“I don’t want to despise the fishermen, sir,” said Will; “but I should choose to be a miner and have to do with mines if I could do as I liked.”
“And go down into a deep hole and use a pick all your life, eh?”
“No,” replied Will; “I should try to rise above doing that. Most of our miners here work with their arms, and they seem to do that always; but here and there one of them works with his head as well, and he gets to be captain of a mine, or an adventurer.”
“Ah!” said Mr Temple sternly. “Why, what an idle, discontented dog you must be, sir! I don’t wonder at your aunt scolding you so that all the people in the village can hear. Why don’t you attend to your work as a fisher lad, and be content with your position?”
“I do attend to my work, sir,” said Will firmly; “but I can’t feel content with my station.”
“Why not, sir? Why, you are well fed and clothed; and if you wait long enough you will perhaps succeed to your uncle’s property when he dies, and have a boat or two and a set of nets of your own.”
Will flushed up and rose from his chair.
“You have no business to speak to me, sir, like that,” he said warmly; “and I am not so mean and contemptible as to be looking forward to getting my poor old uncle’s property when he dies.”
“Well done, Will!” cried Dick enthusiastically.
“Silence, sir!” cried Mr Temple sternly. “How dare you speak like that! And so, sir, you are so unselfish as to wish to be quite independent, and to wish to get your living yourself free of everybody?”