oy days, sufficiently indicates.

Then, again, his being in the ship-yards so long, nominally as one of the
workmen, gave him undoubtedly great facilities for observing every thing
which it was important that he should know. Of course, he could not have
seriously intended to make himself an actual and practical
ship-carpenter, for, in the first place, the time was too short. A trade
like that of a ship-carpenter requires years of apprenticeship to make a
really good workman. Then, in the second place, the mechanical part of
the work was not the part which it devolved upon him, as a sovereign
intent on building up a navy for the protection of his empire, even to
superintend. He could not, therefore, have seriously intended to learn
to build ships himself, but only to make himself nominally a workman,
partly for the pleasure which it gave him to place himself so wholly at
home among the shipping, and partly for the sake of the increased
opportunities which he thereby obtained of learning many things which it
was important that he should know.

Travelers visiting Holland at the present day often go out to Saardam to
see the little building that is still shown as the shop which Peter
occupied while he was there. It is a small wooden building, leaning and
bent with age and decrepitude and darkened by exposure and time. Within
the last half century, however, in order to save so curious a relic from
farther decay, the proprietors of the place have constructed around and
over it an outer building of brick, which incloses the hut itself like a
case. The sides of the outer building are formed of large, open arches,
which allow the hut within to be seen. The ground on which the hut
stands has also been laid out prettily as a garden, and is inclosed by a
wall. Within this wall, and near the gate, is a very neat and pretty
Dutch cottage, in which the custodian lives who shows the place to
strangers.

While Peter was in the ship-yards the workmen knew who he was, but all
persons were forbidden to gather around or gaze at him, or to interfere
with him in any way by their notice or their attentions. They were to
allow him to go and come as he pleased, without any molestation. These
orders they obeyed as well as they could, as every one was desirous of
treating their visitor in a manner as agreeable to him as possible, so as
to prolong his stay.

Peter varied his amusements, while he thus resided in Saardam, by making
occ