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These two young misters are the tougest lot we've had to deal with. In fact, sir, they're ratey!" "Still," rejoined Dan Dalzell, "I think you are keeping it up pretty late in the year, even if they are ratey." A midshipman who is "ratey," as has been explained in an earlier volume, is a much greater offender than a midshipman who is merely touge.
The new man who honestly tries to be neither "touge" nor "ratey," and who has a sensible resolve to submit to tradition, is sometimes termed "almost sea-going." Dave Darrin was promptly recognized as being "almost sea-going." He would need but little running. Dan Dalzell, on the other hand, was soon listed as being "touge," though not "ratey."
"If you choose to consider it in that light, sir." "Mister, you are touge, ratey, impudent and worthless!" declared Henley hotly. "Then I infer, sir, that you do not wish to waste any more time upon me?" "Oh, you will not get off as easily as that," sneered Midshipman Henley. "You are a good-sized fellow, and you have some fourth class reputation as a fighter.
For a ratey fourth classman makes the foolish blunder of considering himself as good as an upper classman. "Of course," suggested Dan, making haste to smooth over any astonishment that his own and his chum's remarks might have caused, "we don't propose to instruct the members of the third class in the way they shall perform their duties toward the members of the fourth.
But often the new man arrives with a conviction that he will have to submit to a certain amount of good-natured hazing by his class elders. Yet this man, from having been spoiled more or less at home, is "fresh." In this case he is called only "touge." Hence it is a far more hopeful sign to be "touge" than to be "ratey."
"Don't you know how to wipe a grin off your face?" "I'm not sure, sir," Dan admitted. "Mister, you are wholly touge! I'm not sure but that you're a ratey plebe as well." Thereupon Youngster Quimby plunged into a scathing lecture on the subject of a plebe being either touge or ratey. At first Dan listened with a becoming air of respect.
"And for being a bit worse than touge?" "Ratey." "Which did they call you?" demanded Belle. Dave started, then sat up straight, staring at Miss Meade. "I see that your tongue hasn't lost its old incisiveness," he laughed. "Not among my friends," Belle replied lightly. "But I can't get my mind off that uniform of yours that you didn't bring home.
Often a new man at the Naval Academy arrives with a firm resolution to resist all attempts at running or hazing. He considers himself as good as any of the upper class men, and is going to insist on uniformly good treatment from the upper class men. If this be the new man's frame of mind he is set down as being "ratey."
"Mister, what's your name?" demanded one of the visitors. "Dalzell, sir," replied Dan, standing at attention. "What's yours, mister? "Darrin, sir." "Stand on your head, mister." Dave obeyed with good-natured speed. "That will do, mister. Now, on your head, mister." Dan made a grimace, but obeyed. Then the other visitor demanded: "Do either of you fourth class men intend to try to be ratey?"
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