“I would have one advantage over you, then, wouldn’t I?” laughed Darrin.  “If I had to rebuke a midshipman I could do it with a more serious face than you could.”

“I can’t help my face,” sighed Danny Grin.

“You see, Dave,” Mr. Dalzell observed, with a smile, “Dan inherited his face.”

“From his father’s side of the family,” promptly interposed Mrs. Dalzell.

Here Mr. Farley, also in cits., entered the parlor in his dignified fashion.

“Darry, and you, too, Danny Grin, some of the fellows are waiting outside to see you.  Will you step out a moment?”

“Where are the fellows?” asked Dave unsuspectingly.

“You’ll find them on the steps outside the entrance.”

Dave started for the door.

“You’re wanted, too, Danny Grin, as I told you,” Farley reminded him.

“I’ll be the Navy goat, then.  What’s the answer?” inquired Midshipman Dalzell.

“Run along, like a good little boy, and your curiosity will soon be gratified.”

Danny Grin looked as though he expected some joke, but he went none the less.

Dave, first to reach the entrance, stepped through into the open.  As he did so he saw at least seventy-five of his recent classmates grouped outside.

The instant they perceived their popular comrade the crowd of graduates bellowed forth: 

“N N N N,
A A A A,
V V V V,
Y Y Y Y,
navy! 
Darrin! 
Darrin! 
Darrin!”

In another moment Danny Grin showed himself.  Back in his face was hurled the volley: 

“N N N N,
A A A A,
V V V V,
Y Y Y Y,
navy! 
Grin! 
Grin! 
Grin!”

“Eh?” muttered Danny, when the last line reached him.  They were unexpected.  Then, as be faced the laughing eyes down in the street, Dalzell justified his nickname by one of those broad smiles that had made him famous at the Naval Academy.

Dave Darrin waved his hand in thanks for the “Four-N” yell, the surest sign of popularity, and vanished inside.  When he returned to the parlor be found that Farley had conducted his parents and friends to one of the parlor windows, from which, behind drawn blinds, they had watched the scene and heard the uproar without making themselves visible.

At noon the hotel dining room was overrun with midshipmen and their friends, all awaiting the afternoon train.

But at last the time came to leave Annapolis behind in earnest.  Extra cars had been put on to handle the throng, for the “train,” for the first few miles of the way, usually consists of but one combination trolley car.

“You’re leaving the good old place behind,” murmured Belle, as the car started.

“Never a graduate yet but was glad to leave Annapolis behind,” replied Dave.

“It seems to me that you ought not to speak of the Naval Academy in that tone.”

“You’d understand, Belle, if you had been through every bit of the four-year grind, always with the uncertainty ahead of you of being able to get through and grad.”