"I never have stopped at a hotel without a bathroom." Dan didn't mention that this was the first time he had ever stopped at a hotel in his short life.
"Front!" called the clerk.
A small black boy in knee trousers came forward, picked up their suit cases and led the way to the next floor.
"My! I wonder who else is expected," muttered Dalzell, as the two young travelers found themselves in their room after the boy had left them.
It was an enormous room, and the three beds in it did not crowd the apartment in the least.

All the furniture was of a massive and old-fashioned pattern.
A few minutes later, with face and hands washed--clean collars, clothes neatly brushed, the two clear-eyed, manly-looking young fellows returned to the first floor.
"I suppose this hotel is full of young men like ourselves, wondering what tomorrow will bring them, when they get before the sawbones," muttered Dan.
"Candidates, like ourselves, you mean ?" suggested Darrin.

"We'll inquire." With that, he approached the clerk and made the inquiry.
"Oh, no," replied the clerk, in answer to Dave's question.

"There are only two other candidates besides yourselves stopping here.
There are a good many young men in town, of course, but most of them have been here for some weeks, and are in lodging houses.
A good many young men come here, you know, to attend the Naval preparatory schools before they go up for their examinations." "We've had our academic examinations, and have passed," announced Dan.
"What about supper, sir ?" asked Dave, who, in his short trip through the South, had noticed that in this part of the country the "sir" is generally employed.
"You'll find supper ready, gentlemen," replied the clerk, pointing the way to the dining room.
So the two young men passed in and enjoyed their first sample of southern cookery.
At this hour there were only a half dozen other people in the dining room--none of them interesting, Darrin decided, after hastily surveying the other diners.
The meal over, the two young candidates sauntered again out into the hotel office.
"Any midshipmen out around the town, sir ?" Darrin asked.
"Hardly, sir," replied the clerk, with a smile.

"At this hour the young gentlemen are in their rooms at Bancroft Hall." "What does a midshipman look like ?" ventured Dalzell.
"Like a human being, of course," Dave laughed.
"You mean the uniform ?" inquired the clerk.