e so; but I don't know that there was any whispering
about it," returned the little girl.

"Well, she told you what'll never be. I mean to be a sailor, so there!"

"To be a farmer is no bad berth," said sensible Dick.

"Oh yes, for them who take to it; but that's not I. I mean to be a
sailor, like my father before me."

"Oh! but, Oscar, what will uncle say?" cried Inna.

"Oh, he'll get over it. Every boy has a right to choose his own
profession, and he knows it."

"Yes; but 'tisn't a right every boy goes in for. I meant to be a farmer,
and my father set his heel upon that notion, and said I must be a
doctor," said Dick.

"Well?" and Oscar waited to hear more.

"I shall be a doctor; no good comes of a boy going on trying to go
against his father's way or will."

"No," said the other, somewhat taken aback; "a father is different from
an uncle."

"Yes," was Dick's retort. "I suppose an uncle would expect a little more
yielding of number one to number two."

"Why?" growled Oscar, not liking Dick's views of the case.

"Because of gratitude. I suppose gratitude ought to have a voice with a
fellow about his father's wishes; but it ought to have two voices with
those of an uncle playing a father's part."

"Well, an uncle's wish ought not to make one wreck one's life; and
that's what I shall do if I am a farmer."

"Phew! you'd be more likely to be wrecked as a sailor now," replied Dick
loftily.

"Well, I mean to stand up for my rights," contended Oscar.

"Better not, if you value your peace of mind. Since I've given up
youth's charming dream of farming--ha! how the words rhyme!--I've been
as happy as a peg-top," answered Dick.

The girls smiled.

"Oh yes," grumbled Oscar, "well enough for you to laugh. You girls never
have to choose or wish--you always have all you want."

"Oh, come, Willett; little friend there could contradict that, I know,"
said Dick. "But we didn't come up here to discuss our wants and wishes.
Suppose we look about a bit, and see the sights. Look, Miss Inna, that
jutting rock yonder, by the sea, is Swallow's Cliff, and behind it is a
little bay;" and then he drew her away to look down the Ugly Leap. A
dizzy height it was to gaze down from above, with a deep gorge at its
foot, in which a stream of water gurgled, said by some to have a
connection with Black Hole, the lad told her; over which Inna shuddered
and turned away.

Then they all sat down, and lunched in earnest--a late lunch,