Of all the injustice from which the sailor suffers, I know of none that he feels more keenly than this. To be shipmates with half a dozen wasters who are getting the same pay and treatment as himself, to be overworked because they cannot do the first thing at sailorizing, and as likely as not obliged to keep very quiet in the fo'c'sle, because of them being in the majority, is a bitter pill to swallow. One very unpleasant recollection of my own is of a ship where I was an A.B. In my watch, besides myself, there was a Swede, a very good man; a little Frenchman from St. Nazaire, who was also a smart sailor-man; a Finn, who knew how to do his work, but was so slow and stupid that he was very little good; another Frenchman from the vicinity of Nice, who, strange to say, was useless, and, in addition, knew only about half a dozen words of English; a big, brutal bully of a fellow, who was a Briton, I grieve to confess, and one of the basest sort; also a negro ordinary seaman. With such a watch, those of us who could do what we were asked had a very hard time of it; and, to make matters worse, the big Briton was, although as worthless an animal as ever stepped on a ship's deck, the "boss" of the forecastle. I was working hard for my certificate, and did not care to complain; until at last, in Hong Kong, while that great loafer was quietly sitting in the shade, toying with the task of chipping the iron rust off the cable, I was sent over with the negro to scrape the ship's side in the blazing sun. I went, feeling very hard done by; but presently the fine dry dust of coal tar which I scraped off the planks stuck to my sweating face and began to blister it, just as a mustard-plaster would have done. Then I felt that, under these conditions, life was not worth living, so I left my job and sought the mate. I appealed to his sense of justice. "Here is a man," I said, "who has not been able to do a single job of sailor-work, except take his trick at the wheel (and he's a gorgeous helmsman), since we left Cardiff. I, on the other hand, have been continuously at work, splicing, serving, sailorizing in all its details, with never a complaint of my work. Yet because this man is a truculent beast, who growls blasphemously whenever he is put on a job, he is allowed to carry things so pleasantly that he might as well be on a perpetual picnic. Is it fair or just?" To the mate's credit I record it that the champion loafer was immediately sent overside to scrape, and I went below to poultice my blistered visage. But even there he scored, for he quietly shifted his stage under the counter, where he could not be seen, and there sat in the shade and smoked his pipe. Still, the business did not suit him, and two days after, to the delight of every one on board, he deserted. He had the assurance to come back for his kit; but he was not allowed to come on board, so I lowered it over the bows to him. He knew that the skipper was too glad to be rid of him to prosecute.