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“He thinks he is going to have a walk over,” said Don, as he stroked his pony’s glossy mane.

“It looks that way, but there’s where he is mistaken,” replied Bert. “Lester will be walking an extra before he has been at the academy a week.”

“Well, we’ll not volunteer any more advice, no matter what happens to him,” said Don. “We’ll let him go as he pleases and see how he will come out.”

The day set for their departure came at last, and Don and Bert, accompanied by Mr. Brigham and Lester, set out for Bridgeport, which they reached without any mishap. They rode in the same hack from the depot to the academy, and when they alighted at the door, they were surrounded by a crowd of boys who had already reported for duty, and who made it a point to rush out of the building to extend a noisy welcome to every newcomer. School was not yet in session, and the first-class boys were not above speaking to a plebe.

Among those who were first to greet Don and Bert as they stepped out of the hack, were Egan, Hopkins and Curtis. As these young gentlemen had already completed the regular academic course, perhaps the reader would like to know what it was that brought them back. They came to take what was called the “finishing course,” and to put themselves under technical instruction. After that (it took two years to go through it) Hopkins was to enter a lawyer’s office in Baltimore; Egan intended to become assistant engineer to a relative who was building railroads somewhere in South America; while Curtis was looking towards West Point.