pire her with more respect than
any other part of our costume.

The only other shoes in the room, excepting those worn by the
Americans and some few of the native men, were the proud possession
of a tiny girl eight years old. This fashionable young person boasted
also a European hat of coarse white straw stiffly trimmed with blue
ribbon and blue ostrich tips. That the feathers had a wofully limp,
depressed, and bedraggled appearance; that the ribbon was obviously
cotton; and the straw of the coarsest weave, in no wise detracted
from the glorious knowledge that it was a hat, a real hat such as
the _Americanas_ themselves were wearing. Sustained by this fact the
young lady, who, in addition to the shoes and millinery, wore only
a single other garment, comported herself with great dignity. Even
in the trying circumstance of passing between one and the light,
she was quite unconscious of anything amiss, the proud assurance
of being dressed in the height of style as to her head and feet,
precluding all worry as to minor details.

Among others met that afternoon at the Headquarters Building was a
Spanish gentleman of charming manners. He invited our party from the
ship, and the officers stationed in town, to stop at his house on
our return to the launch and have some refreshments, an invitation
we gladly accepted. So the courtly Castilian, beaming with hospitable
intent, hurried ahead to prepare for our coming, we following shortly
after in his footsteps. But to the young Spaniard's ill concealed
chagrin and our own embarrassment, the whole Filipino contingent
accompanied us to the house. Fully as many more natives gathered at
every available door and window, while outside the band, which had
brought up a tuneful and triumphant rear, played the "Star Spangled
Banner." After all had partaken of Senor Montenegro's enforced
liberality, we repaired to the launch, accompanied by almost the
entire population of Misamis, and amidst a shrill chorus of "_Hasta
la vista_," and "_Adios_," we steamed back to the _Burnside_, whose
twinkling lights shone out dimly against the evening sky.

The next morning a party of Signal Corps men, accompanied by a guard
of fifteen soldiers from the fort, sailed at peep o' day in the ship's
launches, the two in tandem towing a native _banca_ loaded with cable,
which was to be laid in the Lintogup River and upper Panguil Bay,
a stretch of water too shallow for the _Burnside_ herself to attempt
its na