it when you find you can't
make over a dollar a day at back-breakin' work after earnin' three and
four at the throttle. An engineer knows nothin' but his trade, sir.
Take it away, and he's a laborin' man.

"I'd ha' worked and learned another, but they jailed me--put me in
choky, 'cause I had no visible means o' support. I had no money, and
was a criminal under the law. And they kept at it,--jailed me again and
again as a vagrant,--when all I wanted was work. After a while I didn't
care. But now's my chance, sir, if you'll take me on. I don't know much
about boats and the sea, but I can fire an engine, and know something
about steam."

"A fireman's work on board a war-vessel is very different from that of
a locomotive fireman," said the officer, leaning back in his chair.

"I know, sir; that may be," the tramp replied eagerly; "but I can
shovel coal, and I can learn, and I can work. I'm not very strong now,
'cause I haven't had much to eat o' late years; but I'm not a drinkin'
man--why, that costs more than grub. Give me a chance, sir; I'm an
American; I'm sick o' bein' hunted from jail to jail, like a wild
animal, just 'cause I can't be satisfied with pick-and-shovel work.
I've spent half o' the last five years in jail as a vagrant. I put in a
month at Fernandina, and then I was chased out o' town. They gave me
two months at Cedar Keys, and I came here, only to get a month more in
this jail. I got out this mornin', and was told by the copper who
pinched me to get out o' Pensacola or he'd run me in again. And he's
outside now waitin' for me. I dodged past 'im to get in."

"Pass this man in to the surgeon," said the officer, with something
like a sympathetic snort in the tone of his voice; for he also was an
American.

An orderly escorted him to the surgeon, who examined him and passed
him. Then the recruit signed his name to a paper.

"Emaciated," wrote the surgeon in his daily report; "body badly
nourished, and susceptible to any infection. Shows slight febrile
symptoms, which should be attended to. An intelligent man; with good
food and care will become valuable."

The tramp marched to the receiving-ship with a squad of other recruits,
and on the way smiled triumphantly into the face of a mulatto
policeman, who glared at him. He had signed his name on a piece of
paper, and the act had changed his status. From a hunted fugitive and
habitual criminal he had become a defender of his country's honor--a
potential