Page 43 - An Australian Lassie

And forthwith he launched into a sea-story more enthralling by far to the boy than any in that library so
stocked with sea-stories.

At dinner again, at night, the talk was the same. The usually silent ruminative old man was positively
loquacious, and John gave him a rapt attention.

When nine o'clock struck a dim remembrance come to the boy that he was still a pupil of Wygate School and
had home tasks to prepare for the morrow.

But he had slipped too far out of his groove to go back again that night.

He began to wander in and out of the lower floor rooms; out of the front door, round the verandah, and in by
the French windows to the dining-room.

"T'll chuck school," he said. "Catch any of those self-made men going to school when they were thirteen. T'll
have to struggle and screw and put myself to a night-school. That's what they did. A self-made man is good
enough for me."