He got an extension of the noon hour and hurried down to the naval recruiting office.  It was doing a brisk business in turning away applicants, and from the bottom of the line Raymond was not kept waiting long before he attained the top; and from thence in his turn was led into an inner office.  He was briefly examined as to his sea experience.  Could he box the compass?  He could.  Could he make a long splice?  He could.  What was meant by the monkey-gaff of a full-rigged ship?  He told them.  What was his reason in wanting to join the Navy?  Because he thought he’d like to do something for his country.  Very good; turn him over to the doctor; next!  Then the doctor weighed him, looked at his teeth, hit him in the chest, listened to his heart, thumped and questioned him, and then passed him on to a third person to be enrolled.

When George Raymond emerged into the open air it was as a full A B in the service of the United States

This announcement at the office made an extraordinary sensation.  Men he hardly knew shook hands with him and clapped him on the back.  He was taken upstairs to be impressively informed that his position would be held open for him.  On every side he saw kindling faces, smiling glances of approbation, the quick passing of the news in whispers.  He had suddenly risen from obscurity to become part of the War; the heir of a wonderful and possibly tragic future; a patriot; a hero!  It was a bewildering experience and not without its charm.  He was surprised to find himself still the same man.

The scene at home was less enthusiastic.  It was even mortifying, and Georgie, as his mother invariably called him, had to endure a storm of sarcasm and reproaches.  The old woman’s ardent patriotism stopped short at giving up her son.  It was the duty of others to fight, Georgie’s to stay at home with his mother.  He let her talk herself out, saying little, but regarding her with a grave, kind obstinacy.  Then she broke down, weeping and clinging to him.  Somehow, though he could hardly explain it to himself, the relation between the two underwent a change.  He left that house the unquestioned master of himself, the acknowledged head of that tiny household; he had won, and his victory instead of abating by a hair’s-breadth his mother’s love for him had drawn the pair closer to each other than ever before.  Though she had no articulate conception of it Georgie had risen enormously in his mother’s respect.  The woman had given way to the man, and the eternal fitness of things had been vindicated.

Her tenderness and devotion were redoubled.  Never had there been such a son in the history of the world.  She relaxed her economies in order to buy him little delicacies, such as sardines and pickles; and when soon after his enlistment his uniform came home she spread it on her bed and cried, and then sank on her knees, passionately kissing the coarse serge.  In the limitation of her horizon she could see but a single figure.  It was Georgie’s country, Georgie’s President, Georgie’s fleet, Georgie’s righteous quarrel in the cause of stifled freedom.  To her, it was Georgie’s war with Spain.