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to France. More than six months more would pass before any of them did any fighting, but they got better training in France than did the draft divisions that were trained entirely in this country.

A medical unit of the 101st was on board, and gave us the final vaccination of the series we had started in New York. The regimental band of the 101st also was aboard. After we got to see the band would assemble and play each afternoon on the windy foredeck. I don't know whether they played for our entertainment or just for practice, but we enjoyed it. One piece they played over several times was "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding". I had never heard it before.

Each afternoon tea was served on deck with it came sandwiches and two items that were new to me; English muffins and orange marmalade. The marmalade was the genuine bittersweet English kind, made from Valencia oranges. The insipid stuff that Crosse and Blackwell sends nowadays for the American trade is not worthy of being called by the same name. Breakfast also was a pleasure, for the British like substantial breakfasts and to my mind they make it better than they do the later meals. There I first encountered herring. Another new item that came on at later meals and about which I was less enthusiastic, was Brussels sprouts. They seem to have been created specially for the British dinner table.

Luncheon and dinner were announced by a bugle. With one finger on the piano I can still play over that bugle call, which I have never heard anywhere else. The bugler was a boy in sailor's uniform, with "Sea Scout" on the collar of his middy blouse. Until quite recently I never knew what a sea scout was. Now Mary, that well-informed woman, tells me that it was a sort of optional higher degree that British Boy Scouts could attain, somewhat as Mason can become a Shriner. On the printed menus at mealtime the geographic origin of the various items was often noted. Thus we got "Manx kippers," "Yorkshire bacon" et cetera. One morning the menu offered "Yarmouth bloaters". The name did not exactly make my mouth water, but they turned out to be herring, just cured a different way. Very good they were.