I want to do my duty even when it is hard for me.
You shall see what a friend I will be to Hal.

I mean to go out as soon as I have done breakfast, and see if I can look him up some steady work.
I heard Old Jock say on Saturday he wanted a strong boy to help him handle his nets.

I'll try to get the place for Hal." Blair was as prompt to act as to plan.

A half hour after breakfast was over he was standing by the cottage of an old fisherman and knocking for admittance.
It took all Blair's powers of persuasion to induce Jock to have any thing to do with what he called a "furriner." The case seemed well-nigh lost, when Blair mounted on a chair, and made a small speech in his best style for the benefit of his single auditor.

Whether won over by its logic or through a sense of the honor thus conferred upon him, Jock agreed to Blair's proposition.
"The first speech I ever made to any purpose," thought Blair, as he walked rapidly along the shore, wending his way to Mrs.McKinstry's dwelling.
Hal had locked himself into his "castle," as the only way in which he could escape the merciless scolding of his voluble hostess.