principally due to the fact that at this particular juncture a day
more or less made no appreciable difference in the outcome, while at
Christmas and New Year's every moment was of import.

Even before sunrise the natives were astir in preparation for the
great event. All of them discarded their tarred clothing, appearing
in natty white "_Americanos_" and dinky straw hats, while some even
sported swagger sticks. In the Philippines any white suit which
consists of well fitting trousers and a coat buttoning up to the
throat, as contradistinguished from baggy pantaloons with a _camisa_
worn on the outside, is called by the natives an "_Americano_,"
and is by them greatly admired from a sartorial standpoint.

Nearly all the Signal Corps employees, being men of social standing
because of their really princely salaries, fifteen gold dollars a
month, sported such suits, which with the addition of stockings and
neat tan shoes, instead of bare feet thrust carelessly into _chinelas_,
gave them the appearance of belonging to the native four hundred,
any one of them looking eligible for the high office of presidente or
secretario. There must have been many a flutter under modest _panuelas_
when the sixty young swells struck Zamboanga that day, with money
sufficient to buy unlimited _sorbetas_ and the little rice _potas_
so dear to the heart of Philippine maidens.

The jackies having shore leave were most picturesque, and, alas,
hot as well, in their blue flannel suits, with the round sailor cap
set at a jaunty angle on their heads; while the Signal Corps soldiers
and hospital men in fresh khaki, the officers in crisp duck, and the
women freshly starched and ironed, gave a holiday aspect even beyond
that of the fluttering flags aloft, as the ship had been dressed both
on Chrismas Day and New Year's, although the work had gone on with
unabated energy.

Indeed, some of the Irish sailors in the forecastle were overheard
talking together that morning, one of them saying, as he rammed his
tobacco down hard in his pipe with anticipatory joy in the smoke
to come:

"Sure, not that I am complainin' at the same, but will anny of yez
tell me why the ship's a-flutter with flags, and the lads all given a
holiday, and that old coffee-mill of a cable machine stopped grinding
for the once?"

"Because," answered a comrade with an expressive wink, "it's Garge's
birthday, Garge Washington, you know, the daddy of his counthry!"

"Oh, to be s