What do you think of
that, hey?"

"Gravelotte had nearly as many," said Fritz quietly.

"All right, mister; we won't argy the p'int now; but you haven't
answered 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 and
straight to the p'int, without any bunkum or blarney, like some of them
that come over here. But, what line have you run on in the old
country?"

"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 up
to Providence, hey, mister?"

"Yes," said Fritz. "I have applied to all the houses in New York in
vain, 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 the
steamer, I would not have thought of speaking to you and asking where
she was going."

"And if you had not spoken to me again, why, I would not have known
anything 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 is
moored alongside the wharf and all the luggage ashore, you come along of
me, and I'll show you whar to go. I shall be my own boss then, with no
skipper to order me about."

The man hurried off as he said these last words, in obedience to a hail
from above--telling him to go and do something or other, "and look smart
about it too"--which had probably influenced his remark about being his
own "boss" when he got to land; and Fritz did not see him again until
the 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 on
the Baltic and banks of the Elbe; for the houses were mostly built of
stone, and there was much less of that wooden, flimsy look which the
newly sprung up cities of America possess.

This old-fashioned appearance is a characteristic of all the New England
states--Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut--for, here the
original "Pilgrim Fathers"