Dan had a happy enough time of it, even though Dave"s suspicion was true in that Dan had no sweetheart. That, however, was Dan"s fault entirely, as several of the former High School girls would have been willing to a.s.sure him.
Since even the happiest times must all end so the latter part of September drew near.
Then came the day when Dave and Dan met at the railway station. A host of others were there to see them off, for the midshipmen still had crowds of friends in the good old home town.
A ringing of bells, signaling brakesmen, a rolling of steel wheels and the two young midshipmen swung aboard the train, to wave their hats from the platform.
Gridley was gone--lost to sight for another year. Dan was exuberant during the first hour of the journey, Dave unusually silent.
"You need a vast amount of cheering up, David, little giant!" exclaimed Dalzell.
"Oh, I guess not," smiled Dave Darrin quietly, adding to himself, under his breath:
"I carry my own good cheer with me, now."
Lightly his hand touched a breast pocket that carried the latest, sweetest likeness of Miss Belle Meade.
One journey by rail is much like another to the traveler who pays little heed to the scenery.
At the journey"s end two well-rested midshipmen joined the throng of others at Crabtown.
CHAPTER XIII
DAN RECEIVES A FEARFUL FACER
"Oh, you heap!" sighed Dan Dalzell dismally.
He sat in his chair, in their new quarters in Bancroft Hall, United States Naval Academy, gazing in mock despair at the pile of new books that he had just drawn.
These text-books contained the subjects in which a midshipman is required to qualify in his second academic year.
"Been through the books for a first look?" called Dave from behind his own study table.
"Some of "em," admitted Dalzell. "I"m afraid to glance into the others."
"I"ve looked in all of my books," continued Darrin, "and I"ve just come to a startling conclusion."
"What?"
"I"m inclined to believe that I have received a complete set of text-books for the first and second cla.s.ses."
"No such luck!" grunted Dan, getting up and going over to his chum. "Let me see if you got all the books I did."
Before Dave could prevent it, Dan started a determined over-tossing of the book pile. As he did so, Dan suddenly uncovered a photograph from which a fair, sweet, laughing face gazed up at him.
"Oh, I beg a million pardons, Dave, old boy!" cried Dalzell.
"You needn"t," came Dave"s frank answer. "I"m proud of that treasure and of all it means to me."
"And I"m glad for you, David, little giant."
Their hands met in hearty clasp, and that was all that was said on that subject at the time.
"But, seriously," Dan grumbled on, after a while, "I"m aghast at what an exacting government expects and demands that we shall know. Just look over the list--mechanical drawing and mechanical processes, a.n.a.lytical geometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, English literature, French and Spanish, integral calculus, spherical trigonometry, stereographic projection and United States Naval history! David, my boy, by the end of this year we"ll know more than college professors do."
"Aren"t you getting a big head, Danny?" queried Darrin, looking up with a smile.
"I am," a.s.sented Dalzell, "and I admit it. Why, man alive, one has to have a big head here. No small head would contain all that the Academic Board insists on crowding into it."
By the time that the chums had attended the first section recitations on the following day, their despair was increased.
"Davy, I don"t see how we are ever going to make it, this year," Dalzell gasped, while they were making ready for supper formation. "We"ll bilge this year without a doubt."
"There"s only one reason I see for hoping that we can get through the year with fair credit," murmured Darrin.
"And what"s that?"
"Others have done it, before us, and many more are going to do it this year," replied Dave slowly, as he laid comb and brush away and drew on his uniform blouse.
"I know men have gotten through the Naval Academy in years gone by,"
Dalzell agreed. "But, the first chance that I have, I"m going to look the matter up and see whether the middies of old had any such fearful grind as we have our noses held to."
"Oh, we"ll do it," declared Darrin confidently. "I shall, anyway--for I"ve got to!"
As he spoke he was thinking of Belle Meade, and of her prospects in life as well as his own.
As the days went by, however, Dave and Dan became more and more dull of spirits. The grind was a fearful one. A few very bright youngsters went along all right, but to most of the third cla.s.smen graduation began to look a thousand years away.
The football squad was out now and training in deadly earnest. There were many big games to be played, but most of all the middies longed to tow West Point"s Army eleven into the port of defeat.
In their first year Dave and Dan had looked forward longingly to joining the gridiron squad. They had even practised somewhat. But now they realized that playing football in the second year at Annapolis must be, for them, merely a foolish dream.
"I"m thankful enough if I can study day and night and keep myself up to 2.5," confessed Darrin, as he and Dan chatted over their gridiron longings.
Two-and-five tenths is the lowest marking, on a scale of four, that will suffice to keep a midshipman in the Naval Academy.
"I"m not going to reach 2.5 in some studies this month," groaned Dan. "I know that much by way of advance information. The fates be thanked that we"re allowed until the semi-ans to pick up. But the question is, are we ever going to pick up? As I look through my books it seems to me that every succeeding lesson is twice as hard as the one before it."
"Other men have gone through, every year."
"And still other men have been dropped every year," Dalzell dolefully reminded him.
"We"re among those who are going to stay," Dave contended stubbornly.