hink of that. No,
Master Dick."

"There; don't call me Master Dick; say Dick. I want you to be friends
with me, Will. It's all nonsense about you only being a fisher lad. My
father said only yesterday to Taff that he should have been very proud
to have called you his son."

"Oh!" cried Will, with a deprecatory movement of his hand.

"He did; and that you had the spirit of a true gentleman in your breast.
I say, Will Marion," cried Dick, giving him a playful kick, "what a
fellow you are! I'm as jealous of you as Taff is."

"Nonsense!" cried Will; "and don't you be so hard on him. Do you know
what he did yesterday?"

"Made some disagreeable remark," said Dick bitterly.

"He came up to me when I was alone and shook hands with me, and said he
was very sorry that he had been so stuck-up and rude to me as he had
been sometimes, and said it was all his ignorance, but he hoped he knew
better now."

"Taff did? Taff came and said that to you?" cried Dick excitedly.

"Yes; and we parted the best of friends."

"There's a chap for you!" cried Dick warmly. "There's a brick! I say
Taff is a fine fellow after all, only he got made so stuck-up and
tall-hat and Eton jacketty at one school he went to. But, I say, my
father wants you. Come along."

Dick led the way into the parlour, where the object of their
conversation was sitting by the window reading, and Mr Temple busy over
some papers.

"Here's Will, father," said Dick.

"I'll attend to him in a moment," said Mr Temple. "Let me finish this
letter."

Will stood in the middle of the room in his shabby, well-worn canvas
trousers and coarse jersey, his straw hat hanging at full arm's-length
by his side, and his clear grey eyes, after a glance at Arthur, fixed
almost hungrily upon the specimens of ore and minerals that encumbered
the table and window-sill wherever there was a place where a block could
be laid.

The sight of these brought up many a hunt that he had had amongst the
old mines and rifts and chasms of the rocks round about the shore, and
made him long once more to steal away for a few hours in search of some
vein that would give him a chance of making himself independent and
working his own way in the world.

Dick broke his train of thought by coming behind him and placing a chair
for him, but he declined.

"I wish I had thought to do that!" said Arthur to himself. "I never
think of those little things."

"That's done," said Mr Temple sharp