trousers,
and--"

"Stop! stop!" cried Ben, "you're sailing too fast. Take in a reef, my
lad." Ben meant by this that he was to proceed a little slower.
"You'll want a `sou'-wester,'" (an oilskin hat), "and a `dread-nought,'"
(a thick, heavy coat), "and things o' that sort."

After Davy had bought all he wanted, and ordered a sea-chest, he went
home to his mother, who was very sad at the thought of parting with him.
When the day of departure came she gave him a great deal of good
advice, which Davy promised, with tears in his eyes, to remember. Then
she gave him a little Bible and a kiss, and sent him away. His father
took him to the beach, where the ship's boat was waiting for him; and,
as the old man took off his cap, and raising his eyes to heaven, prayed
for a blessing on his little son, Davy, with watery eyes, looked around
at the big ships floating on the water, and, for the first time, wished
that he was not going to sea.

In a few minutes he was on board the "outward-bound" ship. This is what
we say of ships when they are going out to sea; when they return from a
voyage we say that they are "homeward-bound." The _Fair Nancy_ was a
noble ship, and as she hoisted her snow-white sails to a strong wind, (a
stiff breeze, as Ben Block called it), she looked like a white cloud.
The cloud seemed to grow smaller and smaller as Davy's father and mother
watched it from the shore; then it became like a little white spot on
the faraway sea; then it passed over the line where the water meets the
sky, and they saw it no more!

After Davy had cried a great deal, and wished very often that he had not
been so determined to leave home, he dried his eyes and began to take
great interest in the curious things he saw around him. What surprised
him most of all was, that although he actually was at sea, he could not
see the sea at all! This was because the sides of the ship, which are
called "bulwarks," were so high that they quite prevented the little boy
from seeing overboard. Davy soon found an opening in the bulwarks,
however, which his friend Ben called the "gang-way," through which he
could see the water and the ships and boats that were sailing there.
And when he mounted the high part of the deck in front of the ship,
which is called the "forecastle," or when he went upon the high deck at
the stern of the ship, which is called the "poop," then he could see all
round. And what a wonderful and new sight it was to Davy