There was no question about my beingup against it,
and a promise is a promise.
Up he came, but at anangle that took him still
further from the ship. Next followed the two wads of waste,and they also were rammed
well home. Very hearty and very blunt, he held out his handto say good-bye. If you
were andunluckily got a crack on the head, you simply fell off, and the trainpassed
on.
In a very nasal voice he informed me he was the
Mate. I soon fell into things and became frightfully keen at my job. There was no
question about my beingup against it, and a promise is a promise. Well, says my
bucco, of the collarless flannel shirt, I guess, inthis ship, we find our own
cabins. Arriving atTilbury Dock, I asked a porter wearily where the Knight boat was
lying.
The white men studiously kept on talking, and so
managed to keepthe others in their seats. An hour or so later I felt that horrible
and unmistakable feeling of aship pooping.
But it was the WhiteStar Line, the summit, at that
time, of my ambitions. They were made of just rough hewn timber.
Anything their childlike minds cantgrasp, its Oh,
Massa, he be Ju-ju too much. Wepicked him up, and some of the more prominent thorns
out, and continuedthe race. Perhapsthat was why I was so successful in making such
long stretches withoutbeing thrown off! All I wanted was to get my head down, and
forgetI was alive.
The white men studiously kept on talking, and so
managed to keepthe others in their seats.
It was not long before I was on board ship, and in
my own element again. His reply was, When are you going to turn to? I had allowed
three minutes for this operation.
Just let them know you are some sort of
achap.
Very hearty and very blunt, he held out his handto
say good-bye. Thefirst chap to put a spoonful in his mouth just went up like a
rocket.
What a lark, he blurted out, to fire that gun
somenight.
Right, said I, myone anxiety being to get to my
cabin, and try to forget this damnablefever. Thefirst chap to put a spoonful in his
mouth just went up like a rocket. This time he asserted,a little more forcibly, that
he WAS the Mate.
He is nota tramp, as is generally known at home. I
did, and rambled off toAustralia with slightly less than half an outfit. Theres a
barrel on a stump, where youturn off for somewhere else.
I told him I was carrying a form, and that,
furthermore he had sent mefor it.