In the most free and easy fashion, to the untiring entertainment of crowds of idlers besides myself, the men and boys on vessel after vessel lying alongside, washed out their shirts and socks, and hung them up to dry, cooked their food, cleaned out their pots and pans, tidied their holes and corners, swept and brushed, and fetched and carried, and did scores of things which I knew I could do perfectly, for want of something better to do.
"It's clear there's plenty of dirty work to go on with till one learns seamanship," I thought, and the thought was an honest satisfaction to me.
I had always swept Uncle Henry's office, and that had been light work after cleaning the school-room at Snuffy's.

My hands were never likely to be more chapped at sea than they had been with dirt and snow and want of things to dry oneself with at school; and as to coal-carrying-- Talking of coals, on board the big ship, out of which great white bales, strapped with bars of iron, were being pulled up by machinery, and caught and flung about by the "unloaders," there was a man whose business it seemed to be to look after the fires, and who seemed also to have taken a roll in the coal-hole for pleasure; and I saw him find a tin basin and a square of soap, and a decent rough towel to wash his face and hands, such as would have been reckoned luxurious in a dormitory at Snuffy's.

Altogether--when a heavy hand was laid suddenly on my shoulder, and a gruff voice said, "Well, my young star-gazing greenhorn, and what do you want ?" I replied with alacrity, as well as with more respect than the stranger's appearance was calculated to inspire, "Please, sir, I want to go to sea, and I should like to ship for America." He was not a nice-looking man by any means--far too suggestive of Snuffy, when Snuffy was partly drunk.

But after a pause, he said, "All right.

Where are your papers?
What was your ship, and why did ye run ?" "I have not served in a ship yet, sir," said I, "but I'm sure--" He did not allow me to go on.