before that time.

After the hard-tack and coffee had been consumed--and it went to that
spot always reserved for good things--the lookouts of the other watch on
the port and starboard bridge and the patent life buoys port and
starboard quarter were relieved. As soon as the first streaks of dawn
Were to be seen a long-drawn boatswain's pipe, like the wail of a lost
soul, came from forward, and the order "scrub and wash clothes" given.

A day or two before the "Yankee" left the navy yard, one of the pretty
girls who had come over to visit her asked: "Where do you have your
washing done? It must require a great many washerwomen to keep the
clothes of this dirty [glancing rather disdainfully at her somewhat
grimy friend] crew clean." Though we knew that the luxury of a laundry
would not fall to our lot, we were at a loss as to the method pursued to
clean clothes.

We soon learned.

We who had been anticipating an order of this sort came running forward
with bundles of clothes that would discourage a steam laundry. This was
the first opportunity we had had to clean up. The forecastlemen led out
the hose, which was connected to the ship's pump, and, after wetting
down the forecastle deck (where all clothes must be scrubbed), we were
told we might turn to.

The "Kid," who was the youngest member of the crew aboard, very popular
with officers and men, and who afterward became the ship's mascot, said,
"How do you work this, anyway?" I confessed that I was in the dark
myself, but proposed that we watch "Patt," the gunner's mate, who had