“And when that is done you’ll have a few instructions in folding your things and stowing them away in your bag.” 

 “Fold our things!” exclaimed Ned. “Why can’t we hang them up? They’ll get all wrinkled if we fold them.” 

 “Not if you fold them the way I show you,” was the reply. 

 The officer then led the new recruits to the barracks, where each one was assigned to a certain 73 hammock in the dormitory on the second floor. There were hammock hooks on the walls, just as there are on board a ship, and in a little while Ned, Frank and the others, after they had stenciled their clothes, were shown how to unlash the hammocks which were trussed up neatly out of the way. 

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 Then they were given instructions in putting away the hammocks in ship-shape fashion. 

 “I’ve never slept in a hammock, except to doze off on an afternoon of a summer day under the trees,” remarked Frank. 

 “Neither have I. I wonder how I’ll like it?” returned his brother. 

 “Oh, there isn’t any finer bed going!” exclaimed the petty officer, enthusiastically. “You’ll find them comfortable here, even in barracks, but when you get aboard a ship, and find your hammock swaying to the motion, why say! you’ll be sorry to hear the breakfast call!” 

 “Not much I won’t!” exclaimed a fat, jolly-looking lad who probably had a good appetite. 

 Ned and Frank had noticed that the hammocks provided at the navy yard barracks of the Norfolk training station were not like the ordinary hammock in which magazine illustrators like to depict pretty girls with a book and a box of candy. The sailors’ hammocks were made of stout canvas, and each one was provided with a 74 well-made hair mattress. The United States isn’t taking any chances on his boys’ going without a good night’s sleep. It makes every provision for their reasonable comfort, though there are no “fal-de-lals,” as Ned observed. 

74

 “But then, who wants them?” asked Frank. 

 “Certainly no one on a battleship,” answered his brother. 

 In addition to the mattress in the hammock there were two woolen blankets of good quality. 

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