wain in the navy who had the duty of taking a
ship's steamer with a crew to look after the ship's target at battle
practice. A target is a frame of canvas set up on a raft of logs. The
duty of the steamer was to stand off to one side and make a record of
the hits.

This boatswain likes to joke, to try out new men. On the run from the
ship he called the roll and said: "Now, boys, in this work one of you
will have to stay on the raft to count the hits. Of course it is
dangerous work. I won't say that it isn't. The man going may not come
back. The chances are"--he eyed them one after another--"that whoever
goes will never come off the raft alive. Now, I can name the one who
will have to do that work. But I don't want to have to name him. I'll
let you draw lots."

He took a sheet of paper and cut it into strips. His crew--all
apprentice boys, all fresh from the training-school--drew the slips. The
lad who drew the short slip was no better or braver to look at than most
of the others. He looked at his slip of paper and then in a sort of
wonder at the sea and sky.

He came back to his short slip. His lips trembled. He prayed to himself.
Then he went down into his blouse pocket and fished out a stub of a
pencil. He was whiter than ever, and shaking. "Can I have a sheet of
paper, sir?"

"What do you want a sheet of paper for?"

"I'd like, sir, to write a note to my mother before I go."

To pick out a few isolated instances from service records and shout:
"There is the proof of general efficiency, of courage, of--"
whatnot--that would be idle. These were not taken from the service
records. Officers and men in the turret explosion, in the destroyer
accident, in the raft incident, are mentioned here because the writer,
at different times, has cruised with them.

They all behaved well; but no better than they were expected to.

When I asked the boatswain in the raft case if he expected the boy to
quit, he said: "Quit! They never quit."

This talk of heroism and pensions in the same breath may not seem to
jibe; somebody is going to wonder if the man who thinks of the money
side of the navy in the beginning isn't going to think too much of it in
the end. But there is a point of view which should be reckoned with, and
a type of man, of a good fighting man, who should be listened to in this
matter. Why should not a man who risks his life in his daily calling
have the normal comforts and his family the ordinary necessities of