It does not seem with all this work as though the cadet had very much time to himself, but the cadet is not unhappy. Wednesday and Saturday afternoons are given over as recreation-hours, and football and baseball with neighboring college teams bring crowds of visitors into the Academy. The band plays upon the lawn, and the pathways are filled with fair visitors, who walk with their respective heroes along the shady lanes. Saturday night, too, during the winter, hops are given, sometimes by officers and sometimes by cadets, and a gymnastic entertainment once a year gives the cadets the opportunity to show their prowess in boxing, fencing, and work on the gymnastic paraphernalia. Towards the end of May the annual exercises begin. The examinations finished, the arrival of the Board of Visitors is announced by the booming of cannons from the sea-wall. The cadets receive them on dress-parade, and the work of showing their progress during the year is at once begun. The Board of Visitors go out on one of the government tugs into Chesapeake Bay, and there they see the upper-class men tack, wear-ship, box, haul, and perform all the evolutions in a seamanlike manner on the old “Monongahela.” Light yards are swung across with the precision of old men-of-war’s-men; sails are reefed, furled, or set in an incomparably short space of time; and the cadets are down from aloft for their target practice. The target is towed out by a launch, anchored, and gun by gun, battery by battery, division by division, or by broadside, the cadets hammer away at it as though it were the vessel of a hostile power, more often than not blowing it entirely to pieces. [Illustration: REEFING TOP-SAILS] Back again at the yard, they go through with their drill as infantry or artillery; and last, but not least, comes the drill by companies for the honor of bearing the Naval Academy flag during the coming year. The judges in this competition are usually army officers, and every movement is carefully watched and marked. The captain of each company, before going to this drill, selects its sponsor,--a very pretty girl, who, the drill over, presents the flag to the victorious company amid loud cheers from the whole battalion. The exercises are over. The cadet of the first class is now ready to be graduated. Companies are formed up in hollow square, and the secretary of the navy in the centre, with a pleasant word to each, presents the diplomas to the graduates amid cheers from the companies. As quickly as he can the first-class man goes to his quarters and shifts into his new uniform, and comes back to the campus for the congratulations of his friends. That night the June ball takes place, and the graduate bids farewell to his old associations and goes out into the world.