, `beggars mustn't be choosers.' I ain't above
doin' dirty work, if required."

John Jarwin, in the simplicity of his heart, imagined that the captain
was in need of a man who could and would turn his hand to any sort of
work, whether nautical or otherwise, on board ship or ashore, which was
his idea of "dirty work;" but the captain appeared to understand him in
a different sense, for he smiled in a grim fashion, nodded his head,
and, turning to the seaman before mentioned, bade him cut the raft
adrift. The man obeyed, and in a few minutes it was out of sight
astern.

"Now, Jarwin, go below," said the captain; "Isaacs will introduce you to
your messmates."

Isaacs, who had just cut away the raft, was a short, thick-set man, with
a dark, expressionless face. He went forward without saying a word, and
introduced Jarwin to the men as a "new 'and."

"And a green un, I s'pose; give us your flipper, lad," said one of the
crew, holding out his hand.

Jarwin shook it, took off his cap and sat down, while his new friends
began, as they expressed it, to pump him. Having no objection to be
pumped, he had soon related the whole of his recent history. In the
course of the narrative he discovered that his new associates were an
unusually rough set. Their language was interspersed with frightful
oaths, and their references to the captain showed that his power over
them was certainly not founded on goodwill or affection. Jarwin also
discovered that the freeness of his communication was not reciprocated
by his new mates, for when he made inquiries as to the nature of the
trade in which they were engaged, some of the men merely replied with
uproarious laughter, chaff, or curses, while others made jocular
allusions to sandal-wood trading, slaving, etcetera.

"I shouldn't wonder now," said one, "if you was to think we was
pirates."

Jarwin smiled as he replied, "Well, I don't exactly think _that_, but
I'm bound for to say the schooner _has_ got such a rakish look that it
wouldn't seem unnatural like if you _were_ to hoist a black flag at the
peak. An' you'll excuse me, shipmets, if I say that yer lingo ain't
just so polished as it might be."

"And pray who are _you_, that comes here to lecture us about our lingo?"
cried one of the men fiercely, starting up and confronting Jarwin with
clenched fists.

"Why, mate," replied Jarwin, quietly folding back the cuffs of his coat,
and putting himself in an attitude of defence, "