“’Tarn’t much of a place, sir, being a garret,” said Uncle Abram apologetically; “but lads as goes to sea has snugger quarters sometimes than our Will’s.”
He put his pipe back in his mouth—it was out now—and held it steady as he led the way to a door in a corner at the end of the passage, and up a very steep flight of stairs to a little room with sloping ceiling, over the kitchen.
“I had this knocked up for the lad o’ purpose,” said Uncle Abram proudly. “Made it as like a cabin as I could, meaning him to be sea-going, you understand, sir, only he’s drifting away from it like. Why, bless your heart, though, Mr Temple, sir, I never find no fault with him, for there’s stuff enough in him, I think, to make a real lord-mayor. There: there’s our Will’s room.”
He stood smiling as the visitors had a good look round the scrupulously clean little cabin-like bed-room with lockers and a swinging shelf of books, and everything arranged with a neatness that was most notable.
“Those are his books, sir. Spends a deal of time over ’em.”
“Novels and romances, eh?” said Mr Temple, going to the shelf. “Why, hullo! Fowne’s Chemistry, Smyth’s Mineralogy, Murchison’s Geology. Rather serious reading for him, isn’t it?”
“Not it, sir,” cried Uncle Abram. “He loves it, sir; and look here,” he continued, opening one of the lockers; “as full of specimens as can be. All sorts of stones and bits of ore that he gets from the mines. Ah! that’s a new net he’s making; small meshed seine to catch sand-eels, sir, for bait. That’s a new shrimp-net he made for me. Mixes it up like—reads and makes nets together. Once you’ve got your fingers to know how to make a net, they’ll go on while you read.”
“What are these?” said Mr Temple, pointing at a series of rough glass bottles and oil flasks.
“Oh, that’s his apparatus he made, sir. Does chemistry with them, and there’s a little crucible in my tool-house, where he melts down tin and things sometimes, to see what they’re made of. I always encourage him, I do, just. Can’t do the boy any harm.”
“Harm! no,” said Mr Temple quietly, as he glanced through Will’s treasures with a good deal of curiosity, spending most of the time over a small glass case which was full of glittering pieces of ore.