and graduates from the United States Military Academy.

The same general statement is true regarding the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.  In the latter institution, however, the cadet learns how to become an officer in the United States Navy.

Now, here were both grand opportunities, offered together.