He stopped for breath and found his companions, instead of following his example, were gazing at him with looks of disgust and astonishment.

One of them exclaimed: "Regard him, look at him!" While the other, with feigned pity, tapped his forehead with the tips of his fingers, as much as to say, "He is crazy, my brother." One of them then placed his hand on Paul's arm and asked him how long he had been engaged in scraping ship's bottoms.
"This is my first day," answered Paul, thinking he might have done something wrong.
"I thought so," responded his questioner.

"A few more mad men like you would ruin our work in the dock.

Why, at the way you are going the ship's bottom would be clean before night fall.

This is the way to do it," and he put his scraper against the side of the vessel and slowly and laboriously removed a single barnacle.