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Within The Enemy's Lines SERIES: The Blue and the Gray--Afloat

- Oliver Optic

When the cook of the Florence, usually the skipper of the craft, was engaged in the practice of the culinary art, he seated himself on what looked like a box in front of the stove. But the interior of this box was really a part of the cabin, for it contained the feet of any one occupying the berth on the starboard side. The cookroom had no end of bins, lockers and drawers to contain the variety of provisions and stores necessary to get up a dinner for the skipper and his guests, when he had any. And even all these places could not contain everything that was needed on board. Under the two berths were large, though not very deep, lockers, one of which contained the jib-topsail of the craft, and other spare sails, while the opposite one was the fuel locker of the sloop.
As the boat had not been used for a long time in cruising, the fuel receptacle was empty, though a spare gaff-topsail had been thrown into it. This locker was big enough to admit the body-corporate of the skipper.

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