f your misfortunes."

"But sometimes girls tell one another some things-----"

"Belle Meade doesn't," interrupted Dave so briskly that Dalzell,
after a glance, agreed:

"You're right there, David, little giant. I've known Belle ever
since we were kids at the Central Grammar School. If Belle ever
got into any trouble through too free use of her tongue, then I
never heard anything about it."

"Dan, do you want a fine suggestion about the employment of the
rest of your liberty time while we're at Annapolis?"

"Yes."

"You remember Barnes's General History, that we used to have in
Grammar school?"

"Yes."

"Devote your liberty time to reading the book through again."

CHAPTER XXI

IN THE THICK OF DISASTER

Examination week---torture of the "wooden" and seventh heaven of
the "savvy!"

For the wooden man, he who knows little, this week of final
examinations is a period of unalloyed torture. He must go before
an array of professors who are there to expose his ignorance.

No "wooden" man can expect to get by. The gates of hope are closed
before his face. He marches to the ordeal, full of a dull misery.
Whether he is fourth classman or first, he knows that hope has
fled; that he will go below the saving 2.5 mark and be dropped
from the rolls.

But your "savvy" midshipman---he who knows much, and who is sure
and confident with his knowledge, finds this week of final examinations
a period of bliss and pride. He is going to "pass"; he knows that,
and nothing else matters.

Eight o'clock every morning, during this week, finds the midshipman
in one recitation room or another, undergoing his final. As it
is not the purpose of the examiners to wear any man out, the afternoon
is given over to pleasures. There are no afternoon examinations,
and no work of any sort that can be avoided. Indeed, the "savvy"
man has a week of most delightful afternoons, with teas, lawn
parties, strolls both within and without the walls of the Academy
grounds, and many boating parties. It is in examination week
that the young ladies flock to Annapolis in greater numbers than
ever.

Sometimes the "wooden" midshipman, knowing there is no further hope
for him, rushes madly into the pleasures of this week, determined to
carry back into civil life with him the memories of as many
Annapolis pleasures as possible.

A strong smattering there is of midshipmen who, by no means "savvy,"
are yet not so "wooden" but that they ho