These last were as
follows:--
Each of us had on a pair of stout canvas trousers, and a pair of
sailors' thick shoes. Jack wore a red flannel shirt, a blue jacket, and
a red Kilmarnock bonnet or nightcap, 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 canvas 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.
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