six o'clock
said Anderson ; `` and would you like to hear me read the Bible to you , until you can read it yourself ? '' `` Indeed I would , '' replied I. `` There 's many of the boys on the beach , smaller than me , who can both read and write . '' Peter Anderson then told me that he would teach me , provided I behaved myself well . He desired that I would come to his cabin every afternoon at six o'clock , a time which interfered little with my avocation of `` Poor Jack , '' and that he would give me a lesson . Before he had finished talking , one of the lieutenants of the hospital sent for him ; and Ben remained behind , to point out to me how valuable my knowing how to read and write might one day prove to me . `` I 've no larning myself , Jack , '' said he ; `` and I know the loss of it . Had I known how to read and write , I might have been something better than a poor Greenwich pensioner ; but nevertheless I 'm thankful that I 'm no worse .