The academic year practically closed on the 31st of May, and on the next day the battalion was to again appear in its summer clothes; that is, in white pants and gray coats. White pants are the forerunners of the many changes to soon occur at the Point; a class to be graduated, another to go on furlough, and the other two, with a new class added to the corps, to go into camp; the members of the Board of Visitors[41] and hundreds of other people to arrive, some to witness the graduating exercises, old graduates to attend their alumni meeting, others to see relatives in the corps, and still others to attend the summer hops. But with all these and other pleasures in store for the cadets about a dozen of the plebes were not satisfied. They knew that on the morrow candidates would begin to report, and that then they themselves would shed their plebe-skins, drop the Mr. and be full-fledged “yearlings.” In order to mark this great event in the life of a cadet at West Point we had months before decided upon doing something that no other yearlings had done. Away back in April, while at light battery drill, we “hived” some powder, by taking a little from a dozen or more cartridges, and we also “hived” some friction-primers. The night of May 31st was cloudy and hazy, which just suited us, and the tactical officers favored us by inspecting every room before midnight. At about half-past eleven we tied the handle of the angle door to an upright of the porch and fastened a rope to the posts at the head of the angle porch stairs, and then went one at a time out to the “reveille gun” that stood near execution hollow away out on the plain. We loaded that gun and then put in it all of our old socks and rammed the charge well. Some of our trusty party got cannon balls at Trophy Point and joined the others at the gun. We then wheeled the gun near the gravel walk in front of the barracks, and one of our party went on the grass to the right and another to the left. These two then made noises that attracted the attention of the two engineer sentinels posted at night on the gravel walk, and signaled that our coast was clear. We then rushed across the walk through the Sally Port and fired that gun in the area. At the same time the cannon balls were rolled along the porches in rear of barracks, then we hastened to our rooms, undressed and went to bed to await developments. Oh, what a dandy report that gun made; it shook the barracks and other buildings, too, and shattered windows all around. The cannon balls were also a great success, for they made a horrible rumbling sound. We awoke everybody. Lieutenant M⸺l was “officer in charge,” and we soon heard him tugging away at the angle door and then stumble against the clothesline that we had so thoughtfully put up for his special benefit. He called the “drummer orderly,” who slept in the guard-house and had long roll sounded. He questioned the cadet officers,