us lads to do, and declared that whether his mother were willing
or no, he would brave all the dangers of that terrible journey
overseas, if so be we found an opportunity. To him it seemed
a simple matter that, having once found a ship which was to sail
for the far off land, we might hide ourselves within her, having
gathered sufficient of food to keep us alive during the journey.
But how this last might be done, his plans had not been made.

Lest I should set down too many words, and therefore bring upon
myself the charge of being one who can work with his tongue better
than with his hands, I will pass over all that which Nathaniel and
I did during the long time we roamed the streets, in the hope of
coming face to face with Captain Smith.

It is enough if I set it down at once that we finally succeeded in
our purpose, having come upon him one certain morning on Cheapside,
when there was a fight on among some apprentices, and the way so
blocked that neither he nor any other could pass through the street,
until the quarrelsome fellows were done playing upon each other's
heads with sticks and stones.

It seemed much as if fortune had at last consented to smile upon
us, for we were standing directly in front of the great man.

I know not how it chanced that I, a lad whose apparel was far from
being either cleanly or whole, should have dared to raise my voice
in speech with one who was said to have talked even with a king.
Yet so I did, coming without many words to that matter which had
been growing these many days in my mind, and mayhap it was the very
suddenness of the words that caught his fancy.