Some of the boys slouched as they walked along; others shuffled.

Their appearance was enough to dishearten a trained soldier.
But at last all these green ones were marshaled to seats in the great dining hall at cadet mess.

There, in a fine dinner, they forgot, momentarily, many of the discouragements of the forenoon.
In the afternoon came a lot more of drilling of awkward squads by other cadet corporals.

Greg soon found, under the tender mercies of another corporal, why Brayton was considered "easy." These cadet corporals are all members of the yearling class, the class directly above the plebes.

As corporals these members of the yearling class get their first direct experience in military command.
Later in the afternoon all candidates were notified that academic examinations would begin at eight o'clock the next morning in the Academic Building.
And now the candidates began to shiver! "Bad" as the start had been, they hoped, to a man, that they would pass these academic examinations.