“Well, then,” answered Fritz, “I can speak and write three languages, keep books, and act as a good correspondent and manager.”
“I like that,” exclaimed the other admiringly. “You speak slick and straight to the p’int, without any bunkum or blarney, like some of them that come over here. But, what line have you run on in the old country?”
“The shipping business is what I know best about,” replied Fritz.
“Ah, that’s the reason, I suppose, you asked me if thar wer any ships up to Providence, hey, mister?”
“Yes,” said Fritz. “I have applied to all the houses in New York in vain, and I thought I would try my chance at some other seaport town.”
“Didn’t like going inland, then!”
“No,” he answered.
“And so you selected Providence?”
“I only did so from chance. If I had not seen the name painted on the steamer, I would not have thought of speaking to you and asking where she was going.”
“And if you had not spoken to me again, why, I would not have known anything about you, nor been able to put you in the way of something,” replied the deck hand, more earnestly than he had yet spoken.