We get orders to go south.

Shortly after breakfast the “Yankee” came to anchor outside of Provincetown, Mass.  An hour later a large man-of-war was discovered steaming toward us.  Rumors were rife at once, and the excitement increased when the vessel, which proved to be the gallant cruiser “Columbia,” passed close alongside, and the captain was observed to lean over the bridge railing with a megaphone in his hands.

“‘Yankee’ ahoy!” came across the water.

“Hello, ‘Columbia!’” replied Captain Brownson.

“I have orders for you.”

“Whoop! we are going to Cuba,” cried young Potter.  “It’s dead sure this time.  They can’t do without us down—­”

“Silence!” called out the executive officer, sternly.  “Corporal of the guard, see to that man.”

Poor Potter is sent below in disgrace amid the chuckles and jeers of his unsympathetic shipmates.  The little episode nearly earned him many hours of extra duty.

In the meantime the “Columbia’s” captain had communicated the welcome intelligence that we were to cruise to the southward at once to look for several suspicious vessels that had been sighted in the vicinity of Barnegat.  This promised action so strongly that a cheer went up from the crew.  This time even the officers joined in.

Very shortly after came the order “All hands on the cat falls,” at which every man Jack came running forward.  The blue-clothed figures poured up the companion-ways like rats out of a sinking ship, for “all hands on the cat falls” means up anchor, and up anchor meant new experiences, perhaps a brush with a Spanish man-of-war or the capture of a Spanish prize.  The anchor was yanked up and guided into place on its chocks in a hurry, and soon the “Yankee” was under way and headed southward.  As we passed the “Columbia,” the men of both ships stood at attention, feet together, hands at the side, heads up, silent.  So a ship is saluted in the United States Navy, a ceremony dignified and impressive, though not as soul-stirring as the American cheer.

The “Scuttle Butt Navigators,” or, as the “Yankee” boys called them, the Rumor Committee, were very busy that bright day in May.  According to them we were to sail seaward and discover Cervera’s fleet, the whereabouts of which was then unknown.  We were to sail south and bombard Havana.  The older, wiser heads laughed at such rumors, and said it was foolishness, but all were ready and anxious to listen to the wildest tales.

All the time the ship was getting under way the routine work was going on.  The sweepers had obeyed the order given by the boatswain’s mate, accompanied by the pipe peculiar to that order, “Gun-deck sweepers, clean sweep fore and aft; sweepers, clean your spit kits.”

At twenty minutes past nine the bugle sounded the first or officers’ call to quarters, a call that sounded like “Get your sword on, get your sword on, get your sword on, get your sword on, get your sword on right away!” Ten minutes later came “assembly,” and the men rushed to their places at the guns and their stations in the powder divisions.