So, in his earlier years at West Point, Dick had sometimes been unpopular with certain elements among the cadets because he would not greatly depart from what he believed to be his duty as a cadet and a gentleman.
Readers of the _High School Boys' Series_ will recall that Prescott, in his home town of Gridley, had been the head of Dick & Co., a sextette of chums and High School athletes.

It was in his High School days that young Prescott had developed the qualities of manliness which the Military Academy at West Point was now rounding off for him.
Readers of the preceding volumes in this series, _Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point_, _Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point_ and _Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point_, are already familiar with the young man's career as a cadet at the United States Military Academy.

Our readers know how hard the fight had been for Dick Prescott, who, in addition to his early struggles to keep his place in scholarship in the corps, had been submitted to the evil work of enemies in the corps.

Some of these enemies had been exposed in the end, and forced to leave the Military Academy, but many had been the bitter hours that Prescott had spent under one cloud or another as the result of the wicked work of these enemies.
At last, however, Prescott and his roommate and chum, Greg Holmes, had reached the first class.

They had now less than a year to go before they would be graduated and commissioned as officers in the Army.
On reaching first-class dignity, both Dick and Greg had been delighted over their appointment as cadet officers.