This is a brisk, vigorous, snappy, story in which winter sports--snowshoeing, skating, rabbit hunting, and such--are features. In the tale Rodney Grant, a young Texas cowboy, appears at Oakdale and attends the academy, being adjudged an imposter by the New England lads, who entertain a mistaken notion that all Texans swagger and bluster and talk in the vernacular. As Grant is quiet and gentlemanly in his bearing and will not, for some mysterious reason, take part in certain violent sports, they erroneously imagine him to be a coward; but eventually, through the demands of necessity and force of circumstances, the fellow from Texas is led to prove himself, which he does in a most effective manner, becoming, for the time being, at least, the hero of the village. This is a story of vigorous, healthy boys and their likes and dislikes; it is brimming over with human nature and, while true to real life, is as fascinating as the most imaginative yarn of adventure. * * * * * * Transcriber's note: Retained some inconsistent spacing and hyphenation from the original (e.g. "postoffice" vs. "post office" and "flagship" vs. "flag-ship"). Retained some hyphens from the original that might better be dashes (e.g. "er-er," "Herc-by"). Page 30, changed "exam-ing" to "examining" ("examining the prospects"). Page 59, italics around "I mean business" are inconsistent with italics around "mean business" in accompanying plate; this inconsistency is retained from the original. Page 79, changed "gasolene" to "gasoline" for consistency ("darted light gasoline boats"). Page 109, changed "steam-stearing gear" to "steam-steering gear." "Aboard a Destroyer" ad, added apostrophe to "citizens' interests" and changed "predecssor" to "predecessor."