d as we went, and before I
was fully aware of it we were aboard a vessel which the boys recognized as
the _Bonadventure_. I paid the carriers, who went away at speed, and
asked a wooden-faced seaman, who seemed to be alone, where I could find
the captain. He at once cut short my search by the tone in which he
observed, "The captain! He's having his dinner at the present." I was
rebuked, and stood by. (I had still to witness the multitudes who want to
find the captain of a ship in port.)

I took a look at the ship, but felt lost as I did so. She was large, and
of vague shape. I could not determine where she began and where she left
off. A pall of coal covered everything. Heaps of cinders, which a casual
glance described as of some seniority, lay against the deck railing. I saw
hut-like structures about me where I stood, amidships, as the boys had
said; but I feared to explore. At times some one with a plate or a jug
was seen stooping swiftly through their doorways--evidence indeed of the
captain's dinner-hour. Inaction, nevertheless, grew unpromising; and at
last I asked an officer, as I rightly thought him, who had come out
to keep an eye on several blasphemous and strongly individual beings
with large spades, whether I might see the captain. When he heard my
business, he quickly took me to him. I found myself speaking to a quiet,
smiling, and enviably robust man who, to my relief, was not mystified
by my arrival. He set me at my ease, told me that I should sign on as
a member of the crew to-morrow, and allowed me to stay on the ship
meanwhile. I was glad of this, being weary of quests for the time being.

Not quite at home, as may be gathered, I went out on deck, and watched the
tips in action; admired the mimic thunder--first the abrupt and rending,
shattering crash, then the antistrophe of continued rollings--which each
truckful of coal makes as it is tumbled into the shoot and thereby into
the ship's holds. Truck after truck was drawn up, the pin knocked away
from the end board and the coal hurled, its dusky clouds fuming out,
into the ship: its atmosphere did not seem to strain or irritate the
breathing organs of those worthies with the spades, and the pipes,
whose vague labouring silhouettes enlivened the gloom. Engines plied
constantly beside the docks with long trains of coal. As if expressing
itself, one emitted a peculiar twofold groan. All this, of course,
ancient history, but I was new to it. It seemed like