World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
And the strange part about it is, that it seems like Sunday. The Lord
made the water so rough that we almost got seasick. I do not know
whether it made people more or less religious. I didn’t go in, because
the fresh air seemed better for seasickness than a sermon would be. The
waves were dashing over the prow and tossing buckets of water up on the
deck, so I got on my waterproof outfit. You know, there is a system to
the waves. The longer one watches them, the surer one gets, but it’s
with the waves as with human nature. The laws governing them are so
complex that one cannot discover them in a single short life. There was
a good singing festival in the evening.
Good night.
_Monday, July 2._
We have entered the danger zone. The life boats are swung out; the guns
are uncovered, and the men beside them ready. Passengers are requested
to sleep on deck with their clothes on and life preservers near at hand.
The day is clear and calm and excellent for submarine fishing. This
evening as the sun was setting, two whales spouted on the starboard sky
line—get that “starboard.” Some claimed it was a sea battle between two
submarines; others mentioned water spouts. A few of the _blasés_ who
were nearsighted, said it was imagination. Everybody was a trifle
nervous.
The people down in the steerage have great times. We sit up and watch
them play buzz and elephant, and when the idea of the game is grasped we
imitate them. Buzz is played by three men standing in a row. The middle
man wears a hat. He puts his hands up to his mouth and buzzes like a
hornets’ nest and then slaps the face of one of the other men. The man
who is hit tries to knock off the hat. If the buzzer ducks quickly, the
hat stays on. It is hard to describe, but fun to watch. The result is a
good complexion.
Today, I made a pencil sketch, assorted my letters of recommendation and
catalogued them, and read fifty pages of history. Never have I been
content to do so little. Each day I approach nearer to perfect idleness
by doing half as much as the day before, but at that, I am getting in
better condition all the time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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