ON CERTAIN HUMANITIES 293 



Constitutiofi. They would bunt into a wave 

 and then give it up and go around. There were 

 steam vessels too, but my eyes was always for 

 the sailing vessels. On one of these of the old 

 Swallow-tail line that plied between New York 

 and London I see an officer in a shiny cap lean- 

 ing over the rail and I speaks up bold and asks 

 him if he don't want a cabin boy. 'A cabin boy,' 

 says he, 'you ain't much more'n a baby in arms 

 and we don't want none of those on this ship.' 

 I'm not so young as I look,' says I, and I lied to 

 him and says I was thirteen, when I was no more 

 than ten, 'and besides,' says I, 'I am real smart 

 and ready to do anything.' 'Go home to your 

 mother,' says he, 'and don't bother me no more; 

 we don't keep nus-girls here.' I ain't got no 

 mother, and no father neither,' I says, for I had 

 begun to lie and thought I might as well keep 

 on, 'and no home nuther.' 'Where do }ou 

 sleep ^' says he, looking at me kind o' curious-like. 

 'Oh, any old place about the dock,' I says care- 

 less-like, 'sometimes in one place and sometimes 

 in another.' 'Well,' he says, 'you can come 

 aboard and wait till the old man comes, and tell 



