'"There's a woman wishes it to be done quickly," he says.
"We'll stick to your first drawing, Master Dawe. But thirty
pounds is thirty pounds. You must make it less.'

'And all the while the faults in my draft fair leaped out and hit
me between the eyes. At any cost, I thinks to myself, I must get it
back and re-draft it. He grunts at me impatiently, and a splendid
thought comes to me, which shall save me. By the same token,
It was quite honest.'

'They ain't always,' says Mr Springett. 'How did you get out of it?'

'By the truth. I says to Master Fur Cap, as I might to you here, I
says, "I'll tell you something, since you seem a knowledgeable
man. Is the SOVEREIGN to lie in Thames river all her days, or will she
take the high seas?"

'"Oh," he says quickly, "the King keeps no cats that don't
catch mice. She must sail the seas, Master Dawe. She'll be hired to
merchants for the trade. She'll be out in all shapes o' weathers.
Does that make any odds?"
'"Why, then," says I, "the first heavy sea she sticks her nose
into'll claw off half that scroll-work, and the next will finish it. If
she's meant for a pleasure-ship give me my draft again, and I'll
porture you a pretty, light piece of scroll-work, good cheap. If
she's meant for the open- sea, pitch the draft into the fire. She can
never carry that weight on her bows.

'He looks at me squintlings and plucks his under-lip.