256 ALONGSHORE iv 



voluntarily under the command of the senior petty 

 officer present (their footsteps had the effect of a 

 dead march), and returned in as good order till 

 they were dismissed; whereupon with one accord, 

 like rabbits, they bolted into the nearest public- 

 house. But they had finished their ceremony 

 perfectly, nevertheless. Civilians would have 

 straggled away. One morning it was observable 

 that all the bluejackets on leave were in their best 

 jumpers. They had the regulation creases about 

 them. Near mid-day the church bells struck up a 

 peal. Soon a regular quick tramp of feet was 

 heard, and there wheeled round the corner a cab 

 hauled by a score of Navy chaps on a rope. 

 Inside of the cab one caught sight of a bluejacket 

 — very blue In the black cab — and of his bride 

 with white flowers. Across the Front they went 

 at a quick trot, as if to defy the sea that was soon 

 to separate husband and wife; thence round 

 another corner to their new home. I heard more 

 than one woman say that she would have jumped 

 out of the cab; but these were not the wives of 

 Navy chaps. We couldn't have done It; we 

 should have fallen out half-way, saying, 'I be 

 puff-blowed !' and perhaps have left the cab 

 standing. 



