"At West Point, sir; graduated at the wrong end, dropped. He did everything to stay; ran a light after taps, cut society, and sat night after night with his feet in cold water and his hands in his hair (what there was of it)," Magnus added in parenthesis. "But nothing did any good; he'd go next day and fess on a clean board. 'Mr. Simpkins,' the instructor asked him one day, 'are you as stupid at drill as you are in the section room?' And Chuck turned with the blandest face and answered: 'Nigh on to it, Lieutenant!' And he was." How the listeners laughed again. "But that was Simpkins," Cherry remarked. "You said 'Chuck.'" "'Chuck' was his cadet name." "Do they name everyone?" asked Mr. Erskine. "Very generally. But some names go with the office. The fattest man in the class is 'Tubs,' and the oldest 'Daddy'; while the cleanest-face man in all the Corps may be 'mud,' because his pred. or his resemblance owned the name. 'Deacon' and 'Squire', 'Mile-High' and 'Shorty', 'Pretty Jones' and 'Lady Crane.'" "What is yours?" said Cherry. "Only 'Kin'; sometimes with the 'Kith' added. Do you see?" "I see that you are a very wide-awake set of boys," said Mr. Erskine. Cherry slowly pulled off her thimble. "Papa," she said, "I sent word that they must all come here to dinner, and it is time for me to go and see to things." "I will come and help," said Magnus. "Thank you, no," Cherry answered him gaily. "Housekeeping is one of the few things you have _not_ studied. Stay and talk to your mother, she is just here." So while the two girls followed Cherry, the other three people sat talking over many things, the two elders closely scanning the young cadet; and he, all unconscious of their scrutiny, showing himself just as he was in truth. Certainly the stories and pranks he rattled off were full of mischief, and as surely they gave small token of a reverent respect for regulations. But there was no taint of anything mean or low, no word that savoured of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." The mother breathed freer with every new light thrown upon his West Point life, and felt that her boy had come back to her pure as he had gone away. The eyes of the two old friends met in joyful sympathy time and again, as Magnus talked and told, and their laughter had no reserve of anxious questioning. And when at last Magnus detailed himself to go and look after the girls and dinner, Mr. Erskine stretched out his hand to the happy mother. "He is a splendid fellow," he said; "a grand boy! I congratulate you with all my heart." XXIX SKIRMISHING O wha can prudence think upon, And sic a lassie by him? O wha can prudence think upon, And sae in love as I am? --_Old Song._