"And what made them bring ye? For you're no sailor."
"No, indeed!" Roger answered, laughing. "But I was on the wharf looking out for chances, and some boy, the cabin boy they called him, was not to be found, so I offered to go; and another boat belonging to this place is to bring the right boy when it comes after us."
"But what made you come here? Have you no friends in London?"
"I've no friends anywhere. I want work, and in London there are so many looking out for jobs, that a stranger has no chance; so I said to myself, 'Here is a chance,' and so I offered, and they couldn't wait, and didn't like to go without a boy."
"And what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know yet; anything I can get to do."
"What did the sailors pay you?" asked Sparling, after a pause.
"Nothing at all," Roger said, laughing; "and enough, too, for all the work I did. Man, I got sick before we were out of the river, and I just lay like a log the whole way! I would have been thankful to any one that would have thrown me into the sea; and they thought I was shamming! One fellow beat me with a bit of rope—I'm black and blue with bruises; but at the time I didn't feel it, I was so bad. So, of course, they paid me nothing. I got the voyage, you know; and perhaps I may get a chance here."
"You're the lad for chances," said Avery, who was listening to the talk.
"My grandfather told me two rules, and he said if I kept to them I'd die a rich man. One is, 'Never lose a chance'; and the other, 'Earn your dinner before you eat it.' So far, I've minded them both. Why, how fast we've come! I'd no idea we had reached the village."