"I'm a monitor, Mr. Marsh. I'm in my first year!..."
Henry sat up and joined in the conversation. "Then you're going to be a teacher?" he said.
"No, I'm not," Jamesey replied. "My ma put me in for the monitor to get the bit of extra education. That's all!"
"What are you going to be, Jamesey? A farmer?" said Marsh.
"No. I wouldn't be a farmer for the world!..."
"But why?"
The boy changed his position and faced round to them. "Sure, there's nothin' to do but work from the dawn till the dark," he said, "an' you never get no diversion at all. I'm quaren tired of this place, I can tell you, an' my ma's tired of it too. She wudden be here if she could help it, but sure she can't. It's terrible in the winter, an' the win' fit to blow the head off you, an' you with nothin' to do on'y look after a lot of oul' cows an' pigs an' things. I'm goin' to a town as soon as I'm oul' enough!..."
They talked to him of the beauty of the country....
"Och, it's all right for a holiday in the summer," he said.
... and they talked to him of the fineness of a farmer's life, but he would not agree with them. A farmer's life was too hard and too dull. He was set on joining his brother in Glasgow....