d, picking up my bag, was going
out of the door, when I met one of the owners of the brig.

"Ah, my lad, I came to ship another man in your place. We thought you
had backed out."

"Oh, no!" I replied. "I am just on my way to the docks."

"Then hurry, lad, you have no time to lose."

Well, that brig went to sea with my name on the Articles. That was what
I wanted. But I was not one of the crew. I went to a shipping office,
threw my bag into a corner, and told them that I wanted to ship on a
vessel. I was sent to an American ship to see the mate, and from him I
got an order to be shipped. The voyage was around Cape Horn to Callao,
Peru, from there to Australia, and thence to the United States. That
trip would be around the world and would take a year to complete.

CHAPTER XV

GOOD-BYE TO ENGLAND

Mrs. Massey was in charge of the shipping office, and, showing her the
order and saying that I would ship, I walked out, and straightway back
to the dock I went. I found the vessel that I really wanted. It was the
packet-ship Rhine, bound for New York with emigrants. From the mate I
got an order to be shipped from a certain office. I went to Massey's for
my bag, and, as I picked it up and started for the door, Mrs. Massey
asked me if I had backed out, and I curtly told her that I had. Then she
showed her good breeding. Such language I never heard a woman use
before. "-- --, -- who enticed you from this office? -- -- --!" Two
young men happened to be standing in front of the door. "-- are these
the men?" she asked. "Yes," I answered, and what a tongue-lashing those
two fellows got! In the meantime I walked off. I found the right office
and shipped for New York. I received an advance note of two pounds ten.
A young man in the office offered to take me to a small boarding-house,
and arriving there, I was introduced to the landlord. He was an old
sailor, a native of Chile, and the fact of my having lived there made us
friends at once. I made a bargain for two days' lodging, a straw
mattress, sheath knife, tin pot, pan, and spoon. Besides, he was to have
five shillings extra for cashing my advance note. The difference he paid
me in cash. Then I went to the post-office and bought an order for every
cent I had, made payable to Jennie Bell, and, remaining in the house
until the sailing, I wrote a letter to Jennie, merely stating that I
would be in New York four weeks from that time. The money-order was
inclosed and the le