esson which
the younger girls had yet to learn, that from these unpromising
chrysalises the most gorgeous butterflies emerge, and like a wise woman
she began to study the fourth class. Sam stood out from his fellows,
not indeed as supremely handsome, altho he was not bad-looking, but
rather as the soldier _par excellence_ of his class. Marian was an
expert in judging the points of a soldier, and she saw at once that he
was the coming man. She could not make his acquaintance or speak to
him, but she could smile and thus lay the foundations of success for
next year. It would be easy thus to reach the heart of a lonely
"beast." And she smiled to a purpose, and it was that smile that won
the untried affections of Sam Jinks.

When June at last came and the new fourth-class men began to arrive,
Sam felt a new life surge into his soul. For a year he had been duly
meek and humble, for such it behooved a fourth-class man to be. Now,
however, he began to entertain a measureless pride, such being the
proper frame of mind of a man in the upper classes. He watched the
hotel sedulously to learn when Miss Hunter had made her appearance. One
morning he saw her, and she smiled more distinctly than ever. He knew
that his felicity was only a short way off. He must wait two weeks
until the graduation ball and the departure of the old first class;
then he could undertake to supplant the absent Saunders, who probably
knew the history of Miss Hunter and was not unprepared for his fate.

Meanwhile great events had occurred, and thrown East Point into a state
of excitement. The country was at war. Congress had determined to free
the downtrodden inhabitants of the Cubapine Islands from the tyranny of
the ancient Castalian monarchy. A call for volunteers had been issued,
and the graduating cadets were to be hurried to the seat of war. During
this agitation news arrived of a great naval victory. The mighty
Castalian fleet had been annihilated with great loss of life, while the
conquerors had not lost a man and had scarcely interrupted their
breakfast in order to secure this crushing triumph. It was in the midst
of such reports as these that the susceptible hearts of Sam Jinks and
Marian Hunter came together. The graduating class had gone, and Sam had
for two days been a full third-class man. For the first time he had
occupied the front rank at dress-parade, and seen clearly the officer
in command, the adjutant