notions
of West Point.

"You are learning to be a soldier, of course?" she asked.

"Yes, Mrs. Davidson," replied Dick gravely. Neither in his face
nor in his tone was there any hint of the weariness with which
he had so often, of late, heard this aimless question repeated.

"And when you are through with your course there," pursued Mrs.
Davidson, "do you enlist in the Army? Or may you, if you prefer,
become a sailor in our--er--Navy?"

"Oh, I fear, Mrs. Davidson, that you don't understand," smiled
Mrs. Prescott proudly. My son is now going through a very rigorous
four years' course at the Military Academy. It is a course that
is superior, in most respects to a college training, but that
it is devoted to turning out commissioned officers for the Army.
When Richard graduates, in two years more, he will be commissioned
by the President as a second lieutenant in the Army."

"Oh, I understood you to say that you were training to become
a soldier, Mr. Prescott," cried Mrs. Davidson in some confusion.
"I did not understand that you would become an officer."

"An officer who is not also a good soldier is a most unfortunate
and useless fellow under the colors," laughed Dick lightly.

"But it is so much more honorable to be an officer than to be
a mere soldier!" cried the pastor's wife.

"We do not think so in the army, Mrs. Davidson," Dick answered
more responsibility, to be sure, but we feel that the honor falls
alike on men of all grades of position who are privileged to wear
their country's uniform."

"But don't the officers look down on the common soldiers?" asked
Mrs. Davidson curiously.

"If an officer does, then surely he has chosen the wrong career
in life, madam," the cadet replied seriously. "We are not taught
at West Point that an officer should 'look down' upon an enlisted
man. There is a gulf of discipline, but none of manhood, between
the enlisted man and his officer. And it frequently happens that
the officer who is a graduate from West Point is called upon to
welcome, as a brother officer, a man who has just been promoted from
the ranks."

Mrs. Davidson looked puzzled, as, indeed, she was. But she suddenly
remembered something that made her feel more at ease.

"Why, I saw an officer and some soldiers on a train, the other
day," she cried. "The officer had at least eight or ten soldiers
with him, under his command. I remember what a fine-looking young
man he was. He had what looked like