--now
General Tasker Bliss--was the only _attache_. As I walked round the
lonely halls and stairways, I might have parodied Louis XIV., and
said, "_Le College, c'est moi_." I had, indeed, an excellent steward,
who attended to my meals and made my bed. There was but one lamp
available, which I had to carry with me when I went from room to room
by night; and, indeed, except for the roof over my head, I might be
said to be "camping out." There was yet a month before the class of
officers was to arrive. This interval was more than occupied preparing
the necessary maps for my lectures, much of the time by my lonely
light. Owing to lack of regular assistance, a great part of the map
work was done by my own hands, often sprawled on the floor as my best
table; though I was fortunate in receiving much voluntary help from a
retired lieutenant, now Captain McCarty Little, then and always an
enthusiastic advocate of the College, who did some of the drafting and
all the coloring. Thus were put together three of the four maps which
afterwards appeared in my first book. The fourth, of the North
Atlantic Ocean, was begged of the hydrographer of the navy; a friendly
Rhode Island man.

Besides the maps, there were to be produced some twenty or more battle
plans. For these I hit on a device which I can recommend. I cut out a
number of cardboard vessels, of different colors for the contending
navies, and these I moved about on a sheet of drawing-paper until
satisfied that the graphic presentation corresponded with facts and
conditions. They were then fastened in place with mucilage. This saved
a great deal of drawing in and rubbing out, and by using complementary
colors gave vivid impression. In combats of sailing fleets you must
look out sharp, or in some arrangement, otherwise plausible, you will
have a ship sailing within four points of the wind before you know it.
Nor is this the only way truth may be insulted. Times and distances
also lay snares for incautious steps. I noticed once in an account of
an action two times, with corresponding positions, which made a
frigate in the meanwhile run at eighteen knots under topsails.

By such shifts we scrambled along as best we could our first year,
content with beef without horseradish, as Sam Weller has it; hitching
up with rope when a trace gave way, in the blessed condition of those
who are not expecting favors. But worse was to come. Besides the
general offence against conservatism by be