quickly fixed the hammock, casting off the
shell and concealing it behind a black bag. We had barely finished when
the chief petty officer came up and examined the clews. He tested them
by applying his own weight, then gave the crestfallen and astounded
Potter a few terse words of advice about eating too much supper. Five
minutes later the deck was quiet.

The hard labor of the previous day--such labor as hauling and pulling,
handling heavy boxes and casks, and bales and barrels of provisions and
ammunition--had made me dead tired, and I slept like a log until
reveille. This unpleasant function occurred at three bells (half-past
five o'clock), and it consisted of an infernal hubbub of drums and
bugles and boatswains' pipes, loud and discordant enough to awaken the
seven sleepers. We roused in a hurry, and, with eyes scarcely open,
began to lash up our hammocks.

"Seven turns, no more, no less," bawled the master-at-arms. "Get just
seven turns of the lashing around your hammocks, and get 'em quick. If
you can't pass your hammock through a foot ring, you'll go on the
report. Shake a leg there!"

The rumor had gone about that it was the custom to "swat" the last man
with a club, and there was a great scramble. We found the hammock
stowers in the nettings, which were large boxes on the gun deck, and our
queer canvas beds were soon stowed away for the day. As the reveille
hour is too early for breakfast, coffee and hard-tack is served out by
each mess cook. The coffee is minus milk, but it is hot and palatable,
and really acts as a tonic.

The first order of the day is to scrub down decks and clean ship
generally, but, as the "Yankee" was still in the throes of preparation,
we were spared that disagreeable work and permitted to arrange our
belongings for the long voyage before us. In the service each man is
allowed a black bag about three feet six inches high, and twelve inches
in diameter, and a small wooden box, eighteen inches square, known as a
"ditty box," to keep his wardrobe in. All clothing is rolled, and
careful sailors generally wrap each garment in a piece of muslin before
consigning it to the black bag. In the ditty box are kept such articles
as toothbrush, brush and comb, small hand glass, writing material, and
odds and ends. Each bag and box is numbered, and must be kept in a
certain place. At first we thought it wouldn't be possible to keep our
clothing in such a small space, but experience taught us that