18 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



The carpenter's yeoman, dismissed from the 

 presence of the irate officer, went to the gangway 

 to see the parcel. It measured quite three feet each 

 way a stout, wooden case, iron-banded. 



Passing down into the lighter on which it lay, he 

 explained the difficulty to the man in charge, gave 

 him a tip for his trouble, and asked him to request 

 his manager at Cowes to let the case stay in his 

 warehouse until he could get ashore, which would 

 probably be the next day. 



It was the commander who had refused permission 

 for the case to come on board, and shortly after, when 

 on shore, he was taken seriously ill with gout. This 

 was the opportunity. Formal application was 

 made to the next in command, and he readily allowed 

 the box to be brought on the ship. They had to 

 put a stout whip on the mainyard end to hoist the 

 box (all nautical readers will understand this allu- 

 sion), and after some considerable excitement the 

 thing was housed in the store-room, though it only 

 just passed down through the square of the hatch. 

 The unpacking and sorting of that box was a won- 

 drous time, for the contents were altogether beyond 

 their conception of book wealth ; and when, two 

 days later, on the Sunday afternoon, immediately 

 after dinner, the two chums carried a number of 

 books, on loan, to each mess, their shipmates were 

 as delighted as they were amazed. Only one thing 

 was needed to complete the joy of that first distribu- 



