"You midshipmen have a very graceful knack of being charmingly
attentive to the ladies," Miss Atterly suggested coyly.
"We receive a little bit of training in social performance, if
that is what you mean, Miss Atterly," Dan replied.
"And that enables you to be most delightfully attentive to every
girl that comes along?"
"I don't know," Midshipman Dalzell replied slowly. "I haven't
had much experience."
Miss Atterly laughed as though she felt certain that she knew
better.
"Do you say that to every girl?" she asked.
"I don't get many chances," Dan insisted. "Miss Atterly, all
the hops that I've attended could be counted on your fingers,
without using the thumbs?"
"Oh, really?"
"It is the truth, I assure you. Some of the midshipmen attend
many hops. Most of us are too busy over our studies as a rule."
"Then you prefer books to the society of girls?"
"It isn't that," replied Dan, growing somewhat red under Miss
Atterly's amused scrutiny. "The fact is that a fellow comes here
to the Naval Academy for the purpose of becoming an officer in
the Navy."
"To be sure."
"And, unless the average fellow hugs his books tightly he doesn't
have any show to get through and become an officer. There are
some fellows, of course, to whom the studies come easily. With
most of us it's a terrible grind. Even with the grind about forty
per cent. of the fellows who enter the Naval Academy are found
deficient and are dropped.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127