Cast-iron,
as a rule, says very little; but mild steel plates and wrought-iron,
and ribs and beams that have been much bent and welded and riveted, talk
continuously. Their conversation, of course, is not half as wise as our
human talk, because they are all, though they do not know it, bound down
one to the other in a black darkness, where they cannot tell what is
happening near them, nor what will overtake them next.

As soon as she had cleared the Irish coast, a sullen, grey-headed old
wave of the Atlantic climbed leisurely over her straight bows, and
sat down on the steam-capstan used for hauling up the anchor. Now the
capstan and the engine that drove it had been newly painted red and
green; besides which, nobody likes being ducked.

"Don't you do that again," the capstan sputtered through the teeth of
his cogs. "Hi! Where's the fellow gone?"

The wave had slouched overside with a plop and a chuckle; but "Plenty
more where he came from," said a brother-wave, and went through and
over the capstan, who was bolted firmly to an iron plate on the iron
deck-beams below.

"Can't you keep still up there?" said the deckbeams. "What's the matter
with you? One minute you weigh twice as much as you ought to, and the
next you don't!"

"It isn't my fault," said the capstan. "There's a green brute outside
that comes and hits me on the head."

"Tell that to the shipwrights. You've been in position for months and
you've never wriggled like this before. If you aren't careful you'll
strain us."

"Talking of strain," said a low, rasping, unpleasant voice, "are any of
you fellows--you deck-beams, we mean--aware that those exceedingly ugly
knees of yours happen to be riveted into our structure--ours?"

"Who might you be?" the deck-beams inquired.

"Oh, nobody in particular," was the answer. "We're only the port and
starboard upper-deck stringers; and if you persist in heaving and hiking
like this, we shall be reluctantly compelled to take steps."

Now the stringers of the ship are long iron girders, so to speak, that
run lengthways from stern to bow. They keep the iron frames (what are
called ribs in a wooden ship) in place, and also help to hold the ends
of the deck-beams, which go from side to side of the ship. Stringers
always consider themselves most important, because they are so long.

"You will take steps--will you?" This was a long echoing rumble. It
came from the frames--scores and scores of them, each one about ei