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The rumor also had it that the youth was a specimen of the genus homo from the coast of Maine, and a fisher lad from the State which in the past has so justly won the title of “Nursery of the Navy.”

Of course the blue bloods among the cadet midshipmen had their opinions as to what a fisher lad from the coast of Maine would be like.

Hardly setting him down as being like the earlier Florida coasters, half-horse, half-alligator, they still supposed that he must be a long-pointed, two-headed, web-footed, uncouth specimen of a youth who, if he passed the surgeon for height, chest measure and perfect health, would do so through a hope that he could in time be built up into a man, while, when the examining committee ran afoul of him with what the old farmer called the Three R’s—“Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmetic”—the youth from Maine would haul down his colors at the first fire.

Human nature is said to be the same the world over, and certainly boy nature is. The only safety-valve a boy has for his extra flow of spirits is mischief, and young tars and soldier lads are certainly no exception to the rule, but, on the contrary, more given to pranks than other youths, on account of their severe training, for their fun must break forth when discipline unbends for hours of leisure.