CHAPTER XXIII.
GRADUATION DAY---AT LAST Graduation Week! Now came the time when the Naval Academy was given over to the annual display of what could be accomplished in the training of midshipmen.
There were drills and parades galore, with sham battles in which the sharp crack of rifle fire was punctured by the louder, steadier booms of field artillery.

There were gun-pointing contests aboard the monitors and other practice craft.
There were exhibitions of expert boat-handling, and less picturesque performances at the machine shops and in the engine and dynamo rooms.

There were other drills and exhibitions---enough of them to weary the reader, as they doubtless did weary the venerable members of a Board of Visitors appointed by the President.
On Wednesday night came the class german.

Now our young first classmen were in for another thrill---the pleasure of wearing officers' uniforms for the first time.
On graduation the midshipman is an officer of the Navy, though a very humble one.

The graduated midshipman's uniform is a more imposing affair than the uniform of a midshipman who is still merely a member of the brigade at the Naval Academy.
On this Wednesday evening the new uniforms were of white, the summer and tropical uniform of the Navy.