costume during this period of the day consists of a pair of duck
trousers and a thin shirt. On special occasions even the shirt is
dispensed with. During warm weather it is delightful to splash around a
water-soaked deck, but there are mornings when a biting wind comes from
the north, and the keenness of winter is in the air, and then Jackie,
compelled to labor up to his knees in water, casts longing glances
toward the glow of the galley fire, and makes his semi-yearly vow that
he will leave the "blooming" service for good and go on a farm.

This scrubbing of decks and scouring of ladders put an extra edge on our
appetites, so we agreed with "Stump" when he said, "I feel as if I could
put a whole bumboat load of stuff out of commission all by my lonely."
"Stump's" appetite was out of proportion to his size.

When the boatswain's mate gave his peculiar long, quavering pipe and the
order "spread mess gear for the watch below," at 7:20, we of the watch
on deck realized that there was still forty minutes to wait. Every man's
hunger seemed to increase tenfold, so that even the odor of boiling
"salt-horse" from the galley did not trouble us.

Finally the order came, "on deck all the starboard watch"; followed by
the boatswain's mess call for the watch on deck. The scramble to get
below and to work with knife, fork, and spoon resembled a fire panic at
a theatre. It is first come first served aboard ship, and the man who
lingers often gets left.

The gun deck of the "Yankee," like the gun deck of most war vessels, is
Jack's living room. Here he sleeps, in what he facetiously calls his
folding-bed, which is swung from the deck beams above; here he enjoys
the various amusements that an ordinary citizen would call work; here he