heavenly port afore I was old enough to
hail her; so I larnt to look on the ocean for a sort of step-mother--an'
a precious hard one she has been to me.

"The idee of leavin' Kitty so soon arter our marriage went agin my grain
considerable. I cruised along the docks for somethin' to do in the
way of stevedore: an' though I picked up a stray job here and there,
I didn't arn enough to buy ship-bisket for a rat; let alone feedin' two
human mouths. There wasn't nothin' honest I wouldn't have turned a hand
to; but the 'longshoremen gobbled up all the work, an' a outsider like
me didn't stand a show.

"Things got from bad to worse; the month's rent took all our cash except
a dollar or so, an' the sky looked kind o' squally fore an' aft. Well,
I set out one mornin'--that identical unlucky mornin'--determined to come
back an' toss some pay into Kitty's lap, if I had to sell my jacket for
it. I spied a brig unloadin' coal at pier No. 47--how well I remembers
it! I hailed the mate, an' offered myself for a coal-heaver. But I
wasn't wanted, as he told me civilly enough, which was better treatment
than usual. As I turned off rather glum I was signalled by one of them
sleek, smooth-spoken rascals with a white hat an' a weed on it, as is
always goin' about the piers a-seekin' who they may devower.

"We sailors know 'em for rascals from stem to starn, but somehow every
fresh one fleeces us jest as his mate did afore him. We don't larn
nothin' by exper'ence; we're jest no better than a lot of babys with no
brains.

"'Good mornin', my man,' sez the chap, as iley as you please.

"'Mornin', sir,' sez I.

"'Lookin' for a job?' sez he.

"'Through the big end of a telescope,' sez I--meanin' that the chances
for a job looked very small from my pint of view.

"'You're the man for my money,' sez the sharper, smilin' as innocent as
a cherubim; 'jest step in here, till we talk it over.'

"So I goes with him like a nat'ral-born idiot, into a little
grocery-shop near by, where we sets down at a table with a bottle atween
us. Then it comes out as there is a New Bedford whaler about to start
for the fishin' grounds, an' jest one able-bodied sailor like me is
wanted to make up the crew. Would I go? Yes, I wouldn't on no terms.

"'I'll bet you fifty dollars,' sez he, 'that you'll come back fust
mate.'

"'I'll bet you a hundred,' sez I, 'that I don't, for I've signed papers
as keeps me ashore, an' the parson has witnessed the deed.'

"So