Once or twice he had been on the very nick of accomplishing something, and had driven home his nail; but then he let it spring back without clinching.

"Oh, any fool can do that!" he cried, and never stood to it, to do it again, or to see that it came not undone.

In a word, he stuck to nothing, but swerved about, here, there, and every where.
His father, being of so different a cast, and knowing how often the wisest of men must do what any fool can do, was bitterly vexed at the flighty ways of Willie, and could do no more than hope, with a general contempt, that when the boy grew older he might be a wiser fool.

But Willie's dear mother maintained, with great consistency, that such a perfect wonder could never be expected to do any thing not wonderful.
To this the farmer used to listen with a grim, decorous smile; then grumbled, as soon as he was out of hearing, and fell to and did the little jobs himself.
Sore jealousy of Willie, perhaps, and keen sense of injustice, as well as high spirit and love of adventure, had driven the younger son, Jack, from home, and launched him on a sea-faring life.

With a stick and a bundle he had departed from the ancestral fields and lanes, one summer morning about three years since, when the cows were lowing for the milk pail, and a royal cutter was cruising off the Head.