"Well, you'll have to do a little. When there are no passengers on board, that is the time to put things in order."
"True enough. I am afraid I will be green."
"Were you never a deckhand before?"
"Never."
At this the clerk gave a low whistle.
"I don't know if Captain Hadley will like that or not. He is a very strict man, even though kind."
"I shall do my best to please him."
"Early in the spring we had two green hands, but they couldn't learn at all, and the captain said they were more bother than they were worth."
"I am sure I can learn—anyway, I mean to try."
"You certainly look bright enough to learn. The other fellows were illiterate foreigners and always tumbling over their own feet. One dropped a trunk on a passenger's foot and the other broke open a box with some fine dishes. That capped the climax, and the captain got rid of them just as soon as he could find some other hands to take their places," concluded Bart Sandwood.