I did not, and do not, suppose that this neck-kerchief was all the linen he wore, but it was all he showed or gave any hint of.
'You're the new boy ?' he said.

'Yes, sir,' I said.
I supposed I was.

I didn't know.
'I'm one of the masters at Salem House,' he said.
I made him a bow and felt very much overawed.

I was so ashamed to allude to a commonplace thing like my box, to a scholar and a master at Salem House, that we had gone some little distance from the yard before I had the hardihood to mention it.

We turned back, on my humbly insinuating that it might be useful to me hereafter; and he told the clerk that the carrier had instructions to call for it at noon.
'If you please, sir,' I said, when we had accomplished about the same distance as before, 'is it far ?' 'It's down by Blackheath,' he said.
'Is that far, sir ?' I diffidently asked.
'It's a good step,' he said.