these lads, his companions, who were now dependent on him.
So he swallowed his pride and said,

'How much would he give me?'

'I think I could get him to give ye four shillings a week. That would
keep ye very well.'

'Keep me?' said Rob. 'Ay, but what's to become o' Duncan and Neil and
Nicol?'

'They must shift for themselves,' the grocer answered.

'That winna do,' said Rob, and he left the shop.

He overtook his companions and asked them to go along to some rocks
overlooking the harbour. They sat down there--the harbour below them
with all its picturesque boats, and masses of drying nets, and what not.

'Neil,' said Rob to his cousin, 'we'll have to think about things now.
There will be no more Eilean-na-Rona for us. We have just about as
much left as will pay the lodgings this week, and Nicol must go three
nights a week to the night school. What we get for stripping the nets
'll no do now.'

'It will not,' said Neil.

'Mr. Jamieson was offering me a place in Glasgow, but it is not very
good, and I think we will do better if we keep together. Neil,' said
he, 'if we had only a net, do ye not think we could trawl for cuddies?'
[1]

And again he said, 'Neil, do ye not think we could make a net for
ourselves out of the old rags lying at the shed?'

And again he said, 'Do ye think that Peter, the tailor, would lend us
his old boat for a shilling a week?'

It was clear that Rob had been carefully considering the details of
this scheme of co-operation. And it was eagerly welcomed, not only by
Neil, but also by the brothers Duncan and Nicol, who had been
frightened by the thought of Rob going away to Glasgow. The youngest
of all, Nicol, boldly declared that he could mend nets as well as any
man in Erisaig.

No sooner was the scheme thoroughly discussed, than it was determined,
under Rob's direction, to set to work at once. The woman who kept the
lodgings and cooked their food for them had intimated to them that they
need be in no hurry to pay her for a week or two until they should find
some employment; but they had need of money, or the equivalent of
money, in other directions. Might not old Peter, who was a grumbling
and ill-tempered person, insist on being paid in advance? Then, before
they could begin to make a net out of the torn and rejected pieces
lying about the shed, they must needs have a ball of twine. So Rob
bade his brothers and cousin go away and get their rude fishing-rods
and beta