ing and how Larry and Ben are making out. It seems an age since I last set eyes on them."
"Your brother must be doing well, or they wouldn't have made him a captain. I wonder what ship they'll assign us to when we get to Manila Bay? I'd just as lief go on a gunboat, for they seem to be doing more lately than the big ships. They can get closer to the coast and go up the rivers."
"We'll have to go where we are sent, so far as that is concerned," Walter Russell answered. "But I should like to get on a gunboat, too," he added.
The day was an extremely hot one in the early part of June, and the Central, a large transport of the old-fashioned type, rolled and pitched lazily as she proceeded on her mission of transporting Uncle Sam's soldiers and sailors from San Francisco to Manila. She had on board a regiment of infantry from a northwestern state, a troop of regular cavalry, and about two hundred sailors, some newly enlisted men, and others transferred from the Atlantic Squadron, all bound for the seat of the Filipino rebellion.
Among the sailors transferred from the Atlantic Squadron to Manila Bay were Walter Russell and
