ed with a
silent and embarrassed youth, who raised his hat respectfully, but said
no word. The general stepped forward and held out both his hands.

"I'm proud to shake hands with you, young gentleman. I've heard all
about you from the Fifth. You ought to go to West Point and be a cavalry
officer."

"There's nothing I so much wish, general," stammered Ralph, with beaming
eyes and burning cheeks.

"Then we'll telegraph his name to Washington this very day, gentlemen. I
was asked to designate some young man for West Point who thoroughly
deserved it, and is not this appointment well won?"

FROM "THE POINT" TO THE PLAINS.

CHAPTER I.

A CADET'S SISTER.

She was standing at the very end of the forward deck, and, with flushing
cheeks and sparkling eyes, gazing eagerly upon the scene before her.
Swiftly, smoothly rounding the rugged promontory on the right, the
steamer was just turning into the highland "reach" at Fort Montgomery
and heading straight away for the landings on the sunset shore. It was
only mid-May, but the winter had been mild, the spring early, and now
the heights on either side were clothed in raiment of the freshest,
coolest green; the vines were climbing in luxuriant leaf all over the
face of the rocky scarp that hemmed the swirling tide of the Hudson; the
radiance of the evening sunshine bathed all the eastern shores in mellow
light and left the dark slopes and deep gorges of the opposite range all
the deeper and darker by contrast. A lively breeze had driven most of
the passengers within doors as they sped through the broad waters of the
Tappan Zee, but, once within the sheltering traverses of Dunderberg and
the heights beyond, many of their number reappeared upon the promenade
deck, and first among them was the bonnie little maid now clinging to
the guard-rail at the very prow, and, heedless of fluttering skirt or
fly-away curl, watching with all her soul in her bright blue eyes for
the first glimpse of the haven where she would be. No eyes on earth look
so eagerly for the grim, gray _facade_ of the riding-hall or the domes
and turrets of the library building as those of a girl who has spent the
previous summer at West Point.

Utterly absorbed in her watch, she gave no heed to other passengers who
presently took their station close at hand. One was a tall, dark-eyed,
dark-haired young lady in simple and substantial travelling-dress. With
her were two men in tweeds and Derby hats, a