“See here,” said Roy. “Isn’t there something I can do to help you? I can add pretty well and write a plain hand, and I’m looking for a job.”
The purser looked at him quizzically. “Tired of sightseeing already?” he asked.
“Not a bit of it,” said Roy. “I’m going to see everything in this town that’s worth seeing. But you’re loaded down with work. I can see that. And if there’s anything I can do to help you, I want to do it. The sightseeing can wait. What shall I do?”
“If you really mean it,” said the purser, “you can help me an awful lot. Just read these memoranda to me while I check the entries in my books.”
All that morning Roy and the purser worked in the latter’s office. Roy read memoranda, added figures, copied accounts, and did other tasks as directed. For a while Mr. Robbins checked up Roy’s work; but he soon found that Roy was careful and made no mistakes. When noon came the purser threw down his pen with a sigh of relief.
“Lad,” he said, “it would have taken me two days to do alone what the two of us have accomplished this morning. This just about clears up my work at this end of the trip. I can’t tell you how I hate all this business of accounts or how much obliged I am to you. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Pshaw!” protested Roy. “I haven’t done anything. I ought to thank you for teaching me something about a purser’s work. I want to know all about steamships, now that I’m going to live on one.”
“Good boy,” cried the purser. “I thought I wasn’t mistaken in you. I’ll back you to succeed, Roy.”
“I’ll need a whole lot of backing,” laughed Roy, “if I am ever to get anywhere with Captain Lansford. He sure has it in for me.”
“Just forget about him and keep on plugging,” said the purser. “You’ll swear by him when you know him better.”