I wasn't exactly born on it, look you, but I fell into it the fust time I was let out arter my birth.

My mother slipped her cable for a heavenly port afore I was old enough to hail her; so I larnt to look on the ocean for a sort of step-mother--an' a precious hard one she has been to me.
"The idee of leavin' Kitty so soon arter our marriage went agin my grain considerable.

I cruised along the docks for somethin' to do in the way of stevedore: an' though I picked up a stray job here and there, I didn't arn enough to buy ship-bisket for a rat; let alone feedin' two human mouths.

There wasn't nothin' honest I wouldn't have turned a hand to; but the 'longshoremen gobbled up all the work, an' a outsider like me didn't stand a show.
"Things got from bad to worse; the month's rent took all our cash except a dollar or so, an' the sky looked kind o' squally fore an' aft.

Well, I set out one mornin'-- that identical unlucky mornin'-- determined to come back an' toss some pay into Kitty's lap, if I had to sell my jacket for it.