You will be "worked up," if you are not a better man
than he is.
In the midst of this state of things, my messmate S--- and myself
petitioned the captain for leave to shift our berths from the
steerage, where we had previously lived, into the forecastle. This, to
our delight, was granted, and we turned in to bunk and mess with the
crew forward. We now began to feel like sailors, which we never
fully did when we were in the steerage. While there, however useful
and active you may be, you are but a mongrel,- a sort of afterguard
and "ship's cousin." You are immediately under the eye of the
officers, cannot dance, sing, play, smoke, make a noise, or growl,
(i.e. complain,) or take any other sailor's pleasure; and you live
with the steward, who is usually a go-between; and the crew never feel
as though you were one of them. But if you live in the forecastle, you
are "as independent as a wood-sawyer's clerk," (nautice,) and are a
sailor. You hear sailors' talk, learn their ways, their
peculiarities of feeling as well as speaking and acting; and
moreover pick up a great deal of curious and useful information in
seamanship, ship's customs, foreign countries, etc.
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