"Talking to the fishermen, father," cried the boy, starting up. "I say, they're going out to lay this line. May I go with them?" His father hesitated a moment and glanced quickly to seaward before turning to Josh. "Weather going to be fine?" he said in a quick way that indicated business more than command, though there was enough of the latter in his speech to make Josh answer readily: "Going to be fine for a week;" and then confidentially, "We'll take care on him." The stranger smiled. "Yes, you can go, Dick; but take care of yourself. It does not take you long to make friends, young man. Come, Arthur, I'm going for a walk along the beach." "Can't I go with Dick, papa?" said the boy addressed, in an ill-used tone. "No; I should think three will be enough in a small boat; and besides--" He said no more, but glanced in a half-amused way at his son's costume, being himself in a loose suit of tweeds. Arthur coloured and tightened his lips, walking off with his father, too much hurt to say more to his brother, whom he left talking to Will. "There," said the latter, impaling the last bit of squid on a hook and then laying it in its place, "that's ready. Now you'd better do as I do: go home and get some tea and then come back." "But it's too soon," replied Dick, "I can't get tea yet--" "Come home and have some with me then," said Will. "All right!" said Dick. "I say, does he live with you? Is he your brother?" "Hor--hor--hor--hor!" laughed Josh. "That is a good one. Me his brother! Hor--hor--hor!" "Well, I didn't know," said Dick colouring. "I only thought he might be, you know." "Oh, no, youngster! I ain't no brother o' him," said Josh, shaking his head. "There, don't you mind," he continued, clapping his strong hand on the boy's shoulder, and then catching hold of him with his short deformed limb, an act that looked so startling and strange that the boy leaped back and stared at him. Josh's deformity was his weakest as well as his strongest point, and he looked reproachfully, half angrily, at the boy and then turned away. With the quick instinct of a frank, generous nature, Dick saw the wound he had inflicted upon the rough fisherman, and glanced first at Will, who was also touched on his companion's account. Then stepping quickly up to Josh he touched him on the arm and held out his hand. "I--I beg your pardon," he said. "I didn't know. I was surprised. I'm very sorry--" Josh's weather-tanned face lit up directly with a pleasant smile, and grasping the boy's hand he wrung it so hard that Dick had hard work to keep from wincing. "It's all right, my lad," he said. "Of course you didn't know! It be gashly ugly, bean't it? Fell off the cliff when I was quite a babby, you know, and soft. Fifty foot. Yonder, you know;" and he pointed to the steep cliff and its thin iron railing at the end of the village. "How shocking!" said Dick.