"I shall not be at West Point. Magnus, do stop fooling and let me go." "Bid me good-night, then." "Good-night." "I mean the way we said good-bye." "That is the way I said good-bye," Cherry answered. "It wasn't the way _I_ said good-bye," said Magnus. "_This_ was the way. And this is the way I say good-night. Cherry, you are a transparent fraud." "But you must go," Cherry urged, very grave and quiet now. "If you do not go, you never can come again!" she added, as a last argument. "What a wise girl! I believe she could tackle warped surfaces." "Are they any harder to manage than you are?" said Cherry. "You know"--but she checked herself. It would not do to mention her father again, even to save his being waked up by all this talking under his window. "Know what?" "Less than you think," said Cherry coolly. "The professors have been trying to din that into me for the last two years," said Magnus, "but I never thought to have you take it up. What were you going to say?" "I shall not tell you." "Sugar and spice," quoted Magnus. "Shows what I have to expect at my first wild frontier post." "I can tell you what to expect before that," said Cherry. "If you stay here moonshining any longer, you 'will be pale to-morrow,' like your namesake in Dickens." "Then you can hand over some of your pinks," said Magnus. "Besides, my dear, I must inform you of a well-known West Point fact: truth misapplied ceases to be useful. Mr. Peter Magnus was storing his good looks to propound a certain question next day. Whereas I, having settled it to-night----" But just there Cherry made a quick movement of her pretty head, stooped under the enclosing arms, and was out of sight in a second. Magnus ran down the hill, whistling at the top of his power. I am not sure that Cherry knew what he whistled; and I doubt if he knew himself; but I think it was "The Girl I Left behind Me." "My dear boy," said Mrs. Kindred, as her cadet came in, "you forget that it is night in these Western regions. Have you been round the neighbourhood whistling people up?" Magnus threw himself down on the floor at her feet. "Mammy, if you'd not been allowed to whistle for two years, you would know how good it feels." "Not allowed to whistle? What could comfort you?" said the mother, laying her hand caressingly on his head. "Well, I suppose if three hundred boys got to whistling, the effect might be rather powerful." "What kept you so long, boy?" said Rose. "Cherry. She is a rather slow girl, sometimes." "She isn't!" cried Violet. "_Never!_ She is just the quickest girl going." "Cherry--as I have found her," said Magnus gravely. "Do all cadets tell fibs?" inquired Rose. "Unless I am a shining exception, they do." "Well, do they all look like you?" said Violet. "Making allowance for the difference of men," said Magnus, with easy assurance. "What are those things on your arm for?" "Rank, power, and responsibility. They are not 'things,' they are chevrons."