From that time on she punctuated her progress through the camp with exaggerated salutes to all the officers she encountered on the way.  This, of course, was quite a startling and undignified performance for one of her years, very embarrassing to me, as well as mystifying to the officers, who hardly knew whether to hurl me into the brig as vicarious atonement or to rebuke the flighty old creature, on the grounds of undue levity.  Most of them passed by, however, with averted eyes and a discountenanced expression, feeling, I am sure, that I had put her up to it.  Mother thought it quite amusing, and enjoyed my discomfiture hugely.  Then for no particular reason she began to garnish her conversation with inappropriate seagoing expressions, such as “Pipe down,” “Hit the deck,” “Avast,” and “Hello, Buddy!” Where she ever picked up all this nonsense I am at a loss to discover, but she continued to pull it to the bitter end.

“Hello, Buddy!” was the way she greeted the Jimmy-legs of my barracks after I had introduced her to him with much elaboration.  This completely floored the poor lad, and rendered him inarticulate.  He thinks now that I come from either a family of thugs or maniacs, probably the latter.  I succeeded in shaking the old thing for a while, and when I next found her she was demonstrating the proper method of washing whites to a group of sailors assembled in the wash room of one of our most popular latrines.  She was heading in the direction of the shower baths when I finally rounded her up.  She was a game old lady.  I’ll have to hand her that.  Her wildest escapade was reserved for the end of her visit, when I took her over to the K. of C. hut, and she challenged any sailor present to a game of pool for a quarter a ball.  When we told her that the sailors in the Navy never gambled she said that she was completely off the service, and that she thought it was high time that we learned to do something useful instead of singing sentimental songs and weaving ourselves into intricate figures.  This remark forced us to it, and much against our wills we proceeded to show the old lady up at pool.  She had been bluffing all along, and when it came to a showdown we found that she couldn’t shoot for shucks.  When the news spread around the hut the sailors crowded about her thick as thieves, challenging her to play.  She was a wild, unregenerated old lady, but she was by no means an easy mark, as it later developed when she matched them for the winnings, got it all back, and I am told by some sailors that she even left the hut a little ahead of the game.  I don’t object to notoriety, but there are numerous ways of winning it that are objectionable, and this old lady was one.  Mother must have been giddier in her youth than I ever imagined.