"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.
"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.
"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, for the afternoon was fast slipping away--and took more sips from Oscar's water-bottle. And while they chatted, laughed, and loitered on foot, for it was becoming bitterly cold to sit down any longer, up came the enemy, from the sea it may be, behind their backs; at any rate, it was there with them--ere they realised it the mist was come. Surely the old Tor wasn't going to turn nasty and ill-natured to-day, of all days! they said, in startled dismay; and Oscar affirmed he had seen the fog settle and rise, settle and rise, as fickle as any girl's temper. "'Twas nothing," he said; "it would lift."