'tis all so stuffed with
sea-words that I would fain have an interpreter. _Ned_ laughs when I
say this.

"Well," saith he, "'tis the strangest thing in the world you should not
conceive me. 'Tis all along of you being maids, I reckon."

"Nay," say I, "'tis by reason we were ne'er at sea."

"Well, how any human creature can be a landlubber," saith _Ned_, "when
he might have a good boat and a stiff capful o' wind, passeth me
rarely."

"Why," quoth _Father_, that had listed us in silence till now, "if we
were all sailors and mermen, _Ned_, how wouldst come by a sea-biscuit or
a lump of salt meat? There should be none to sow nor reap, if the land
were deserted."

"Oh ay, 'tis best some should love it," saith _Ned_. "But how they so
should, that is it passeth me."

"'Tis a strange matter," saith _Father_, "that we men should be all of
us unable to guess how other men can affect that we love not. I dare be
bound that _Wat_ should say what passed him was that any man which might
dwell on the land should take to the sea."

"_Wat_!" saith Ned, curling of his lip. "I saw him, Sir, and spent two
days in his company, when we touched at _London_ some eight months gone.
Why, he is--Nay, I wis not what he is like. All the popinjays in the
South Seas be fools to him."

"Is he so fine, _Ned_?" asks _Milly_.

"Fine!" saith _Ned_. "Go to, I have some whither an inventory of his
Lordship's garments, the which I set down for the mirth of you maids. I
gat the true names of _Wat_, look you."

And he pulleth forth a great bundle of papers from his pocket, and after
some search lighteth on the right.

"Now then, hearken, all of you," saith _Ned_. "_Imprimis_, on his
head--when it is on, but as every minute off it cometh to every creature
he meeteth, 'tis not much--a _French_-fashioned beaver, guarded of a set
of gold buttons enamelled with black--cost, eight pound."

"For a hat!" cries _Milly_.

"Tarry a bit," saith _Ned_; "I am not in port yet by a thousand knots.
Then in this hat was a white curled ostrich feather, six shillings.
Below, a gown of tawny velvet, wherein were six yards, _London_ measure,
of four-and-twenty shillings the yard: and guarded with some make of fur
(I forgat to ask him the name of that), two dozen skins, eight pence
each: cost of this goodly gown, six pound, ten shillings, and four
pence."

"Eh!" cried _Milly_ and _Edith_ together.

"Bide a bit!" saith _Ned_. "_Item_, a doublet, of black