CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.
The Rhode Island steamer was a splendid boat, Fritz found, when he cameto look about him; for, she was a "floating palace," every inch of her,with magnificent saloons and state-cabins stretching away the entirelength of the vessel fore and aft. A light hurricane deck was aboveall, on which the passengers could promenade up and down to theirhearts' content, having comfortable cane-bottomed seats along the sidesto sit down upon when tired and no gear, or rope coils, or othernautical "dunnage," to interrupt their free locomotion on this king ofquarter-decks, which had, besides, an awning on top to tone down thepotency of the western sun.
With three tiers of decks--the lowermost, or main, containing theengine-room and stowage place for cargo, as well as the men's quarters;the lower saloon, in which were the refreshment bars, and what couldonly appropriately be called the "dining hall," if such a term were notan anachronism on board ship; and, thirdly, the upper saloon, containingthe principal cabins and state-rooms, in addition to the gracefulpromenading hurricane deck surmounting the whole--the steamer had theappearance of one of those bungalow-like pretended "houses" whichchildren build up with a pack of cards. Only that, this illusion wasspeedily destroyed by the huge beam of the engine, working up and downlike a monster chain-pump on top of the whole structure--not to speak ofthe twin smoke-stacks on either side of the paddle-boxes emittingvolumes of thick, stifling vapour, and the two pilot-houses, one at eachextremity of the hurricane deck; for, like most American river steamers,the boat was what was called a "double-ender," built whale-boat fashionto go either backwards or forwards, a very necessary thing to avoidcollision in crowded waters.
Fritz could not but realise that the ingenious construction which he wasgazing at was essentially a Yankee invention, resembling nothing inEuropean waters.
If he had not yet been fully convinced of this fact, the eldritchscreech which the steam whistle shortly evolved, in obedience to thepressure of the captain's finger on a valve in the pilot-house forward--whence the vessel was steered--would have at once decided his mind onthe point. It was the most fearful, ear-deafening, blood-curdling soundhe had ever heard in his life!
Fritz thought something had happened--that the boiler was in danger ofbursting, or the vessel sinking at the least--but, on making a startledinquiry of the nearest person, he was reassured by learning that the"whistle," as the frightful noise was called, was only emitted incourteous salutation to another steamer passing in the distance, bounddown to New York; and soon, an answering squeal from the boat inquestion, mercifully tempered by the distance into a faint squeak thatlent more "enchantment" to its notes than was possessed by the one whichhad just startled him, corroborated the truth of this statement.
After enjoying the scenery from the hurricane deck for some little time,Fritz made his way below to the forward part of the main deck runninginto the bows, where he had noticed, while looking down from above, hisfriend the deck hand of the Garibaldi shirt and blue cotton checktrousers--or "pants" as the man would himself probably have called thesegarments.
He was busily engaged coiling down ropes and otherwise making himselfuseful, singing the while in a light-hearted way a queer sort of serio-comic and semi-sentimental ditty, the most curious composition Fritz hadever come across.
He, therefore, could not help laughing when the singer arrived at theend of his lay.
The man turned round at once on hearing the sound of his merriment.
"Nice song, that," said Fritz, as soon as he could compose his facesufficiently to speak. "Just the sort of tender tone about it that Ilike!"
"None o' your gas, mister," replied the other with a smile, which showedthat he was not offended at Fritz's chaff. "It's only a lot o' nonsenseI picked up somehow or other out West."
"It is a very funny mixture," said Fritz. "It is a wonder to me whoimagines these absurd things and makes them up!"
"Right you air," replied the man. "A heap more curious it is than thefolks who write the clever things; and the queerest bit about it is,too, that the nonsense spreads quicker and faster than the sense!"
"Human nature," said Fritz laconically, expressing thus his opinion ofthe matter.
"You're a philosopher, I reckon?" observed the deck hand in reply.
"No, not quite that," answered Fritz, rather surprised at such a remarkfrom a man of the sort. "I merely form conclusions from what I see.I'm only a clerk--and you?"
"I'm a deck hand now," said the other, speaking rather bitterly. "Lastfall, I was a cow boy, Minnesota way; next year, I'll be goodness knowswhat. Once, I was a gentleman!"
"And how--" began Fritz, when the other interrupted him brusquely.
"Put it all down to the cussed drink, mister, and you won't be far out,"said he, laughing mockingly, so as to disguise what he really felt bythe avowal; "but," he added, to turn the conversation, "you speak verygood English for a German, which I ken see you are."
"I was educated partly in England," said Fritz.
"Ah, that accounts for it. Been long in this country?"
"About six weeks," replied Fritz.
"Travelling for pleasure, or looking about you?" was the next query fromthe deck hand, whom Fritz thought strangely inquisitive for an utterstranger. Still, the man did not mean any harm; it was only the customof the country, as all new-comers speedily find out.
"I'm looking about for work," he answered rather curtly. "I wish youwould get me some."
Fritz thought this would have silenced his interlocutor; but, instead ofthat, the deck hand proceeded with a fresh string of questions.
"What can you do?" he asked amiably, his smile robbing the words of anyimpertinence. "You don't look like one who has roughed it much."
"No?" said Fritz, somewhat amused. "You would not think, then, that Ihad been all through the terrible war we've had with France, eh?"
"Pst!" ejaculated the other. "You don't call that a war, do you? Why,you don't know what a war is in your miserable, played-out oldcontinent! Look at ours, lasting nearly four years, and the battle ofGettysburgh, with thirty thousand dead alone! What do you think ofthat, hey?"
"Gravelotte had nearly as many," said Fritz quietly.
"All right, mister; we won't argy the p'int now; but you haven'tanswered me yet as to what you ken do."
"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 andstraight to the p'int, without any bunkum or blarney, like some of themthat come over here. But, what line have you run on in the oldcountry?"
"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 upto Providence, hey, mister?"
"Yes," said Fritz. "I have applied to all the houses in New York invain, 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 thesteamer, I would not have thought of speaking to you and asking whereshe was going."
"And if you had not spoken to me again, why, I would not have knownanything about you, nor been able to put you in the way of something,"replied the deck hand, more earnestly than he had yet spoken.
"You can do that?" said Fritz eagerly.
"Yes; but wait till we get to Providence. As soon as the old ship ismoored alongside the wharf and all the luggage ashore, you come along ofme, and I'll show you whar to go. I shall be my own boss then, with noskipper to order me about."
The man hurried off as he said these last words, in obedience to a hailfrom above--telling him to go and do something or other, "and look smartabout it too"--which had probably influenced his remark about being hisown "boss" when he got to land; and Fritz did n
ot see him again untilthe next morning, by which time the steamer had reached its destination.
To Fritz's eyes, Providence was more like a European town than New York,the more especially from his being accustomed to the look of seaports onthe Baltic and banks of the Elbe; for the houses were mostly built ofstone, and there was much less of that wooden, flimsy look which thenewly sprung up cities of America possess.
This old-fashioned appearance is a characteristic of all the New Englandstates--Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut--for, here theoriginal "Pilgrim Fathers" settled down and built unto themselvesdwellings as nearly like those they had left behind them as it waspossible with the materials to their hands, their descendants seeminglykeeping up the habit of building in like manner. If this is not thecase, then, most certainly, the old buildings of two centuries ago havelasted uncommonly well!
Fritz waited to go ashore until his friend the deck hand should bedisengaged. He had seen him soon after they reached the steamer'swharf; and, again, a second time when the crowd of passengers, with theexception of himself, brought up from New York had all disembarked--theman telling him he was just going to "clean himself down a bit," and hewould then be ready to take him to a decent place to stop, where hewould not be charged too exorbitantly for his board.
And so Fritz waited on the steamer's deck alongside the quay, gazingwith much interest at the scene around him.
There were not quite so many ships as his casual acquaintance had ledhim to expect when he told him he would "see heaps up thaar"; but,still, the port evidently had a large import trade, for several bigvessels were moored in the harbour and others were loading up at thewharves or discharging cargo, the latter being in the majority, whilelots of smaller sailing craft and tiny boats were flying about,transporting goods and bales of merchandise to other places further upthe river.
He had hardly, however, seen half what was in view when some one tappedhim on the shoulder, and he turned round.
It was his friend the deck hand of the red flannel shirt and blue checkcotton trousers; but, a wonderful transformation had taken place in hisdress!
Clad now in an irreproachable suit of black, with a broad, grey felt haton his head, the man looked quite the gentleman he had representedhimself as once being. His manners, too, seemed to have changed withhis outer apparel, the off-hand boorishness of the whilom "deck hand"having vanished with his cast-off raiment.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, sir," he said to Fritz, still,however, with the strongly accentuated "sir" he had noticed in those whohad spoken to him at New York, "but I've hurried up as quickly as Icould. Shall we now go ashore?"
"Certainly," said Fritz, "although you've not detained me, I assure you.I have had plenty to look at during the little time I've been waiting."
"Ah, you've not seen half of Providence yet," replied the other, as thetwo stepped from the gangway that led from the deck of the steamer on tothe stone quay alongside. "Why, some of the houses further up are finerthan those of Broadway!"
"This is your native place, I suppose?" said Fritz slyly.
"Yes," answered his companion, "but I do not flatter it on thataccount."
The two walked on, until presently the Rhode Islander stopped in frontof one of the smaller hotels. This looked, despite its lesserproportions, in comparison with its larger rivals, far more respectableand aristocratic--if such terms may be permitted to anythingappertaining to the land of so-called "equality" and "freedom," where,according to the poetical belief, there is no aristocracy save hat ofmerit and shoddy!
"Let's go in here," said the deck hand. "It is a great place for themerchants and sea-captains, and I might be able to introduce you to someone I know while we're having a drink."
"It's too early for that," said Fritz, feeling inclined to draw back,remembering what his companion had confessed the night before about hishabits.
"Ah, I see," exclaimed the other, colouring up as he took the hint,being evidently highly sensitive. "But you need not be afraid of thatnow. I'm always on my good behaviour whenever I come up to Providence.I'm really not going in here to drink now, I assure you; this is a houseof call for business people, and I want to see some one just come homewhom I know."
"All right, then," said Fritz, going into the hotel without any furtherprotest; when, following his companion through several long passages,they at length entered a large room at the back.
"Jerusalem!" ejaculated the Rhode Islander almost the very instant hehad crossed the threshold of this apartment. "If that aren't theidentical coon right oppo-site, mister!"
"Where?" asked Fritz.
"There," said the other, pointing to where a rather short, broad-shouldered man was engaged in conversation with a lithe lad, whose backwas turned but the colour of whose hair reminded Fritz of poor Eric.
"Hullo, Cap'en Brown," sang out the whilom deck hand at this juncture;and, the broad-shouldered man looking round in the direction whence thevoice proceeded, the lad also turned his face towards Fritz.
Good heavens! It was his brother Eric, whom he and every one at homehad believed to be buried beneath the ocean with the rest of the boat'screw that had escaped when the _Gustav Barentz_ foundered, nothing ofthem having been heard since!
With one bound he was across the room.
"Eric!" he exclaimed in astonishment.
"Fritz!" ejaculated the other; and, forgetting their surroundings in thejoy of thus meeting again, the two brothers fell into each other's arms,almost weeping with joy.
"By thunder!" said the Rhode Islander to his friend the sea captain,both looking on with much interest at the affecting scene, "I'm glad Imade him come in here anyhow, and we'll have a licker-up on the strengthof it, Cap'en Brown. It seems it wer a sort of providence that made himtake our boat away haar, after all!"
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