ey
before the family farm came to him on the death of his father. He had
married another farm and the heiress attached to it, and Peter was the
result. An only son, both parents dead, two farms and a good round sum
in the Guernsey Bank, such were Peter's circumstances.

And himself--good-tempered; lazy, since he had no need to work; not
naturally gifted mentally, and the little he had, barely stirred by the
short course of schooling which had been deemed sufficient for so
worldly-well-endowed a boy; tall, loose-limbed, easy going and easily
led, Peter was the object of much speculation among marriageably
inclined maiden hearts, and had set his own where it was not wanted.

"Ouaie," continued Tom, "an' if I'd join him in the loan the money'd all
come to me when he'd done with it."

"Aw!... Money isn't everything.... Can't get all you want sometimes
when you've got all money you want."

"G'zammin, Peter! You're as crazy 'bout that lass as th' old un is 'bout
his mines. Why don't ye ask her and ha' done with it?"

"Aw--yes. Well.... You see.... I'm makin' up to her gradual like, and in
time----"

And Bernel in the hole dug his elbow facetiously into Nance's side.

"Mon Gyu! To think of a slip of a thing like our Nance making a great
big fellow like you as fool-soft as a bit of tallow!" and Tom stared at
him in amazement. "Why, I've licked her scores of times, and I used to
lift her up by the hair of her head."

"I'd ha' knocked your head right off, Tom Hamon, if I'd been there.
Right off--yes, an' bumped it on the ground."

"No, you wouldn't. 'Cause, in the first place, you couldn't, and in the
second place you wouldn't have looked at her then. She was no more to
look at than a bit of a rabbit, slipping about, scared-like, with her
big eyes all round her."

"Great rough bull of a chap you was, Tom. Ought to had more lickings
when you was young."

"Aw!" said Tom.

"Join him?" asked Peter after a pause.

"No, I won't, an' he's no right to ask it, an' he knows it. Them dirty
mines may pay an' they may not, but the farm's a safe thing an' I'll
stick to it."

"Maybe new capt'n'll make things go better. That's him, I'm thinking,
just got ashore from brig without breaking his legs," nodding towards
the wooden landing-stage on the other side of the gulf. For landing at
Port Gorey was at times a matter requiring both nerve and muscle.

A man, however, had just leaped ashore from the brig, and was now
standing lo