This wish continually worried me; but the more I reflected, the more impossible it appeared to be that I should be able to gratify it.  How could I possibly go to church in my tattered and dirty clothes—­and what chance had I of getting others?  I certainly gained, at an average, eighteenpence per week, but I saved nothing.  Would my mother give me clothes?  No, that I was sure she would not, for she grudged me even the little victuals which I did apply for.  I thought this matter over and over as I lay in bed.  Ben had no money.  Anderson I could not ask for it.  I thought that I would apply to Dr. Tadpole, but I was afraid.  At last it came into my head that I had better first ascertain how much money I should require before I took further measures.  The next morning I went to a fitting-out shop, and asked the lad who attended how much money I should have to pay for a pair of blue trousers, waistcoat, and jacket.  The lad told me that I might have a very nice suit for twenty-two shillings.  Twenty-two shillings!  What an enormous sum it appeared to me then; and then there was a straw hat to buy, and a pair of shoes and stockings.  I inquired the price of these last articles, and found that my dross could not be made complete under thirty-three shillings.  I was quite in despair, for the sum appeared to be a fortune.  I sat down to calculate how long it would take me to save up so much money, at sixpence a week, which was all that I could afford; but, at that time, never having learned anything of figures, all I could make of it was that it was so long a time as to be beyond my calculation.

It was Saturday evening.  I sat down on the steps of the landing-place, very melancholy, thinking that to-morrow was Sunday, and abandoning all hopes of ever going to church, when a Thames fisherman, of the name of Freeman, who lived at Greenwich, and with whom I was acquainted—­for I used to assist him on the Saturday night to moor his coble off the landing-place, and hang up his nets to dry—­called out to me to come and help him.  I did so; we furled the sails, hauled on board his little boat for keeping the fish alive, hoisted the nets up to the mast, and made all secure; and I was thinking to myself that he would go to church to-morrow, and I could not, when he asked me why I was so sad.  I told him.

“Why, Jack,” said he, “I can’t help you, for it is bad times with me just now; indeed, I could help you but little if times were ever so good—­I’ve too many children of my own; but look ye, here’s a good long piece of four-inch, which I picked up, and it’s well worth a shilling.  I’ll give it you (for I do owe you something), and do you take it to old Nanny.  She’s a queer body; but suppose you try whether she’ll let you have the money.  She can if she chooses, and, as you have dealt with her so long, perhaps she will, if you promise to lay some by every week, and repay her.”

This idea had never occurred to me, for I knew old Nanny was very close, and drove very hard bargains with me; however, I thanked Freeman for his piece of rope and piece of advice, and when we landed I determined, at all events, I would try.