The quarters of the crew I found as remarkable as anything else about the vessel; indeed the forecastle and steerage differed more from what I remembered than from any other part. Every person on board had a clean and comfortable lodging, though there were grades of distinction in size and decoration. But any gentleman could have lived in that "foks'le" without discomfort. Indeed, I soon found that many gentlemen did. I discovered, quite by accident, that one of the crew was a Harvard man. He was not at all loath to talk of it, either--was evidently no black sheep of any sort. Why had he chosen this work? Oh, he wanted the experience--it widened life, knowing different trades. Why was he not an officer then? He didn't care to work at it long enough--this was only experience work, you see. I did not see, nor ask, but I inferred, and it gave me again that feeling as if the ground underfoot had wiggled slightly. Was that old dream of Bellamy's stalking abroad? Were young men portioned out to menial service, willy-nilly? It was evidently not a universal custom, for some of the sailors were much older men, and long used to the business. I got hold of one who seemed more like the deckhands of old days, though cleaner and more cheerful; a man who was all of sixty. Yes he had followed the sea from boyhood. Yes, he liked it, always had liked it, liked it better now than when he was young. He had seen many changes? I listened carefully, though I asked the question lightly enough. Changes! He guessed he had. Terbacca was better for one thing--I was relieved to see that men still smoked, and then the jar came again as I remembered that save for this man, and one elderly officer, I had not seen anyone smoking on the vessel. "How do you account for it?" I asked the old Yankee. "For tobacco's being better?" He grinned cheerfully. "Less run on it, I guess," said he. "Young fellers don't seem to smoke no more, and I ain't seen nobody chewing for--well, for ten years back." "Is it cheaper as well as better?" "No, sir, it ain't. It's perishing high. But then, wages is high, too," he grudgingly admitted. "Better tobacco and better wages--anything else improved?" "Yes, sir-ee! Grub's better, by square miles--and 'commodations--an' close. Make better stuff now. "Well! well!" said I as genially as I knew how. "That's very different from my young days. Then everybody older than I always complained about all manner of things, and told how much better--and cheaper--things were when they were young." "Yes, 'twas so," he admitted meditatively. "But 'tain't so now. Shoes is better, most things is better, I guess. Seems like water runnin' up hill, don't it, sir?" It did. I didn't like it. I got away from the old man, and walked by myself--like Kipling's cat.