You've run for seven
months from all the Washington and Oregon ports to Southern
California, and--er--that's very nice. But you haven't been over
Humboldt Bar yet, have you?"
"No, sir."
"Then you have something coming. Quite a bar in the winter time,
Matt, quite a bar! Good many tickets been lost on that bar, Matt, so
you ought to have more than a nodding acquaintance with it. You're
going second mate in the Quickstep. She's carrying redwood shingles
from Eureka to the Shingle Association's air-drying yards up river at
Los Medanos at present, and she'll get to Los Medanos Sunday
afternoon, so you'd better get there about the same time, in order to
turn to discharging bright and early Monday morning. And you'll have
to step lively, Matt. The Quickstep lives up to her name, and the way
they put shingles into that vessel is a scandal."
"Shingles are nice stuff to handle," Matt ventured.
"Not redwood shingles, Matt. All right after they're dry, but when
they come fresh from the saws they bleed a little, so be sure and wear
gloves when you handle them. If you have a cut on your hand that
redwood sap may poison you. I think you'll like the Quickstep, Matt."
"It doesn't matter whether I do or not," Matt replied humorously.
"You always do things for me without consulting me anyhow.
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