gentleman should. I will try to tell you what I mean, Curdie. If a
gentleman--I mean a real gentleman, not a pretended one, of which sort
they say there are a many above ground--if a real gentleman were to
lose all his money and come down to work in the mines to get bread for
his family--do you think, Curdie, he would work like the lazy ones?
Would he try to do as little as he could for his wages? I know the
sort of the true gentleman pretty near as well as he does himself. And
my wife, that's your mother, Curdie, she's a true lady, you may take my
word for it, for it's she that makes me want to be a true gentleman.
Wife, the boy is in the right about your hand.'

'Now, Father, let me feel yours,' said Curdie, daring a little more.

'No, no, my boy,' answered Peter. 'I don't want to hear anything about
my hand or my head or my heart. I am what I am, and I hope growing
better, and that's enough. No, you shan't feel my hand. You must go to
bed, for you must start with the sun.'

It was not as if Curdie had been leaving them to go to prison, or to
make a fortune, and although they were sorry enough to lose him, they
were not in the least heartbroken or even troubled at his going.

As the princess had said he was to go like the poor man he was, Curdie
came down in the morning from his little loft dressed in his working
clothes. His mother, who was busy getting his breakfast for him, while
his father sat reading to her out of an old book, would have had him
put on his holiday garments, which, she said, would look poor enough
among the fine ladies and gentlemen he was going to. But Curdie said
he did not know that he was going among ladies and gentlemen, and that
as work was better than play, his workday clothes must on the whole be
better than his playday Clothes; and as his father accepted the
argument, his mother gave in. When he had eaten his breakfast, she
took a pouch made of goatskin, with the long hair on it, filled it with
bread and cheese, and hung it over his shoulder. Then his father gave
him a stick he had cut for him in the wood, and he bade them good-bye
rather hurriedly, for he was afraid of breaking down. As he went out
he caught up his mattock and took it with him. It had on the one side
a pointed curve of strong steel for loosening the earth and the ore,
and on the other a steel hammer for breaking the stones and rocks.
Just as he crossed the threshold the sun showed the first segment of
his