human
Back in the pocket again, said Denman to Florrie.
gpt
What on earth can they be driving at?
human
And why, she answered, with another query,
gpt
This seems to show, he said,
human
Yet he is a high-school graduate.
gpt
And Jenkins is a passed seaman apprentice.
human
What is that?
gpt
One who enters the navy at about fifteen or sixteen to serve until he is twenty-one, then to leave the navy or reënlist. They seldom reënlist, for they are trained, tutored, and disciplined into good workmen, to whom shore life offers better opportunities. Those who do reënlist have raised the standard of the navy sailor to the highest in the world; but those that don't are a sad loss to the navy. Jenkins reënlisted. So did Forsythe.
human
But do you think the training and tutoring that Jenkins received equal to an education like Forsythe's--or yours?
gpt
They learn more facts, answered Denman.
human
The training makes a man of a bad boy, and a gentleman of a good one. What a ghastly pity that, because of conservatism and politics, all this splendid material for officers should go to waste, and the appointments to Annapolis be given to good high-school scholars, who might be cowardly sissies at heart, or blackguards like Forsythe!
gpt
But that is how you received your appointment, Billie Denman, said the girl, warmly;
human
I hope not, he answered, grimly.
gpt
Yet, if I had first served my time as seaman apprentice before being appointed to Annapolis, I might be up on that bridge now, instead of standing supinely by while one seaman apprentice does the navigating and another the bossing.
human
There is that man again. I'm afraid of him, Billie. All the others, except Forsythe, have been civil to me; but he looks at me--so--so hatefully.