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With this homily upon my young friends, gleaned from having been “one of the same,” I will state that there were great expectations among the boy tars at the naval academy as to the newcomers in their midst, especially regarding the lad from Maine.

They longed to have him pass the doctors and the examining committee, for that would give them a chance, and several regretted that they did not know where to find him, that they might post him a little, “get the moss off his back,” as one mildly expressed it.

There were other appointees to arrive, of course, but the interest of these ancient mariners who had already served one or more years at the academy centered in the youth who was to come under circumstances out of the usual routine, a simple appointment by the congressman of his district.

The men of the third class were more particularly interested in the newcomers, as they had so lately been in the same predicament, while the older cadets of the second and first classes looked down with supreme contempt upon the “cubs,” only worthy of their attention if any fun could be gotten out of them.