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The 101st Field Artillery was a National Guard unit from the Boston area, called into active service.  It was part of the 26th division, made up entirely of New England National Guard.  Although I did not know it then, it was the fourth American division to be sent over.  None of them were to do any fighting until more than six months later, but they got better training in France than the draft divisions that were trained in this country.

The regimental band of the 101st was on board.  Each afternoon it assembled and played 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 and over was "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding".  I had not 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 English like substantial breakfasts and know how to prepare them.  There I first met the herring, another food item that was new to me.  To finish the list of strange new foods let me mention Brussels sprouts.  I cannot praise British cooking very highly after breakfast (except for tea).  Brussels sprouts seemed to have been created speciaaly for the British dinner table.  Two novelties about the meals were (1) that luncheon and dinner were announced by a bugle.  The bugler was a boy in sailor's uniform, but on the collar of his middy blouse were the words "Sea Scout".  I never learned what a sea scout was until recently.  Now Mary, that well-informed woman, tells me that "sea scout" was a sort of optional higher degree that British Boy Scouts could take, somewhat as a Mason becomes a Shriner.  (2) The other oddity was ^[[that]] on the printed menus the geographis origin of the items was often noted.  Thus we had "Manx kippers", "Yorkshire ham" et cetera.  One morning we had "Yarmouth bloaters".  It did not sound appetizing, but it turned out to mean just another way of curing herring.  Very good they were.

My education was further advanced in the bar lounge.  They carried