So Dickie went his way to the kennels to talk to the kennelman. He had been there before with Master Roger Fry, his fencing master, but he had never spoken to the kennelman. And when he got to the kennels he knocked on the door of the kennelman's house and called out, "What ho! within there!" just as people do in old plays. And the door was thrown open by a man in a complete suit of leather, and when Dickie looked in that man's face he saw that it was the face of the man who had lived next door in Lavender Terrace, Rosemary Lane--the man who dug up the garden for the parrot seed. "Why," said Dickie, "it's you!" "Who would it be but me, little master?" the man asked with a respectful salute, and Dickie perceived that though this man had the face of the Man Next Door, he had not the Man Next Door's memories. "Do you live here?" he asked cautiously--"always, I mean." "Where else should I live?" the man asked, "that have served my lord, your father, all my time, boy and man, and know every hair of every dog my lord owns." Dickie thought that was a good deal to know--and so it was. He stayed an hour at the kennels and came away knowing very much more about dogs than he did before, though some of the things he learned would surprise a modern veterinary surgeon very much indeed. But the dogs seemed well and happy, though they were doctored with herb tea instead of stuff from the chemist's, and the charms that were said over them to make them swift and strong certainly did not make them any the less strong and swift. When Dickie had learned as much about dogs as he felt he could bear for that day, he felt free to go down to the dockyard and go on learning how ships were built. Sebastian looked up at the voice and ceased the blows with which his axe was smoothing a great tree trunk that was to be a mast, and smiled in answer to his smile. "Oh, what a long time since I have seen thee!" Dickie cried. And Sebastian, gently mocking him, answered, "A great while indeed--two whole long days. And those thou'st spent merrymaking in the King's water pageant. Two days--a great while, a great, great while." "I want you to teach me everything you know," said Dickie, picking up an awl and feeling its point. [Illustration: "'OH, WHAT A LONG TIME SINCE I HAVE SEEN THEE!' DICKIE CRIED" [_Page 147_] "Have patience with me," laughed Sebastian; "I will teach thee all thou canst learn, but not all in one while. Little by little, slow and sure." "You must not think," said Dickie, "that it's only play, and that I do not need to learn because I am my father's son." "Should I think so?" Sebastian asked; "I that have sailed with Captain Drake and Captain Raleigh, and seen how a gentleman venturer needs to turn his hand to every guess craft? If thou's so pleased to learn as Sebastian is to teach, then he'll be as quick to teach as thou to learn. And so to work!"