ive cleanly and neatly than to pattern his household
arrangements after the beasts of the field. He was, moreover, strongly
actuated to reform his way of living by his deep, strong sense of
gratitude to Noll, which led him to endeavor to accomplish whatever
the boy suggested. It gave the stalwart fisherman something like a
feeling of shame to see the lad--bright, fresh, and ruddy--enter his
dirty and smoke-begrimed hovel and hardly be able to find himself a
seat among the litter of old nets, broken chairs, household utensils,
and all conceivable kinds of rubbish which strewed the floors and
filled the corners.

"It be a shame," Dirk said to his wife, after Noll had gone, one day,
"that the lad hev ter stan' up, an' ben't able ter find a seat, nohow.
I tell ye it be a shame, woman!"

"Ye might mend the chairs a bit, man!" retorted Mrs. Sharp. "I'll
warrant the lad be able ter find a seat then."

Dirk was sulky for a while after this, but saw that there could be
nothing to sit upon so long as the chairs were for the most part
legless, and at last got energy enough to mend them after a rude
fashion. Then another place was found for the old nets besides the two
corners by the fireplace, and when these had been removed, Mrs. Sharp
took her broom and--well, it was not exactly sweeping, for the woman
had not much idea of what a good housekeeper would call sweeping, but
it was a feeble attempt at cleanliness, and she really thought she had
made a great exertion, and was certainly proud of the achievement.
Dirk chanced to be at home when Noll came again, and the flash of
surprise and pleasure which swept over the boy's face as he entered
and noted the change which had taken place since his last call pleased
Dirk amazingly.

"Here be a seat fur ye, lad," he said, not without some pride in his
tone, as he brought forward a rough three-legged block and placed it
for his visitor. A faint stir of worthy ambition having slightly
roused Dirk and his wife, they were hardly contented to allow matters
to remain as they were. Mrs. Sharp once more took her broom, and used
it with rather better effect. Dirk made an onslaught upon the rubbish
which had been collecting in their kitchen and about the doorsteps for
years, and which no one had had the energy to remove, and threw many a
basketful into the sea.

The neighbors, meanwhile, were not entirely insensible to the fact
that Dirk's house began to present--both within and wit