“Very well,” continued Mr. Lowington, when the students were formed in two lines.  “Every boy in the starboard watch whose number is divisible by four, step forward one pace.  Number three in the port watch, do the same.  Mr. Mapps, oblige me by seeing that every alternate boy in the line steps forward.”

“The line is formed, sir,” replied the instructor, when he had carried out the direction of the principal.

“Each watch is now divided into two parts—­the first and second parts, as they will be called.  Now, young gentlemen, the clothing will be distributed, and each student will put on his uniform at once.”

The four lines were then marched down into the steerage, each under the charge of an instructor, to a particular locality, where the head steward and his assistants had deposited the clothing for each watch and quarter watch.  The uniform consisted of blue seaman’s pants and a heavy flannel shirt or frock, such as is worn in the United States navy.  To each student the following articles were served out:—­

1 pea-jacket. 1 blue cloth jacket. 1 pair blue cloth pants. 1 pair blue satinet pants. 1 blue cap. 1 straw hat, of coarse, sewed straw. 1 Panama hat, bound. 2 knit woollen shirts. 2 pair knit woollen drawers. 2 white frocks. 2 pair white duck pants. 4 pair socks. 2 pair shoes. 2 black silk neck-handkerchiefs.

These articles were given to the boys, and they were required to put on the every-day uniform; after which they were directed to arrange the rest of the clothing in the lockers belonging to them.  The contractor who had furnished the goods was present with four tailors, to attend to the fitting of the clothes, which were all numbered according to the size.  In a short time the students began to come out of their rooms, clothed in their new rig.  They looked intensely “salt,” and there was no end to the jokes and smart things that were said on this interesting occasion.  Even Shuffles hardly knew himself in his new dress.

The frock had a broad rolling collar, in each corner of which was worked an anchor in white.  The black silk neck-handkerchief was worn under the collar, and not many of the boys had acquired the art of tying the regular sailor’s knot.  Boatswain Peaks not only stood up as a model for them, but he adjusted the “neck gear” for many of them.  Bitts, the carpenter, and Leech, the sailmaker, who were also old sailors, cheerfully rendered a valet’s assistance to such as needed help.

Agreeably to the directions of Mr. Lowington, the shore suits of the students were done up in bundles, each marked with the owner’s name, and the head steward took them to Mr. Lowington’s house for storage.

Rigged out in their “sea togs,” the students began to feel salt, as well as to look salt.  Some of them tried to imitate the rolling gait of the boatswain when they walked, and some of them began to exhibit an alarming tendency to indulge in sea slang.