ll stood up smiling.

"Don't let him, papa--don't let him!" cried Arthur. "I could not bear
it. He hurt me then horribly! I will not have it out! I'll bear the
pain. He shall not do it! He sha'n't touch--"

Arthur stopped, stared, and dragged up the leg of his flannel trousers
to examine his leg, where there were two red spots, one of which had a
tiny bead of blood oozing from it, but the hook was gone.

"Why--where--where's the hook?" he cried in a querulous tone.

"Here it is!" said Will, holding it out, for with a quick turn he had
forced it on, sending the barb right through where the point nearly
touched the surface, and drawn it out--the shank, of course, easily
following the barb now that the flattened part had gone.

"Hor! hor! hor! hor!" croaked Josh, indulging in a hoarse laugh. "I
taught him how to do that, sir. It'll only prick a bit now, and heal up
in a day or two."

"But--but is it all out?" said Arthur, feeling his leg.

"Yes, it's all out, my boy," said Mr Temple. "Now what do you say?
Shall we bandage your leg and make you a bed at the bottom of the boat?"

Arthur looked up at him inquiringly, and then, seeing the amused glances
of all around, he said sharply:

"I don't like to be laughed at."

"Then you must learn to be more of a man," said his father in a low
tone, so that no one else could hear. "Arthur, my boy, I felt quite
ashamed of your want of courage."

"But it hurt so, papa."

"I daresay it did, and I have no doubt that it hurts a little now; but
for goodness' sake recollect what you are--an English boy, growing to be
an English man, and afraid of a little pain! There, jump ashore and
forget all about it."

Arthur stood up and obeyed, and then the little party proceeded to climb
the cliff, Will leading and selecting the easiest path, till once more
they stood beside an open mine-shaft, situated in a nook between two
masses of cliff which nearly joined, as it seemed from below, but were
quite twenty feet apart when the opening was reached.

"No," said Mr Temple after turning over a little of the _debris_ that
had been once dug out of the mine; "there would be nothing here worthy
of capital and labour."

He busied himself examining the different pieces of stone with his lens,
breaking first one fragment and then another, while Dick tried the depth
of the shaft by throwing down a stone, then a larger one, the noise of
its fall in the water below coming up with a dull