"No, we haven't."
"I'm going to start you out right. Will the captain let you off for a
while?"
"The cook's my boss ... as far as my time is concerned. I'm cabin boy."
My father gave the cook a couple of big, black cigars. I was allowed
shore leave till four o'clock that afternoon....
"--you need a little outfitting," explained my father, as we walked
along the dock to the street....
"I've saved up a couple of hundred dollars, which I drew out before I
came over."
"But, Father...."
"You need a lot of things. I'm going to start you off right. While you
were up in the cabin getting ready to go ashore I had a talk with the
cook.... I sort o' left you in his charge--"
"But I don't want to be left in anyone's charge."
"--found out from him just what you'd need and now we're going to do a
little shopping."
I accompanied my father to a seamen's outfitting place, and he spent a
good part of his two hundred buying needful things for me ... shirts of
strong material ... heavy underwear ... oilskins ... boots ... strong
thread and needles ... and a dunnage bag to pack it all away in....
* * * * *
We stood together on the after-deck again, my father and I.
"Now I must be going," he remarked, trying to be casual. He put a ten
dollar bill in my hand.
"--to give the boys a treat with," he explained .
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