“Glad to see you again, Silburn,” the purser puffed. “It’s not so long since we cooled ourselves with ice cream in the ice-house down in Barbadoes; but I hear you’ve been seeing a good deal of the world since then.”
“Oh, a few corners of it,” Kit answered. “It’s hard to find a better part of it than our own country, though.”
“You’re right there!” Mr. Clark acquiesced, bringing his hand down on his fat knee with a bang. “You’re just right there, young man. But it’s a good plan to see how the other fellows live, to make us appreciate our own advantages. I’ve not been seeing much of it lately, for my part; just going up and down, up and down, among those black rascals in the West Indies. I’ve had a great deal too much work to do; it’s wearing me down to skin and bone.”
Kit and the Captain were inclined to laugh at this, considering the purser’s hearty appearance; but his face was as solemn as a judge’s.
“The work seems to agree with you pretty well, sir,” Kit suggested.
“No, it don’t!” the purser declared, giving his knee another sounding slap. “That’s a mistake; work don’t agree with anybody, in spite of all the twaddle about it. I don’t believe in work. My theory is that nobody should have to work at all. Every man should have an income of at least five thousand dollars a year, and live on his money. The trouble is things are not arranged right, and some of us get left. No, work is all humbug.”
It was impossible to tell from the purser’s round face whether he was joking or not. He certainly was a hard worker himself.
“The only concession I will make,” he went on, “is, that being compelled to work at all, it is better to do it well. I believe you go on that theory too, Silburn; that’s the reason I’ve come to see you. Although, as I say, I don’t believe in work, still when it has to be done I like to see it done well. I believe you have been defrauded by society, like myself, of the five thousand a year that every man is entitled to, and have to work a little for a living? And that being the case, how would you like to leave the North Cape and come and work for me?”
“For you, sir?” Kit exclaimed, naturally taken by surprise by the suddenness of the question. “On the Trinidad, do you mean?”
“Well, I mean for my company, of course,” Mr. Clark replied; “but with me, on the Trinidad. You see the situation is this. Our business has increased so much down among those islands, both in passengers and freight, that there is more work for the purser on the Trinidad than any one man ought to be asked to do. I am away behind in my work all the time, and that don’t do. So the company has consented to let me have an assistant. And as my assistant will be with me all the time, and I will be responsible for his work, it is only fair that I should have the privilege of selecting him. They see the force of that too; and the matter being left with me, I said to myself, young Silburn’s the sort of man I want with me, if I can get him. He attends to his business without any nonsense, and I’m going to hunt him up.