He then told me that the second steward slung his hammock next door to the pantry in the steerage, but as there were two or three empty cabins down there I was welcome to use a bunk in the one in which I had been locked up. ‘As for a bed,’ said he--‘you’d better ask the sailmaker to give you a piece of old canvas, and the butcher to give you a bundle of straw; you’ll get all the mattress you’ll want out of that. If I can meet with a stray blanket you shall have it. That pilot jacket, though a good coat, ain’t quite up to the knocker for table work. Pity you haven’t got a little loose cash upon you. I’ve got a spare jacket which,’ said he, taking a view of my shoulders, ‘would fit you for breadth to a hair. But not to button across; why, I never see such a chest on a young fellow. And now you can turn to,’ said he; ‘the table’s to be got ready for dinner and you can help.’
I requested him to lend me some soap and a towel. He grinned and asked me if there was any perfumery he could oblige me with. ‘But you’re right,’ said he. ‘You’re in want of a wash-down.’ He left me, and presently returned with a piece of marine soap and a coarse towel. He then told me where I should find a bucket, and recommended me to draw some water at the head pump on the forecastle, and to be careful not to spill any on the deck as I brought it along if I did not want to be sworn at by the officer of the watch.
I took a bucket from a rack near the mainmast and went along the gangway, as I term the alley betwixt the barricade and the bulwarks. My heart was almost light. The work I was to be put to was just such as I should have chosen out of the whole group of duties of the big ship. It was work that would keep me away from the forecastle hands; it would not put more upon me than my strength was equal to. Best of all, I was to occupy a cabin alone, which was an extraordinary piece of good fortune.
It was the first dog-watch. All the convicts were in their prison quarters; a number of sailors were smoking, idling, and talking in the neighbourhood of the galleys; the wind swept keen and hard athwart the forecastle; and the sentry was the only figure that paced that deck. Some rough chaff saluted me as I passed the sailors. One asked if I was going a-milking; another advised me to chuck the bucket overboard and watch it tow. Just as I was stepping up the forecastle ladder, Will, with a pipe in his mouth, put his head out of his berth. He instantly saw me, and called out, with the manner of a young fellow exercising some little authority: