d me
Jim. It ain't a name much to boast of, but I wouldn't change it with
you, young feller, though Robert ain't a bad name neither. It's pretty
well-known, you see, an' _that's_ somethin'. Then, it's bin bore by
great men. Let me think--wasn't there a Robert the Great once?"

"I fear not," said Robin; "he is yet in the womb of Time."

"Ah, well, no matter; but there should have bin a Robert the Great
before now. Anyhow, there was Robert the Bruce--he was a king, warn't
he, an' a skull-cracker? Then there was Robert Stephenson, the great
engineer--he's livin' yet; an' there was Robert the--the Devil, but I
raither fear he must have bin a bad 'un, _he_ must, so we won't count
him. Of course, they gave you another name, for short; ah, Robin! I
thought so. Well, that ain't a bad name neither. There was Robin Hood,
you know, what draw'd the long-bow a deal better than the worst
penny-a-liner as ever mended a quill. An' there was a Robin Goodfellow,
though I don't rightly remember who he was exactly."

"One of Shakespeare's characters," interposed Robin.

"Jus' so--well, he couldn't have bin a bad fellow, you know. Then, as
to your other name, Wright--that's all right, you know, and might have
bin writer if you'd taken to the quill or the law. Anyhow, as long as
you're Wright, of course you can't be wrong--eh, young feller?"

Jim Slagg was so tickled with this sudden sally that he laughed, and in
so doing shut his little eyes, and opened an enormous mouth, fully
furnished with an unbroken set of splendid teeth.

Thus pleasantly did Robin while away the time with his future shipmate
until he arrived at the end of his journey, when he parted from Jim
Slagg and was met by Ebenezer Smith.

That energetic electrician, instead of at once taking him on board the
Great Eastern, took him to a small inn, where he gave him his tea and
put him through a rather severe electrical examination, out of which our
anxious hero emerged with credit.

"You'll do, Robin," said his examiner, who was a free-and-easy yet
kindly electrician, "but you want instruction in many things."

"Indeed I do, sir," said Robin, "for I have had no regular education in
the science, but I hope, if you direct me what to study, that I shall
improve."

"No doubt you will, my boy. Meanwhile, as the big ship won't be ready
to start for some time, I want you to go to the works of the Telegraph
Construction and Maintenance Company, see the making o