“Yes, sir, I found it when I was hunting about as I have done these two years.”
“Then don’t you think you have a right to some of the profit from such a vein?”
“I don’t know, sir. Of course I should like to have some of it, sir, but I don’t see how I could expect it.”
“Then I do,” said Mr Temple. “Look here, my lad, I will tell you something. I have purchased the whole of the land that contains that vein.”
“You’ve bought it, father?” cried Dick. “Oh, I am glad!”
“Why?” said his father sharply.
“Because we shall come here to live.”
“Oh!” said Mr Temple. “Now look here, Marion. You showed me what I hope will prove very valuable to me, and I don’t want to be ungrateful in return. Now what should you say if I spent a hundred pounds in a boat expressly for you, and after we had called it The White Spar, I presented it to you?”
“I should say it was very generous of you, sir.”
“And it would make you very happy, my lad?”