ulton fishermen used to teach me the stitches. I can
do herring-bone stitch. I can even put a cringle into a sail."

"You're the eighth wonder of the world, I think," Mr. Jermyn said. "But
choose, now. Choose a kit for yourself. You won't get a chance to change
your clothes till you get to Mr. Blick's if you don't take some from
here. So just look round the room here. Take whatever you want."

I felt myself to have been fairly well equipped by the stranger who had
made me change my clothes in the alley. But I knew how cold the Channel
may be even in June; so I chose out two changes of thick underwear.
Weapons I had no need for, with the armory already in my belt; but a
heavy tarred jacket with an ear-flap collar was likely to be useful, so
I chose that instead. It was not more than ten sizes too large for me;
that did not matter; at sea one tries to keep warm; appearances are not
much regarded. Last of all, when I had packed my satchel, I noticed
a sailor's canvas "housewife" very well stored with buttons, etc. I
noticed that it held what is called a "palm," that is, the leather
hand-guard used by sail-makers for pushing the needle through sail
cloth. It occurred to me, vaguely, that such a "housewife" would be
useful, in case my clothes got torn, so I stuffed it into my satchel
with the other things. I saw that it contained a few small sail-needles
(of the kind so excellent as egg-borers) as well as some of the strong
fine sail-twine, each thread of which will support a weight of fifty
pounds. I put the housewife into my store with a vague feeling of being
rich in the world's goods, with such a little treasury of necessaries; I
had really no thought of what that chance impulse was to do for me.

"Are you ready?" Mr. Jermyn asked.

"Yes, sir. Quite ready."

"Take this blank drawing-book," he said, handing me a small pocket-book,
in which a pencil was stuck. "Make a practice of drawing what you see.
Draw the ships. Make sketches of the coast. You will find that such
drawings will give you great pleasure when you come to be old. They will
help you, too, in impressing an object on your mind. Drawing thus will
give you a sense of the extraordinary wonder of the universe. It will
teach you a lot of things. Now let's be off. It's time we were on
board."

When we went out of the house we were joined by three or four seamen who
carried cases of bottles (probably gin bottles). We struck off towards
the ship together at a b