"That's easily told, anyway. My father was schoolmaster at Inverclaver. He taught me."
"And does he teach you still? Where is he schoolmaster now?"
He looked at her a moment in silence, and then said—
"I don't know. He's dead."
"Oh! But he can't be a schoolmaster anywhere if he's dead. I'm so sorry. And of course he can't teach you either."
"I don't know," said the boy slowly. "I think sometimes——"
But she was off on another scent.
"What are you going to be when you grow up?"
"Ah!"—with animation. "I'm going to be a big man."
"You can't make yourself that. You're not very big now."