read the news I want, I will turn to and write it."
So I descended to the shop, and asked for a bottle of ink; since, oddly
enough, there was none to be found on board. The lady produced a bottle
and a pen. "But I don't want the pen," I objected. "They go together,"
said she: "Whatever use is a bottle of ink without a pen?" For the life
of me I could discover no answer to this. I paid my penny, and on
returning with my purchases to the boat, I propounded the following
questions:--

(1) _Quaere_. If, as the lady argued, a bottle of ink be
useless without a pen, by what process of reasoning did she omit
a sheet of paper from her pennyworth?

(2) Suppose that I damage or wear out this pen before exhausting
the bottle of ink, can she reasonably insist on my taking a
second bottle as a condition of acquiring a second pen?

(3) Suppose, on the other hand, that (as I compute) one pen will
outlast two and a half bottles of ink; that one bottle will
distil thirty thousand words; and that the late James Anthony
Froude (who lived close by) drew his supply of writing materials
from this shop: how many unused pens (at a guess) must that
distinguished man have accumulated in the process of composing
his _History of England?_

We sailed into Salcombe on Saturday evening, in a hired yacht of
twenty-eight tons, after beating around the Start and Prawl against a
sou'westerly wind and a strong spring tide. Now the tide off the Start
has to be studied. To begin with, it does not coincide in point of time
with the tide inshore. The flood, or east stream, for instance, only
starts to run there some three hours before it is high water at Salcombe;
but, having started, runs with a vengeance, or, to be more precise, at
something like three knots an hour during the high springs; and the
consequence is a very lively race. Moreover, the bottom all the way from
Start Point to Bolt Tail is extremely rough and irregular, which means
that some ten or twelve miles of vicious seas can be set going on very
short notice. Altogether you may spend a few hours here as uncomfortably
as anywhere up or down Channel, with the single exception of Portland
Race. If you turn aside for Salcombe, there is the bar to be considered;
and Salcombe bar is a danger to be treated with grave respect. The
_Channel Pilot_ will tell us why:--

"There is 8 ft. water at L.W. springs on the bar