what are ye going to do now, Rob? Ye'll be taking to the fishing?'

'Oh, ay; I'll be taking to the fishing!' said Rob bitterly, for he had
been having his dreams also, and had turned from them with a sigh. 'Of
course I'll be taking to the fishing! And maybe ye'll tell me where I
am to get 40 pounds to buy a boat, and where I am to get 30 pounds to
buy nets? Maybe ye'll tell me that, Sandy?'

'The bank----'

'What does the bank ken about me? They would as soon think of throwing
the money into Loch Scrone.'

'But ye ken, Rob, Coll Macdougall would give ye a share in his boat for
12 pounds.'

'Twelve pounds! Man, ye're just daft, Sandy. Where am I to get 12
pounds?'

'Well, well, Rob,' said the old man coming nearer, and speaking still
more mysteriously, 'listen to what I tell ye. Some day or other ye'll
be taking to the fishing; and when that day comes I will put something
in your way. Ay, ay; the fishermen about Erisaig dinna know
everything; come to me, Rob, my man, and I'll tell ye something about
the herring. Ye are a good lad, Rob; many's the herring I've got from
ye when I wouldna go near the shore for they mischievous bairns; and
when once ye have a boat and nets o' your own I will tell ye something.
Daft Sandy is no so daft, maybe. Have ye ony tobacco, Rob?'

Rob said he had no tobacco; and making sure that Daft Sandy had come to
him with a pack of nonsense merely as an excuse to borrow money for
tobacco, he bundled him out of the house and went to bed.

Rob was anxious that his brothers and cousin, and himself, should
present a respectable appearance at the funeral; and in these humble
preparations nearly all their small savings were swallowed up. The
funeral expenses were paid by the Steamboat Company. Then after the
funeral, the few people who were present departed to their own homes,
no doubt imagining that the MacNicol boys would be able to live as
hitherto they had lived--that is, anyhow.

But there was a kindly man called Jamieson, who kept the grocery shop,
and he called Rob in as the boys passed home.

'Rob,' said he, 'ye maun be doing something now. There's a cousin of
mine has a whisky shop in the Saltmarket in Glasgow, and I could get ye
a place there.'

Rob's very gorge rose at the notion of his having to serve in a whisky
shop in Glasgow. That would be to abandon all the proud ambitions of
his life. Nevertheless, he had been thinking seriously about the duty
he owed to