do but flop down on your bunk--or on the deck sometimes--and sleep. The
captain and I take watch on the bridge day and night, and outside of
this I do my own navigating and other duties, so time does not go
a-begging with me. However, we are still unsunk, for which we should be
properly grateful.

[Sidenote: War has become matter-of-fact.]

I have seen a little of Ireland and like New York State better than
ever. It is difficult to realize how matter-of-fact the war has become
with every one over here. You meet some mild mannered gentleman and talk
about the weather, and then find later that he is a survivor from some
desperate episode that makes your blood tingle. I would that we were
over on the North Sea side, where Providence might lay us alongside a
German destroyer some gray dawn. This submarine-chasing business is much
like the proverbial skinning of a skunk--useful, but not especially
pleasant or glorious.

JUNE 1.

[Sidenote: Glad to be in the big game.]

When I said good-bye to you at home, I don't think that either of us
realized that I was coming over here to stay. Perhaps it was just as
well. Human nature is such that we subconsciously refuse to accept an
idea, even when we know it to be a true one, because it is totally
new--beyond our experience. Pursuant to which, I could not believe that
my fondest hopes were to be realized, and that not only I, but the whole
of America, would really get into the big game. Oh, it is big all right,
and it grows on you the more you get into it.

Now, I realize that it is asking too much of you or of any woman to view
with perfect complacency having a husband suddenly injected into war.
But just consider--suppose I was a prosperous dentist or produce
merchant on shore, instead of in the Navy. By now you and I would be
undergoing all the agonies of indecision as to whether I should enlist
or no; it would darken our lives for weeks or months, and in the end I
should go anyhow, letting my means of livelihood and yours go hang, and
be away just as long and stand as good a chance of being blown up as I
do now. So I am very thankful that things have worked out as they have
for us.

[Sidenote: Little one is permitted to tell.]

There is very little to tell that I am allowed to tell you. The
technique of submarine-chasing and dodging would be dry reading to a
landsman. It is a very curious duty in that it would be positively
monotonous, were it not for the possibilit