hurt it, sir, my head's hard as wood. I'm a bit late
this morning--over-slept myself. Had the rummiest dream I ever knowed
of."

"What did you dream?"

"Dreamt as I come up in the middle of the night, just when it was
thinking about getting to morning, and we'd sailed to about the
horridest place as ever was, and then I looked round and saw you like a
black shadow going about the deck without making a sound."

"I had no shoes on," said Jack.

"Then it wasn't a dream, and it was only that the place looked so dismal
drear in the dusk."

"Of course it was, Ned."

The man gave his head a rap with the clothes-brush. "Then that's a
lesson for a man never to be in too much of a hurry. 'Pon my word, Mr
Jack, sir, when I came just now and had a look, I felt as if I must have
been dreaming, for as soon as I went below I lay down for a snooze, and
went off like a top."

"The light has made a wonderful change, Ned," said Jack. "Well, what do
you think of it now?"

"It's beyond thinking, sir, it's wonderful. We've seen some tidy places
as we come along, but this beats everything I ever saw. Seems to me
that we'd better stop here altogether. They say `there's no place like
home,' but I say there's no place like this."

"It really is beautiful, Ned. You should have stopped on deck and seen
the wonderful transformation as the sun rose."

"Couldn't have been anything like coming upon it sudden, sir, after
going below feeling that you'd been cheated. How I should like to send
for my poor old mother to see it. But I dunno: she wouldn't come.
She's got an idee that Walworth is about the loveliest place in the
world. But it ain't, Mr Jack, you may believe me, it really ain't, not
even when the sun shines; while when it don't, and it happens to be a
bit muddy, or it rains, or there's a fog, it's--well, I don't think
there's anything short of a photo to show what it really is like, and
one of them wouldn't do it credit. But this isn't Walworth, sir, and
the next thing I want to do is to go ashore and see what the place is
like."

"All in good time, Ned. I suppose we shall soon begin collecting now."

"Any time you like, Mr Jack, sir, and please remember that your
obedient servant to command, Edward Sims, is aboard, and whether it's
sticking pins through flies and beetles like Sir John does, or shooting
and skinning birds and beasts like the doctor, I want to be in it. My
word, there ought to be some fine things