"Some of the time, desperately so."

"Yet you believe it is right to ignore a plebe, and to make him
so wretched?"

"The upper classmen don't make the plebe wretched. The plebe is
just on probation while he's in the fourth class---that's all.
The plebe is required to prove that he's a man before he's accepted
as one."

"It all seems dreadfully hard," contended Laura.

"It is hard, but necessary, if the West Point man is to be graduated
as anything but a snob with an enlarged cranium. Laura, you remember
what a fuss the 'Blade' made over me when I won my appointment?
Now, almost every new man come to West Point with some such splurge
made about him at home. He reaches here thinking he's one of
the smartest fellows in creation. In a good many cases, too,
the fellow has been spoiled ever since he was a baby, by being
the son of wealthy parents, or by being from a family distinguished
in some petty local social circles. The first move here, on the
part of the upper classmen, is to take all of that swelling out
of the new man's head. Then, most likely, the new man has never
had any home training in being really manly. Here, he must be
a man or get out. It takes some training, some probation, some
hard knocks and other things to make a man out of the fellow.
He has to be a man, if he's going to be fit to command troops."

Anstey, who had been walking close behind his comrade, added: