ENSIGNS VERSUS MORPHEUS.

The future officers in the Ensign School awake early these dark mornings--so do all the other occupants of the dormitories in the Yard. The first expresses cause, the second result. From considerable experience the civilian students are coming to regard life near the good ship Matthews Hall as extremely rigorous, during the early morning hours especially. Shortly after the zero hour, so it seems to the startled sleepers, the night stillness is shattered by bravely blown reveille. The dreaming student is restored to full consciousness without lingering in any of the intermediate stages. The damage done, he turns over and waits for Morpheus to repair it, but very soon the trembling of the bed and the rattling of the windows as the ensigns double past below drives sleep away again. Mumbling an earnest prayer or so for the future bliss of the disturbers the victim begins to go to sleep once more, whereupon the nocturnal School lines up below his windows and does its calisthenics to the hearty voice of the one in command.

Such is the unhappy lot of those who room in the Yard dormitories. The Ensign School is apparently blissfully ignorant and wholly immune in regard to the Parietal Regulations, but one hesitates to think of the student's fate who should as successfully arouse the Yard some-time before dawn. If this nocturnal performance is necessary to the health and happiness of the ensigns, why cannot a more auspicious site be chosen for it? There are a dozen places in or near the Yard that could be selected with better consideration for the comfort of others. The war being over the students see no merit in the continued sacrifice of rest on their part, and since a change in the scene of activities cannot be deteriorative to the performance in any degree, they feel that their cause is just and should have prompt attention.