noon
Two hours later the foreman of the dock gang was pointed out to him , and in ten minutes , with Lily tied to a barrel of nutritious pickles , the Wildcat took his place in the long line of stevedores that hustled freight out of the pier shed and into the nets under the cargo booms of the ship . `` Lily -- tonight us eats on credit , an ' sleeps inside some place whah de fog weatheh do n't git . '' All the stevedore crew were members of the Wildcat 's own race . Before noon he had affiliated with enough friends to make the matter of noontime lunch a simple business of accepting part of what was offered him , while Lily did the best she could on enough assorted nutriment to feed six mascots . Considering the start he had made that morning , the Wildcat realized , with his seventh sandwich , that life is n't so bad if you manage to live through it . When he began the afternoon shift his ancient philosophy had returned , and to the clatter of the activity about him he contributed his rambling voice . Presently the words of his song recruited a few converts from the gang about him ; and by four o'clock , with the freight moving faster than it had for many a day , the hollow spaces in the long pier were filled with the echoes that lifted from an intermittent chorus which proclaimed that `` I kin load a steamboat , load it full wid freight ; I kin load a steamboat when it 's leavin ' late .