"Both fond of the sea?"
"That mightn't go far enough. Nellie has had to give up so much, or rather it has been taken away from her. You can understand that?"
Jimmy nodded assent. It had already occurred to him that his comrade was a man who had lost something he greatly valued, and it did not appear incongruous that Miss Merril should be speaking in this familiar fashion to him. In fact, she frequently contrived to make him forget that he was Valentine's hired hand and wore the man-o'-war cap.
"What would a boat like the Sorata cost to build?" she asked.
"Perhaps four thousand dollars in this country."
"Ah!" said the girl; "and with that sum one could probably set up a store, buy one of the little sawmills near a rising settlement, or start on one of the other paths that are supposed to lead to affluence."
Jimmy laughed. "Supposing he owned the big Hastings mill, what more could it offer a man with his views? As he will tell you, he gets what he likes almost for nothing. He may be right, too. After all, it is clean dirt one has to eat at sea."
"There are not many men who could live as he does; the rest would go to pieces. And isn't it rather shirking a responsibility?"
"You mean that one ought to make money?"
"I think one ought to take one's part in the struggle that is going to make this the greatest Province in the Dominion; but not exactly for that reason." Then Miss Merril apparently decided to change the subject. "You had a good halibut season?"