“Let the sad-eyed fellow have it, if he is the better man,” Dick agreed heartily.  “But fear of defeat isn’t going to hold me back.  Don’t let it stop you, either, Greg!”

“It’s going to be Annapolis for mine—–­the United States Naval Academy and a commission in the United States Navy!” Darry declared, his eyes snapping.

“I’d rather like that, too,” Danny Grin declared.

“Then go after it,” urged Dick Prescott.  “Get some real plan in your mind of what you’re going to do in life, and then follow that plan, night and day, until you either win or drop from exhaustion.”

“Wouldn’t I be a funny-looking lamb in a midshipman’s uniform?” queried Dalzell blinking fast.

“No funnier looking than any of the rest of us,” Dick retorted.  “Now, Tom isn’t talking much, but we all know what he’s going to do, for he has already been working at it.  He has been studying surveying, for he means to make a great civil engineer of himself one of these days.”

“And I’m going into the game with him,” declared Hazelton.

“That’s because you’ve always had Tom about to tell you what to do, and to keep you from butting your head into things in the dark,” jeered Danny Grin.  “Hazy, you’re going to become an engineer just because you shiver at the thought of trying to do anything in life without having old Tommy Long-legs to advise you when to wash your face or come in out of the rain.”

“Harry is a pretty bright surveyor already,” Tom declared.  “He has been keeping mum about it, but Harry can go out into the country with a transit and run up the field notes for a map about as handily as the next kid in his teens.”

“I should think you’d like the Army or the Navy, Tom,” mused Dalzell aloud.

“Nothing doing,” Reade retorted.  “I want to be one of the big and active men of the world, who do big things.  I want to map out the wilderness.  I want to dam the raging flood and drive the new railroad across the desert.  I want to construct.  I want to work day and night when the big deeds are to be done.  That’s why I wouldn’t care for the Army or Navy; it’s too idle a life.”

“An idle life!” exclaimed Dick and Dave in the same breath.

“Yes,” Tom went on dryly.  “Did you ever see an Army or a Navy officer?”

“I’ve seen several of them,” Dick replied, “and have talked with some of them.”

“Same here,” added Darrin.

“Did you see the officers in uniform?” Reade pressed.

“Yes, of course-----” said Prescott.

“Their uniforms were nice and neat, weren’t they?” Tom asked.

“Of course,” Prescott answered.

“Then that was because your Army or Navy officers hadn’t been doing any hard work that would ruffle the neatness of their uniforms,” finished Tom triumphantly, “and there you are!  I can dress up on Sundays or holidays, but on the work days, when I’m a civil engineer, I want to wear clothes that show that I’m not afraid to tackle the rough and hard things of life.”