“well, now, i am disgusted.”
“so am i. i call it a most unusual proceeding.”
“that is a very mild term to be applied to it. i call it an outrage. the professor has deliberately gone to work to disgrace the school and every student in it.”
“that’s my opinion. i shall give my father a full history of the case in the next letter i write to him; and i incline to the belief that he will order me to pack my trunk and start for home.”
“i know that is what my father will do. why, fellows, just think of it for a moment! what if this street gamin, who has been brought here as the professor’s pet, should accidentally win a warrant at the next examination?”
6“or a commission! that would be worse yet. wouldn’t a gentleman’s son look nice obeying his orders—the orders of a bootblack?”
“i’ll never do that. i’ll stay in the guard-house until i am gray-headed first.”
“well, i won’t. i’ll go home first.”
this conversation took place one cold, frosty morning in the latter part of january, 18—, among the members of a little party of boys who were walking up the path that led to the door of the bridgeport military academy. there were a dozen of them in all, and their ages varied from thirteen to sixteen years. they looked like young soldiers, dressed as they were in their neat, well-fitting uniforms of cadet gray, set off by light blue trimmings; but it seems that they were anything but good soldiers just then, for their words indicated a determination on their part to rebel against lawful authority.
the bridgeport military school was a time-honored, wealthy, and aristocratic institution. it was modeled after the school at “the point,” and although its course of study differed materially from that pursued at the national academy, its rules of discipline were almost the same. it was 7intended to fit boys for college, for business, for civil or mining engineering, or for west point, if they wanted to go there and could command influence enough to secure the appointment; and in order that they might begin early in life to realize the majesty and dignity of law, and to see the necessity of submitting to it as becomes good citizens of the republic, they were put through a course of military drill as strict as that to which they would have been subjected if they had been private soldiers in the regular army.
the majority of the students—there were nearly three hundred of them in all--were deeply in love with the school, and with every body and every thing connected with it. although they were obliged to study hard for seven months in the year to avoid being dropped from their classes, and to watch themselves closely in order to keep within the rules, they were allowed two seasons of rest and recreation during the year; a faithful student could always obtain a pass for an evening, provided his standing as a soldier was what it should be, and warrants and commissions were to be obtained by anybody who was willing to work for them. more than that, the institution was endeared 8to them by a thousand old-time associations. the fathers of some of the present students had sat in those same seats, pronounced their orations from that very rostrum, handled those same muskets and swords, and been drilled at the identical guns that still composed the battery, and their sons had heard them speak in the highest terms of the benefits derived from the instructions they had there received during the days of their boyhood. under these circumstances it was no wonder that the students took pride in their school, and that the most of them had come there with the determination that no act of theirs should in any way detract from its high and long-established reputation.
but if these were the sentiments of some of the boys, there was a small but busy minority who cherished feelings that were exactly the reverse—boys who had been sent there because they could not be controlled at home, who were restive under the restraints that were imposed upon them, and whose sole object was to complete the course and get away from the school with as little trouble to themselves as possible. these were the fellows who were always in trouble. they did not mind 9their hard lessons so much as they did the fatiguing drills with muskets and broadswords. they envied the officers in their class on account of the authority they possessed, the extra privileges that fell to their lot, and the respect they demanded from the rest of the students; but they were not willing to work for a commission themselves, and they did not like those who were. they ran the guard at every opportunity to eat pancakes with cony ryan, who was quite as important a personage at bridgeport as benny havens is, or used to be, at west point, and did penance for it the next saturday by performing extra duty as sentries with bricks in their knapsacks. when they saluted a member of the class above them, as the law required them to do, they did it in a very sullen and ungracious manner; but if a member of the class below them neglected his duty in this respect, they were prompt to take him to task for it.
the two meanest boys in school were tom fisher and clarence duncan, who, at the time our story opens, had been members of the academy just two years. they were smart enough at their books and stood well in their classes when they felt in the humor to apply themselves; but their 10record as soldiers was something of which they ought to have been ashamed. tom, to put it in plain english, was a sneak, and clarence was a bully, who boasted of his ability to whip any boy in school. these boys had a good many adherents among the students, and if there were any mischief done about the village it was pretty certain to be traced home to them.
the two seasons of rest and recreation of which we have spoken were the camping-out frolic, that came off in august, and the vacation, which began on the 15th of september and continued until the 15th of january. then the boys went home to spend the holidays and show their uniforms. when the time came to go into camp no one was excused except upon the surgeon’s certificate of disability. in fact there were very few among them who ever asked to be excused. even the most studious had grown tired of their books by this time, and were anxious to get out among the hills where they could breathe invigorating air, go trout-fishing and botanizing, and in various other ways brace up their nerves in readiness for the searching examination that was to be held immediately on their return to the academy.
11this camp was intended as a school of review. theory was reduced to practice, and those of the students who kept their eyes and ears open, and tried to profit by the instructions there received, were almost sure to pass the examination with flying colors. the civil engineers surveyed the bar in the river, just as their fathers had done before them; staked out the best route for a canal around the falls, and laid out a railroad and got everything in readiness for tunneling the hills to let it through. the military engineers, under cover of a hot fire of blank cartridges from the battery, threw pontoon bridges over the creek, and when they were finished, the infantry, which had been concealed in a ravine close by, charged across them and swarmed up the opposite heights to dislodge an enemy that was supposed to be intrenched there. they fortified the hills to prevent the approach of an invading army, sent out scouts to scour the surrounding country, held drumhead courts-martial, and tried everybody who was reported for any misdemeanor; in fact, they did everything that soldiers do when they are in the field.
perhaps two or three days would be spent in 12this way, and then there would come two or three days of rest, during which the young soldiers would roam about the woods and fields, going wherever their fancy led them. when the examination came off, the graduates were presented with their diplomas and the degrees that the institution was empowered to confer, new officers were appointed from among the students, the classes were reorganized, new applicants were received, and everything was made ready for work at the beginning of the new school year.
at the time of which we write the school had been in session about two weeks. two hundred and fifty of the old students had returned, and the places of the large number who were graduated at the close of the last term were filled by the second class, which became the first; the third became the second, the fourth became the third, and the new fourth was made up of the “plebes” who had signed the muster-roll. why the new-comers were called “plebes,” which is short for “plebeians,” it is hard to tell. perhaps it was because their fathers, in the days of their boyhood, had given that name to all new scholars, or it may have been for the reason that everybody was down 13on them. they certainly looked out of place there. they still wore their citizens’ clothes, the uniforms for which they had been measured when they first arrived not having yet been received. they were not allowed to go on dress-parade because they could not handle a musket; and as they had not yet been “broken in,” they were a little too independent in their conduct to suit the old students, who exacted the greatest show of respect from those who were below them.
among these “plebes” was one whose advent created the profoundest astonishment among some of the students. the boys we have already introduced to the reader were talking about him as they came up the path. they were tom fisher and his crowd. having drawn the capes of their overcoats over their heads, they were strolling leisurely along, paying no heed to the cutting wind that swept across the snow-covered parade-ground; but the thinly clad young fellow who came up the path behind them was shivering violently under its influence. his hands and face were blue with cold, and his feet were so poorly protected that he was obliged to stop now and then and stamp them on the ground to get them 14warm. the noise he made attracted the attention of tom fisher and his companions, who turned to see what had occasioned it.
“here he comes now,” exclaimed dick henderson, a fair-haired, sunny-faced little fellow, whose mother would have been ashamed of him if she had known what sort of company he was keeping at the academy. “say, you fellow, where are your manners?”
only one short year ago dick was a “plebe” himself; but now he was a third class boy, and he was resolved that everybody should know it and treat him accordingly.
“let him go, dick,” said tom fisher, in a tone of disgust. “you would be highly honored by a salute from a bootblack, wouldn’t you, now?”
“who are these?” said clarence duncan, in a low tone.
tom and his crowd looked down the path and saw two other new-comers approaching. in appearance they were very unlike the shivering, half-frozen boy who had just gone along the path. they were warmly clad, wore sealskin caps and gloves, and there was something in their air and 15bearing that proclaimed them to be boys who respected themselves, and who intended that others should respect them. one of them was tall and broad-shouldered, and carried himself as though he had never been in the habit of submitting to any nonsense, and the other was small, slender, and apparently delicate.
“why, they are the planter and his brother,” said one of the students, all of whom had had opportunity to learn more or less of the history of the boys who composed the fourth class. “they’re from mississippi. their father is worth no end of money, and they say he gives his boys a very liberal allowance.”
“then they’ll be good fellows to foot the bills at cony ryan’s, will they not?” said fisher.
“they say that the little one is a saint,” chimed in dick henderson. “he never does anything wrong; but his brother must be a brick, for he was expelled from the last school he attended on account of some violation of the rules.”
“then he’s the fellow for us,” said tom fisher. “we must make it a point to see him after taps.”
the near approach of the new-comers cut short the conversation. tom and his crowd strolled 16leisurely on, filling up the path so completely that it was impossible for any one to pass them without stepping out into the deep snow that had been thrown up on each side. this the new scholars did not seem inclined to do. the smaller one came up behind dick henderson, and placing the back of his hand against his arm, said pleasantly:
“will you be good enough to give us a little room?”
tom and his friends faced about at once, and the former stepped up to the speaker and laid his hand rather heavily on his shoulder.
“look here, plebe,” said he, in an insolent tone. “‘subordination is of discipline the root; when you address an old cadet, forget not to salute.’ mind that in future.”
“take your hand off that boy, or i will salute you with a blow in the face that will bury you out of sight in that snowdrift,” said he who had been called the “planter.”
“who are you?” demanded fisher.
“take a good look at me so that you will remember me,” was the reply.
the boy drew off his gloves and pulled down his muffler, revealing the familiar features of our 17old friend, don gordon. just then the clear notes of a bugle rang out on the frosty air. it was the “study call,” and all the students within hearing made haste to respond to it.
