nding
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 to the Chinaman as to me, their large lustrous eyes
returning our curiosity with interest, and contrasting strangely with
the tea-caddy countenance of my elbow neighbour. Then a turbaned Turk
went by, and then two grinning negroes, and there were lots of men who
looked more like Englishmen, but who spoke with other tongues, and
amongst those who loaded and unloaded in this busy place, which was once
of no importance, Irish brogue seemed the commonest language of all.

One thing made me hopeful--there were plenty of boys no bigger than
myself who were busy working, and therefore earning wages, and 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 me a good turn when he
rigged me out in slops. An incident that occurred in the afternoon made
me a little more doubtful about this.

I really had found much to counterbalance the anxieties of my position
in the delightful novelty and variety of life around me, and not a
little to raise my hopes; for I had watched keenly for several hours as
much as I could see from the wharf of what was going on in this ship
and that, and I began to feel less 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 vessel after
vessel lying alongside, washed out their shirts and socks, and hung them
up to dry, cooked their food, cleaned out their pots and pans, tidied
their holes and corners, swept and brushed, and fetched and carried, and
did scores of things which I knew I could do perfectly, for want of
something better to do.

"It's clear there's plenty of dirty work to go on with till one learns
seamanship," I thought, and the thought was an honest satisfaction to
me.

I had always swept Uncle Henry's office, and that