distance until the harbor master came on
board and pronounced the ship free from quarantine. Then the boats made
a rush to the side, and with shouts, yells, and screams of laughter
scrambled on board. Frank was at once astonished and amused at the noise
and confusion.

"What on earth do they all want?" he asked Mr. Goodenough.

"The great proportion of them don't want anything at all," Mr.
Goodenough answered, "but have merely come off for amusement. Some of
them come to be hired, some to carry luggage, others to tout for the
boatmen below. Look at those respectable negresses coming up the gangway
now. They are washerwomen, and will take our clothes ashore and bring
them on board again this afternoon before we start."

"It seems running rather a risk," Frank said.

"No, you will see they all have testimonials, and I believe it is
perfectly safe to intrust things to them."

Mr. Goodenough and Frank now prepared to go on shore, but this was not
easily accomplished, for there was a battle royal among the boatmen
whose craft thronged at the foot of the ladder. Each boat had about four
hands, three of whom remained on board her, while the fourth stood
upon the ladder and hauled at the painter to keep the boat to which he
belonged alongside. As out of the twenty boats lying there not more
than two could be at the foot of the ladder together, the conflict was a
desperate one. All the boatmen shouted, "Here, sar. This good boat, sar.
You come wid me, sar," at the top of their voices, while at the same
time they were hard at work pulling each other's boats back and pushing
their own forward. So great was the struggle as Frank and Mr. Goodenough
approached the gangway, so great the crowd upon the ladder, that one
side of the iron bar from which the ladder chains depend broke in two,
causing the ladder to drop some inches and giving a ducking to those
on the lower step, causing shouts of laughter and confusion. These rose
into perfect yells of amusement when one of the sailors suddenly loosed
the ladder rope, letting five or six of the negroes into the water up to
their necks. So intense was the appreciation by the sable mind of this
joke that the boatmen rolled about with laughter, and even the victims,
when they had once scrambled into their boats, yelled like people
possessed.

"They are just like children," Mr. Goodenough said. "They are always
either laughing or quarreling. They are good natured and passionate,
indolen