"Able seaman! you're so thin you have to stand twice in one place to make a shadow ... you've got the romantic boy's idea of the sea ... but, are you willing to do hard work from four o'clock in the morning till nine or ten at night?"
"Anything, to get to sea, sir!"
"—sure you haven't run away from home?"
"No-no, sir!"
"Then why in the devil do you want to go to sea? isn't the land good enough?"
I took a chance and told the captain all about my romantic notions of sea-life, travel, and adventure.
"You talk just like one of our German poets."
"I am a poet," I ventured further.
The captain gave an amused whistle. But I could see that he liked me.
"To-morrow morning at four o'clock ... come back, then, and Karl, the cabin boy, will start you in at his job. I'll promote him to boy before the mast."