CHAPTER III.
THE "LUCKY" ONES TAKE UP THE NEW LIFE Candidate Prescott did not take the best examination by any means, but he got through without discredit in any branch.
A number of these candidates had spent the last year or so at some "prep." school that made a specialty of preparing young men for West Point and Annapolis.
Greg did fairly in English, quite well in history, geography and arithmetic; in algebra, through sheer nervousness, young Holmes barely escaped going short.
Nearly twoscore of the candidates failed utterly.

These went sorrowing home, giving their alternates a chance to enter the corps in their places.
Soon after the results had been declared, the young men who had passed went over to headquarters.

There they signed a statement to the effect that they entered the Military Academy with the consent of their parents or guardians, and bound themselves to serve in the Army at least eight years, unless sooner discharged.

These new young men were then formally and impressively sworn into the service of their country.

They were now cadets, even if only new plebes.
Why "new" plebes! Because, under the new system, with candidates admitted in March, there is still a "plebe" class above them who remain plebes until commencement in June.