e the
captain of the transport.

"See here, my man, you are already sentenced for fifteen years, and
it's a serious offense to strike a man on the high seas."

"I didn't strike him on the high seas, sir, I struck him on the jaw."

The captain was baffled, but went on:

"What did you hit the man for?"

"He argued with me. I can't stand it to be argued with."

"But you shouldn't strike a man and split his mouth open just because
he disagrees with you," said the captain severely.

"I just don't seem to be able to stand it to have a guy argue with me,"
he replied, not abashed in the slightest.

"Well, you go to your bunk. I'll think it over and tell you in the
morning what I'll do about it," said the captain, and turned away.

But the man waited. The captain, seeing this, turned and said: "Well,
what do you want?"

"All I got to say, captain, is that you mustn't let any of them guys
argue with me again, for if they do I'll do the same thing over if you
give me fifty years for it. I just can't stand it to have a man argue
with me."

Silhouettes of Sunshine? France is full of them. There were the
fields full of a million blood-red poppies back in Brittany, and the
banks of old-gold broom blooming along a thousand stone walls; there
were the negro stevedores marching to work, winter and summer, rain or
shine, night or day, always whistling or singing as they marched, to
the wonderment of French and English alike. Their spirits never seemed
to be dampened. They always marched to music of their own making.
There was that baseball game, when an entire company of negroes,
watching their team play a white team, at the climax of the game when
one negro boy had knocked a home run, ran around the bases with him,
more than two hundred laughing, shouting, grinning, singing, yelling
negroes, helping to bring in the score that won the game. Then there
was that Sunday morning when several white captains decided that their
negro boys should have a bath. They took their boys down to an ocean
beach. It was a bit chilly. The negroes stripped at order, but they
didn't like the idea of going into that cold ocean water. One captain
solved the difficulty. He took his own clothes off. He got in front
of his men. He lined them up in formation. Then he said: "Now, boys,
we're going to play that ocean is full of Germans. You stevedores are
always complaining about not getting up front, and you tell me what
you'd do to t