If I had not seen the name painted on the steamer, I would not have thought of speaking to you and asking where she was going." "And if you had not spoken to me again, why, I would not have known anything about you, nor been able to put you in the way of something," replied the deck hand, more earnestly than he had yet spoken.
"You can do that ?" said Fritz eagerly.
"Yes; but wait till we get to Providence.

As soon as the old ship is moored alongside the wharf and all the luggage ashore, you come along of me, and I'll show you whar to go.

I shall be my own boss then, with no skipper to order me about." The man hurried off as he said these last words, in obedience to a hail from above--telling him to go and do something or other, "and look smart about it too"-- which had probably influenced his remark about being his own "boss" when he got to land; and Fritz did not see him again until the next morning, by which time the steamer had reached its destination.
To Fritz's eyes, Providence was more like a European town than New York, the more especially from his being accustomed to the look of seaports on the Baltic and banks of the Elbe; for the houses were mostly built of stone, and there was much less of that wooden, flimsy look which the newly sprung up cities of America possess.
This old-fashioned appearance is a characteristic of all the New England states--Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut--for, here the original "Pilgrim Fathers" settled down and built unto themselves dwellings as nearly like those they had left behind them as it was possible with the materials to their hands, their descendants seemingly keeping up the habit of building in like manner.

If this is not the case, then, most certainly, the old buildings of two centuries ago have lasted uncommonly well! Fritz waited to go ashore until his friend the deck hand should be disengaged.

He had seen him soon after they reached the steamer's wharf; and, again, a second time when the crowd of passengers, with the exception of himself, brought up from New York had all disembarked--the man telling him he was just going to "clean himself down a bit," and he would then be ready to take him to a decent place to stop, where he would not be charged too exorbitantly for his board.
And so Fritz waited on the steamer's deck alongside the quay, gazing with much interest at the scene around him.
There were not quite so many ships as his casual acquaintance had led him to expect when he told him he would "see heaps up thaar"; but, still, the port evidently had a large import trade, for several big vessels were moored in the harbour and others were loading up at the wharves or discharging cargo, the latter being in the majority, while lots of smaller sailing craft and tiny boats were flying about, transporting goods and bales of merchandise to other places further up the river.
He had hardly, however, seen half what was in view when some one tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned round.
It was his friend the deck hand of the red flannel shirt and blue check cotton trousers; but, a wonderful transformation had taken place in his dress! Clad now in an irreproachable suit of black, with a broad, grey felt hat on his head, the man looked quite the gentleman he had represented himself as once being.