The Children of the Sea

This is the story of James Wait, a black sailor on board the merchant ship Narcissus, who takes ill with life-threatening tuberculosis. His plight arouses the sympathy of some, and the ire of others. He came in, hung the pot on the edge of the bunk, asked perfunctorily, "How goes it?" and sat down on the box.—"H'm," grunted Wait, inhospitably. The cook wiped his face with a dirty cotton rag, which, afterwards, he tied round his neck.—"That's how them firemen do in steamboats," he said, serenely, and much pleased with himself. "My work is as heavy as theirs—I'm thinking—and longer hours. Did you ever see them down the stokehold? Like fiends they look—firing—firing—firing—down there." - Excerpt from The Children of the Sea.