nd this
does not seem, to the outsider, a difficult attainment. But the West
Point speed of study! In a high school the young man is given the
whole of the first year in which to qualify in simple algebra; in the
second year he takes up plane geometry; in the third he comes
upon solid geometry; in the fourth year of high school work the
young man masters plane trigonometry and solves allied problems.

At West Point, in the plebe year, the young man, in the first half of
the year, goes through simple algebra and plane and solid
geometry. In the second half of the year he must force his way
understandingly through advanced algebra and plane and spherical
trigonometry! This is his mathematics work merely for the first
year, yet it is more and more thoroughly covered than the high
school boy's entire course.

During their first three months of plebedom, and with their course
behind them in the really fine high school at Gridley, Dick and
Greg had not found their math. much of a torment. But now, after
coming back from encampment, these young men began to wake
up to the fact that West Point mathematics is a giant contrasted
with the pigmy of public school mathematics. The two chums
began to put in every minute they could spare over the long,
bewildering array of problems assigned for each recitation.

"What a curious delusion we had, back at Gridley!" laughed Greg,
in their room, one night.

"Which particular delusion was that!" Dick demanded, without
looking up from his geometry.

"Why, we thought our easy old Gridley work in math. was going to
fit us to race easily through the first two years here!"

"That isn't the only pipe that has burned out in our pockets since
we became plebes!" grunted Dick.

"Are you going to max it (get a high marking) in math., to-morrow,
old fellow?"

"I'm going to 'fess out (fail) more likely," sighed Dick. "How are
you coming on, general?"

"I'd give a good deal to be able to ask a first class man how to
solve the fourth problem on to-morrow's list," groaned Greg.

"I'd show you," sighed Dick, "only I'm afraid I might lead you into
an ambush where you'd get scalped by the instructor."

In each class, and in every subject of study, the young men are
divided, for recitation purposes, into sections of eight or ten men.
In each study the section to which the young man belongs is
determined by his relative standing in that study. The "banner"
section is made up of the cadets who sta