over that kept the rain from some goods lying at the
docks ready to be shipped. I think there must have been as many
fellows under that big cover as there were piles of goods. It was
while there that I thought for the first time very seriously about my
mother, and I began to cry. The other fellows heard me and kicked me
from under the cover; but that did not help my crying, however. I
smothered a good deal of it and walked up and down by the side of the
river all night. My eyes were swollen, and I was feeling very badly
when a sailor noticed me. He had been to sea and had just returned
home. He talked a lot about life on a ship--said if he were a boy, he
would not hang around the docks; he would go to sea.

"'Where's yer folks?' he said to me.

"'Ain't got none,' I said.

"'Where d'ye live, then?'

"'I don't live nowheres.'

"'Shiver my timbers,' he said, 'ye must have an anchorage in some of
these parts? Where d'ye sleep nights?'

"'Wherever I be when night comes on,' I told him.

"The sailor laughed, and said I was a lucky dog to be at home
anywheres.

"'See here, young 'un,' the sailor said, 'I've been up agin it in
these parts myself when I was a kid, and up agin it stiff, too; and
there ain't nothing around here for the likes of ye. Take my advice
and get out o' here. There's a big ship down here by the
docks--_Helvetia_. Sneak aboard, get into a scupper or a barrel or
something, and ship for America.'

"The idea of 'sneaking aboard' got very big in my mind, and I went to
Woolwich where the ship was lying; and I met a lot of other boys who
were trying to sneak aboard, too. I thought my chances were slim, but
I was going to have a try, anyway. These boys that were thinking of
the same thing, tried to get me to do a lot of things that I knew were
not right. There was stuff to steal and they knew how I could get it.
There were kind-hearted people around, and they wanted me to beg. When
they said the ship was going to sail, I got aboard and hid on the
lower deck.

"Two days after that I thought the ship was going to the bottom of the
sea, and I didn't care very much, for I had been vomiting, and it
seemed as if my heart was breaking, and I was sick--so sick that I
didn't care whether I was dead or alive. One of the sailors heard me
groaning and pulled me out by the leg. Then he looked at me and swore;
caught me by the neck and dragged me before the captain. I was so sick
I could not stand; but the captain