Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/302

 ourselves alongside a new clipper ship called the Rainbow. I soon went aboard of her, and as I did so a brisk, little, old man stepped up to me and said:

"Do you want to ship?"

"What in?"

"Why, in this ship, of course."

"Where bound, sir?"

"To Canton, my lad."

"Thence, where?"

"Return to New York."

"What wages, sir?"

"Can you hand, reef, and steer?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ten dollars per month."

"I will ship, sir."

He then handed me the following: