'Why, sir,' says he, 'I
am a waterman, and there's my boat,' says he, 'and the boat serves me
for a house. I work in it in the day, and I sleep in it in the night;
and what I get I lay down upon that stone,' says he, showing me a broad
stone on the other side of the street, a good way from his house; 'and
then,' says he, 'I halloo, and call to them till I make them hear; and
they come and fetch it.'

'Well, friend,' says I, 'but how can you get any money as a waterman?
Does any body go by water these times?' 'Yes, sir,' says he, 'in the way
I am employed there does. Do you see there,' says he, 'five ships lie at
anchor' (pointing down the river a good way below the town), 'and do you
see', says he, 'eight or ten ships lie at the chain there, and at anchor
yonder?' (pointing above the town). 'All those ships have families on
board, of their merchants and owners, and such-like, who have locked
themselves up and live on board, close shut in, for fear of the
infection; and I tend on them to fetch things for them, carry letters,
and do what is absolutely necessary, that they may not be obliged to
come on shore; and every night I fasten my boat on board one of the
ship's boats, and there I sleep by myself, and, blessed be God, I am
preserved hitherto.'

'Well,' said I, 'friend, but will they let you come on board after you
have been on shore here, when this is such a terrible place, and so
infected as it is?'

'Why, as to that,' said he, 'I very seldom go up the ship-side, but
deliver what I bring to their boat, or lie by the side, and they hoist
it on board. If I did, I think they are in no danger from me, for I
never go into any house on shore, or touch anybody, no, not of my own
family; but I fetch provisions for them.'

'Nay,' says I, 'but that may be worse, for you must have those
provisions of somebody or other; and since all this part of the town is
so infected, it is dangerous so much as to speak with anybody, for the
village', said I, 'is, as it were, the beginning of London, though it be
at some distance from it.'

'That is true,' added he; 'but you do not understand me right; I do not
buy provisions for them here. I row up to Greenwich and buy fresh meat
there, and sometimes I row down the river to Woolwich and buy there;
then I go to single farm-houses on the Kentish side, where I am known,
and buy fowls and eggs and butter, and bring to the ships, as they
direct me, sometimes one, sometimes the other. I sel