with swinging energy. Then they had to strike out right and left to
the order "Right!" "Left!" until the sergeant was satisfied. Next each
foot had to be lifted and put down quickly at the word of command;
then it was needful that the legs should he widely separated in a jump
and closed up with vigor; then the spinal columns swayed forward and
back and all the joints and muscles had something to do. This was
no laughing matter to any one, though it was funny enough from the
ordinary standpoint of civil life. This medicine was taken day after
day, and seemed to vindicate itself.

It was esteemed a good thing for the boys to perspire from
exercise. There was no trouble, though, when south and west of
Honolulu, in having substantially Turkish baths in the bunks at
night, and there were queer scenes on deck--men by hundreds scantily
clothed and sleeping in attitudes that artists might have chosen to
advantage for life studies. It was necessary for those who walked
about, during the hours thus given to repose, where the enlisted
men took their rest with their undershirts and drawers around them,
to be careful not to tramp on the extended limbs. Once I feared I had
hit a soldier's nose with my heavy foot when stepping over him in a
low light, and was gratified that my heel had merely collided with
a big boy's thumb. He had gone to sleep with his head protected by
his hand. I paused long enough to note that the sheltering hand if
clinched would have been a mighty and smiting fist; and I was doubly
pleased that I had not tramped on his big nose.

Not infrequently, when we were steaming along the 20th parallel of
north latitude--that is to say, well in the torrid zone--and were
wafted by the trade winds that were after us at about our own speed,
heavy showers came up in the night and spoiled the luxurious content of
those who were spread on the decks. The boys got in good form through
the longest journey an army ever made--for the distance is greater from
the United States to the Philippines than from Spain--and every week
the skill of a soldier in acquiring the lessons of the climate and the
best methods of taking care of himself will become more useful, and the
tendency will be to settle down to the business of soldiering, make the
best of it and accept it as educational--an experience having in it the
elements of enduring enjoyments. "The days when I was in Manila, away
down in the south seas, but a little way from the isl