hat he was not offended at Fritz's chaff. "It's only a lot o' nonsense
I picked up somehow or other out West."

"It is a very funny mixture," said Fritz. "It is a wonder to me who
imagines these absurd things and makes them up!"

"Right you air," replied the man. "A heap more curious it is than the
folks who write the clever things; and the queerest bit about it is,
too, that the nonsense spreads quicker and faster than the sense!"

"Human nature," said Fritz laconically, expressing thus his opinion of
the matter.

"You're a philosopher, I reckon?" observed the deck hand in reply.

"No, not quite that," answered Fritz, rather surprised at such a remark
from a man of the sort. "I merely form conclusions from what I see.
I'm only a clerk--and you?"

"I'm a deck hand now," said the other, speaking rather bitterly. "Last
fall, I was a cow boy, Minnesota way; next year, I'll be goodness knows
what. Once, I was a gentleman!"

"And how--" began Fritz, when the other interrupted him brusquely.

"Put it all down to the cussed drink, mister, and you won't be far out,"
said he, laughing mockingly, so as to disguise what he really felt by
the avowal; "but," he added, to turn the conversation, "you speak very
good English for a German, which I ken see you are."

"I was educated partly in England," said Fritz.

"Ah, that accounts for it. Been long in this country?"

"About six weeks," replied Fritz.

"Travelling for pleasure, or looking about you?" was the next query from
the deck hand, whom Fritz thought strangely inquisitive for an utter
stranger. Still, the man did not mean any harm; it was only the custom
of the country, as all new-comers speedily find out.

"I'm looking about for work," he answered rather curtly. "I wish you
would get me some."

Fritz thought this would have silenced his interlocutor; but, instead of
that, the deck hand proceeded with a fresh string of questions.

"What can you do?" he asked amiably, his smile robbing the words of any
impertinence. "You don't look like one who has roughed it much."

"No?" said Fritz, somewhat amused. "You would not think, then, that I
had been all through the terrible war we've had with France, eh?"

"Pst!" ejaculated the other. "You don't call that a war, do you? Why,
you don't know what a war is in your miserable, played-out old
continent! Look at ours, lasting nearly four years, and the battle of
Gettysburgh, with thirty thousand dead alone!