We and the World: A Book for Boys. Part I

earka." ("Beg

h Pr

she too was an Eirisher.... They must be a bonny family when

he dock must be so contrived that the water may be admitted or excluded at pleasure, so that a vessel can be floated in when the tide is high, and that the water may run out with the fall of the tide, or be pumped out, the closing of the gates preventing its return. Wet-docks are formed for the purpose of keeping vessels

he life as that, the world's wonders (at least those of them which begin with the first four letters of the alphabet) must be all that I had hoped; an

uage and misunderstanding of speech. For the men who went to and fro in these docks, each his own way, jostling and yelling to each other, were men of all nations, and the confusion was of tongues as well as of work. At one minute I found myself standing next to a live Chinaman in a pigtail, who was staring as hard as I at some swarthy supple-bodied sailors with eager faces, and scant clothing wrapped tightly round them, chatting to each other in a language as strange

as I saw several lads who were dressed in suits the very counterpart of my own, I felt sure that my travelling companion had done

confused. I perceived plainly that a great deal of every-day sort of work went on in ships as well as in houses, with the chief difference, in dock at any rate, of being done in public. In the most free and easy fashion; to the untiring entertainment of crowds of idlers besides myself, the men and boys on vesse

n with till one learns seamanship," I thought, a

ol-room at Snuffy's. My hands were never likely to be more chapped at sea than they had been

an 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

-gazing greenhorn, a

stranger's appearance was calculated to inspire, "Please, sir

far too suggestive of Snuffy, when Snuffy w

r papers? What was your s

a ship yet, sir," sa

bit of my arm, and shoved me back from the edge of the dock till we stood alone. "Then where did ye steal your slops?" he hissed at me with

deeply into my trousers-pocket, as if feeling for the price of a "liquor," and the man having involuntarily allowed me a little swing for this, I suddenly put up my shoulders, and ran at him as if my h

bove me. As regards him, I suppose it was lucky that my fall jerked the shilling and the penny out of my pocket, for as the shilling rolled away he went after it, a

y affairs) I could explain that I had exchanged some good shore clothes of my own for what I had been told were more suitable to the work I was looking out for, and say further that though I had never yet been at sea, I was hardy, and willing to make myself useful in any way. But how could I tell whom to trust? I might speak fair to some likely-looking man, and he might take me somewhere and strip me of my slops, and find my leather money-bag, and steal that too. When I thought how easily my fellow-traveller might have treated me thus, I felt a thrill of gratitude towards him, and then I wondered how he had prospered in his search for work. As for me, it was pretty clear tha

how, thank God!" and sitting up among the beans I found that it was dark and foggy, but a

bonnet was like one could not tell, for it was comfortably tied down by a crimson handkerchief with big white spots, which covered it completely. Her face was as crumpled and as dirty as her clothes, but she h

be the matter wid ye, lying there those three

ng me by flicking at my sleeve) went on: "I'll not deceive ye, my dear. It was my own Micky that was on my mind; though now you've l

your son

of everything I would do for him, being always the boy f

s that hide on board ship, and get t

he one that leaves this in the highest of expictations, and is glad enough to get back to it in a tatt

icky'll come ba

and his washing no corricter than hers, though he'd more good nature in him over the accidents, and iron-moulds on the table-cloths, and pocket-handkerchers missin', and me ruined entirely with making them good, and no thanks for it, till a good-natured sowl of a foreigner that kept a

nly struck me that I was young and hearty, and that it would be almost a duty to share the contents of my lea

t was kind to me? Sorra bit nor sup but dry bread and water passed me lips till he

as well as I could, and turned

ee-barrow, Mother, that you may be sure

ut three days. He'll be gone fifteen

e went, he can't be very like me now. He must be

as she rocked herself among the beans, that I should have thought every soul in the docks would have crowded round us.

atience, God helping me, and one and another strange face going by. And then he comes along, cold maybe, and smells the coffee. 'Bedad, but that's a fine smell with it,' says he, for Micky was mighty particular in his aitin' and drinkin'. 'I'll take a dhrop of that,' says he, not noticing me particular, and if ever I'd the saycret of a good cup he gets it, me consayling me face. 'What will it be?' says he, setting down the mug, 'What would it

I. "And it must be pleas

and she relapsed into the lowest possible spirits, from which sh

ing, when there's folks, maybe, waiting for their coffee, and yourself

hich had been disordered by her lamentations, th

tually under the shadow of a big black-looking vessel which loomed large through the fog, and to and from which men were coming and going as u

s what I wrap round me shoulders when the nights do be wet, as

ide me for a few minutes? All the money I have is in a b

eplied Biddy, irately, "and don't g

s, I turned round and looked at the ship. Late as it was, people seemed very busy about her, rather more so than about any I had seen. As I sat, I was just opposite to a yawning hole in the ship's side, into which men were noisily running great bales and boxes, which other men on board were lowering into the depths of the vessel with very noisy m

ther," I said; "I coul

m the foolish woman to look at 'em. Barrin' th

icky, and was getting tired of him, an

know where this

rica way, and I insensed the cook-that was him that axed me where I bought my c

through my head, and in my passionate longing for help I

anything. Couldn't I stow away as Micky did? Couldn't I stow away on this one? I can work well enough when they find me out,

nt that would have gone so far with Biddy. If it had been a man who had been befriending me, I'm sure I shouldn't have played the fool, but it

iscovered that by some extraordinary jerk in the vehemence of the embrace which was Biddy's first response

that I would look out for Micky on the other side of the Atlantic, but I fear that she had made up her mind that we should meet, and that this went far towards converting her to my views for stowing away on the vessel lying alongs

t fool of a watchman that'll come parading and meandering up and down wid all the airs of a sentry on him and none of his good looks, and wid a sneaking bull's-eye of a lantern in his hand. He's at the end of the wharf now, purshuin' to him! Maybe I'll get him to taste a dhrop of me coffee before the bell rings. Many's the cup I gave to the old watchman before him, peace to his sowl, the kindly craythur! that never did a more ill-natured thing on his beat than sleep like a child. Hide now, darlin

ss to the admirable air of indifference with which Biddy was mixing herself a cup of coffee as the watchman approached. I say mixing advisedly, for as he came up she was conspicuously pourin

me dear, and a nast

hing to keep the dam

man like yourself to be having the laugh at a poor old cr

ell you," said the watchman; "and I begin my wor

ck. Take a dhrop of coffee,

issus; I've just

d be offering ye, wid a taste of somethin' in it

ou are so pressing. Thank ye,

hough at the moment I dared not

y, you make you

, and bedad! there's a dhrop or two left that's not worth the remo

, thank yo

that's far away!" said Bid

n the man (upon whom the coffee and whisky seemed to produce a roughening r

all the way to Lancashire for the improvement of our manners." And she

, raising her voice as she moved o

replied the watchman. "Go steady, missus. I hope

outed Biddy, in tones that rose above the rumbl

rutalness in his voice he reiterated, "You're a rum lo

wn her barrow to retort. But it was with deep gratitude that I found her postpone her own wrath

irony, and infinite tenderness. And I need hardly say that it was raised to a ringing pitch that would have reached my ears had they been buried under twenty tarpaulins, "God bless ye for ivermore! Good luck to ye

s retreating movements made me risk anoth

sight, and that she went neither walking nor running, but dancing; and a good high stepping dance too, that showed her sto

s if he would have split his sides. And even after he began to t

kle, it was perhaps because the