They were all cheerful, and the decks resounded with merry chatter and whistling and song.
I turned to myself.

My hands were brown and smeared and bruised.

My uniform, once white, was streaked and stained with tar.

I wore shoes innocent of blacking and made after a pattern much admired among navvies.

I had an individual ache in every bone of my body, and I was hungry and was compelled to look forward to a dinner of odorous salt-horse, hard bread, and "ennuied" coffee, but I was happy--I had to admit that.