six in the morning
Numbers of lawless Chinese , Greeks , and Italians were at that time engaged in illegal fishing , and many a patrolman paid his life for his interference . My only weapon on duty was a steel table-fork , but I felt fearless and a man when I climbed over the side of a boat to arrest some marauder . Subsequently I shipped before the mast and sailed for the Japanese coast on a seal-hunting expedition , later going to Behring Sea . After sealing for seven months I came back to California and took odd jobs at coal shovelling and longshoring and also in a jute factory , where I worked from six in the morning until seven at night . I had planned to join the same lot for another sealing trip the following year , but somehow I missed them . They sailed away on the _ Mary Thomas _ , which was lost with all hands . In my fitful school-days I had written the usual compositions , which had been praised in the usual way , and while working in the jute mills I still made an occasional try .