grounds, and at midnight on the eve of July 1st he fired a salute. It
aroused the entire garrison, and for a week the empty window
frames kept the glaziers busy.

About 1878 or 1879 there was a famine in Ireland. The people of
New York City contributed provisions for the sufferers, and to
carry the supplies to Ireland the Government authorized the use of
the old _Constellation_. At the time the voyage was to begin each
cadet was instructed to consider himself as having been placed in
command of the _Constellation_ and to write a report on the
preparations made for the voyage, on the loading of the vessel, and
on the distribution of the stores. This exercise was intended for the
instruction of the cadets; first in the matter of seamanship and
navigation, and second in making official reports. At that time it
was a very difficult operation to get a gun out of the port of a
vessel where the gun was on a covered deck. To do this the
necessary tackles had to be rigged from the yard-arm and the yard
and mast properly braced and stayed, and then the lower block of
the tackle carried in through the gun port, which, of course, gave
the fall a very bad reeve. The first part of McGiffin's report dealt
with a new method of dismounting the guns and carrying them
through the gun ports, and so admirable was his plan, so simple
and ingenious, that it was used whenever it became necessary to
dismount a gun from one of the old sailing ships. Having,
however, offered this piece of good work, McGiffin's report
proceeded to tell of the division of the ship into compartments that
were filled with a miscellaneous assortment of stores, which
included the old "fifteen puzzles," at that particular time very
popular. The report terminated with a description of the joy of the
famished Irish as they received the puzzle-boxes. At another time