To enter into the occurrences of the next few years would be to give the business career of young men, when the object of this book was to tell of some of the pleasant adventurous days passed by three boys and their friends in that beautiful rugged county in the far west of England which the sea wraps so warmly that winter is shorn of half his force. It is only right to tell, though, that Mrs Marion, upon being taught by Mr Temple's treatment of her nephew that the boy was what some would call a lad of parts, suddenly began to display a deep interest in him-- in his clothes--in his linen; and Uncle Abram found her one day scolding poor Amanda the maid till she put her apron over her head and sat down on the floor and cried. Uncle Abram stood smoking his pipe and sending puffs here and there as Aunt Marion's tirade of bitterness went on. "What's matter?" he said at last. "Matter!" cried the old lady fiercely. "Matter enough. Here's this thoughtless, careless hussy actually been throwing away some specimens of ore that Will brought in. I declare it's monstrous--that it is." Uncle Abram nodded solemnly, sent a puff of smoke to east, another to west, and another due south, and then went out into his garden to tie up an Ayrshire rose that had been blown down by a late gale. "Wind's changed," he said to himself, "dead astarn; and our boy's v'y'ge through life will be an easy one now." Uncle Abram was right, for Mr Temple began to make quite a confidant of Will Marion at once, and depended greatly upon him for help in his business transactions over the kaolin and felspar upon his land. Dick said it was a jolly shame, and Arthur considered it to be a nuisance; but Mr Temple told them it was for their benefit, and to make them more useful to him in time to come, so they had to go to a great school for the next two years, at the end of which time the kaolin works were in full swing, and Mr Temple, as he never forgot to say, thanks to Will Marion, on the high road to fortune. For while this tin mine proved a failure, and that copper mine had paid no dividend for years, while the fisheries were sometimes successful, sometimes, through storms and loss of gear, carried on at a loss, Mr Temple's kaolin works became yearly more profitable, the vein growing thicker and finer in quality the more it was opened out. Kaolin--of course you all know what that Chinese word means. Eh? What? A little boy at the back says he doesn't know? Then we must enlighten him, and be a little learned for a minute or two.