nd this I believed to be something of a feat, for
I felt giddy enough while accomplishing it. I would have extended my
enterprise by an attempt to ascend the topmast shrouds, but I was never
allowed time, as the voice of either captain or mate would reach me from
below, usually summoning me with an oath, and ordering me upon some
other business, such as to mop out the cabin, swab the quarter-deck,
black their boots, or perform some other menial act of service. In
fact, I had begun to perceive that the drunken old skipper had no
intention of teaching me anything of the seaman's craft, but had taken
me aboard as a sort of slave-of-all-work, to be kicked about by
everybody, but by himself in particular. That this was in reality his
design became every day more evident to me, and caused me disappointment
and chagrin. Not that I was any longer ambitious of being a sailor, and
could I have transported myself safely home again at that moment, it is
not likely I should ever afterwards have set foot upon a ratline. But I
knew that I was bent upon a long voyage,--how long or whither bound I
could not tell,--and even though I might be able to desert from the
_Pandora_ when she reached her port,--a purpose I secretly meditated,--
how should I act then? In a foreign land, without friends, without
money, without the knowledge of a trade, how was I to exist, even if I
could escape from the bondage of my apprenticeship? In all likelihood I
should starve. Without knowing aught of seamanship, I should have no
chance of getting a passage home again; whereas, if I had been allowed
to practise with the rest, I might soon have acquired sufficient
knowledge to enable me to "work my passage," as it is termed, to any
part of the world. This was just what I wanted, and it was on this
account I felt so much aggrieved at finding it was the very thing I was
not to be taught.

I had the hardihood on one occasion,--I know not what inspired me,--to
make a remonstrance about this to the captain. I made it in the most
delicate manner I could. My immediate answer was a knock-down, followed
by a series of kicks that mottled my body with blue spots, and the more
remote consequence of my "damned impudence," as the captain called it,
was worse treatment than ever.

I would soon have learnt to climb had I been left to myself, but I was
not allowed even to practise that. I was always called below by one or
the other of my tyrants, and with an oath