ection.

Hard, however, as was the road for Dewey to travel, he never shrank or
turned aside, for he knew the same path had been traveled by all who had
gone before him, and he reasoned that what man had done man could do,
and he did it.

It will be noted that the future Admiral entered the Naval Academy at a
stirring period in the history of our country, over which the coming
Civil War already cast its awful shadow, and, as the months and years
passed, the shadow darkened and grew more portentous until the red
lightning rent the clouds apart and they rained blood and fire and woe
and death.

At the Annapolis Academy the lines between the cadets from the North and
the South were sharply drawn. They reflected the passions of their
sections, and, being young and impulsive, there were hot words and
fierce blows. As might be supposed, George Dewey was prominent in these
affrays, for it has been said of him that there was never a fight in his
neighborhood without his getting into the thickest of it.

One day a fiery Southerner called him a dough-face, whereupon Dewey let
go straight from the shoulder and his insulter turned a backward
somersault. Leaping to his feet, his face aflame with rage, he went at
the Green Mountain Boy, who coolly awaited his attack, and they
proceeded instantly to mix it up for some fifteen minutes in the most
lively manner conceivable. At the end of that time the Southerner was so
thoroughly trounced that he was unable to continue the fight.

It was not long before Dewey had a furious scrimmage with another
cadet, whom he soundly whipped. He challenged Dewey to a duel, and Dewey
instantly accepted the challenge. Seconds were chosen, weapons provided
and the ground paced off. By that time the friends of the two parties,
seeing that one of the young men, and possibly both, were certain to be
killed, interfered, and, appealing to the authorities of the
institution, the deadly meeting was prevented. These incidents attest
the personal daring of Admiral Dewey, of whom it has been said that he
never showed fear of any living man. Often during his stirring career
was the attempt made to frighten him, and few have been placed in so
many situations of peril and come out of them alive, but in none did he
ever display anything that could possibly be mistaken for timidity. He
was a brave man and a patriot in every fibre of his being.

A youth can be combative, personally brave and aggressive, and still b