9:30
He hails the house , in a voice that brings all the inhabitants of the row to their windows , including Christie ; he is fallen upon and dragged into the house . The first thing is , he draws out from his boots , and his back , and other hiding-places , China crape and marvelous silk handkerchiefs for Christie ; and she takes from his pocket a mass of Oriental sugar-plums , with which , but for this precaution , she knows by experience he would poison young Charley ; and soon he is to be seen sitting with his hand in his sister 's , and she lookng like a mother upon his handsome , weather-beaten face , and Gatty opposite , adoring him as a specimen of male beauty , and sometimes making furtive sketches of him . And then the tales he always brings with him ; the house is never very dull , but it is livelier than ever when this inexhaustible sailor casts anchor in it . The friends -LRB- chiefly artists -RRB- who used to leave at 9:30 , stay till eleven ; for an intelligent sailor is better company than two lawyers , two bishops , three soldiers , and four writers of plays and tales , all rolled together . And still he tells Christie he shall command a vessel some day , and leads her to the most cheering inferences from the fact of his prudence and his general width-awake ; in particular he bids her contrast with him the general fate of sailors , eaten up by land-sharks , particularly of the female gender , whom he demonstrates to be the worst enemies poor Jack has ; he calls these sunken rocks , fire-ships and other metaphors . He concludes thus : `` You are all the lass I mean to have till I 'm a skipper , and then I 'll bear up alongside some pretty , decent lass , like yourself , Christie , and we 'll sail in company all our lives , let the wind blow high or low . '' Such is the gracious Flucker become in his twentieth year .