The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1922-02-02
faces. when

faces, when
Creakl There was rafting Of
messkits, thudding of fallen can.
teens, a general chorus Of groans
grunts, and disjointed exclamation
as the men grabbed their belongings
and sought to steady themselves in
their swaying hunks. I had just been
contentedly enjoying a stroll in the
old Kentucky hills, when-Creakl
The mighty boat gave a tremendous
lurch, and ouch! something landed ex.
actly on my nose! I raised my head
and opened my eyes in time to see
my drinking cup disappear under
Proctor's bunk. What became OF
that cup I am unable to tell you; oil
! know is that I never saw it again
and that the supply sergeant checked
it against me when was discharged
We tried to settle back in our hunks
and several times almost succeeded
but just about the time we were
ready to sleep, the boat would give
another lurch and postpone sleep in
definitely.
This was between four and five
o'clock in the morning, which, as
everybody knows, is the best time In
the morning for real "honest-to- good
ness" sleep, and we hated to give up
our chance at it, but we had it to do.
Clearly seeing that sleep was out Of
the question, we lay and told yarns,
when we did not have TO give too
much attention to holding on to our
hunks. The storm continued, with
varying intensity all day, so we had
ample time to tell all the tales we
knew, or TO talk of serious things if
We felt so disposed-not many did
that, of course.
However, we could not stay in our
hunks all day, and so arose about
eight o'clock and staggered, lurched,
or tumbled into the mess hall. Here
we found ourselves doing all the cal
isthenic exercises in the course Of n
minute or two. Our tables had be-
come useless and had been removed
that we might have more room to
perform. We had bushels of fu,.
conveying our food to our mouths
Frequently a sup of coffee that had
started straight to a fellows mouth
was seized with a sudden impulse to
go to the right or the left and de-
parted thither, leaving the would-be
drinker to smack a dry mouth. 1t
was so with other foods; they left us
unceremoniously and without warn.
ing, but the soup and coffee drinkers
were the worst sufferers. Any one
who was not himself too busy might
laugh at the other fellow.
This performance, which l have so
briefly and inadequately described,
was repeated, with sligh variations,
the two following meals and you may
imagine that things were considera-
bly, unused up" by the time we had
completed performance number three.
Pools of soup or coffee, or both,
broken china, scraps of bread and
armies of navy beans, together with
various odds and ends, including eat
ing utensils, Uttered the floor.
On most Of the uniforms could be
seen the unmistakable evidence of
the wanderings of misdirected food.
This last mentioned fact was hard on
the pride of lot of folks-fellows
who had just donned new sod" with
the fond expectation of making a
favorable impression on certain very
impressionable folks back home.
Still there was little harm done be-
yond the general disarrangement Of
the mess hall and the litter made
there. In two hours everything was
again spick and span from stem to
stern and the u. S s. Zeelandia was
tumbling right along as if nothing
unusual had happened.