jacket, and a red Kilmarnock bonnet or night-cap, besides a pair of
worsted socks, and a cotton pocket-handkerchief, with sixteen
portraits of Lord Nelson printed on it, and a union Jack in the
middle. Peterkin had on a striped flannel shirt, - which he wore
outside his trousers, and belted round his waist, after the manner
of a tunic, - and a round black straw hat. He had no jacket,
having thrown it off just before we were cast into the sea; but
this was not of much consequence, as the climate of the island
proved to be extremely mild; so much so, indeed, that Jack and I
often preferred to go about without our jackets. Peterkin had also
a pair of white cotton socks, and a blue handkerchief with white
spots all over it. My own costume consisted of a blue flannel
shirt, a blue jacket, a black cap, and a pair of worsted socks,
besides the shoes and canvass trousers already mentioned. This was
all we had, and besides these things we had nothing else; but, when
we thought of the danger from which we had escaped, and how much
worse off we might have been had the ship struck on the reef during
the night, we felt very thankful that we were possessed of so much,
although, I must confess, we sometimes wished that we had had a
little more.

While we were examining these things, and talking about them, Jack
suddenly started and exclaimed -

"The oar! we have forgotten the oar."

"What good will that do us?" said Peterkin; "there's wood enough on
the island to make a thousand oars."

"Ay, lad," replied Jack, "but there's a bit of hoop iron at the end