"Pardon me, sir, but you said I am to write down all that I _think_
about it."
"Well, what then?"
"I--I'm afraid, sir," stammered Robin, "that if I write down all I
_think_ about the Atlantic Cable, as well as all that I see, I shall
require a very long time indeed, and a pretty large volume."
Mr Smith gazed at our hero for some time with uplifted brows, then he
shook his head slowly and frowned, then he nodded it slightly and
smiled. After that he laughed, or rather chuckled, and said--
"Well, you may go now, and do what I have told you--only omitting most
of what you think. A small portion of that will suffice! Don't hurry
back. Go home and make a fair copy of your observations and thoughts.
I'll write when I require you. Stay--your address? Ah! I have it in
my note-book. What's your first name, Mister Wright?"
Robin grew two inches taller, or more, on the spot; he had never been
called Mister before, except in jest!
"Robert, sir," he replied.
"Robert--ha! h'm! I'll call you Bob. I never could stand ceremony, so
you'll accustom yourself to the new name as quickly as you can--but
perhaps it's not new to you?"
"Please, sir, I've been used to Robin; if you have no objection, I
should--"
"No objection--of course not," interrupted Mr Smith; "Robin will do
quite as well, though a little longer; but that's no matter. Good-bye,
Robin, and--and--don't think too hard. It sometimes hurts digestion;
good-bye."
"Well, what d'ee think of Ebbysneezer Smith, my electrical toolip?"
asked Jim Slagg, whom Robin encountered again at the station. "He's a
wiry subject, I s'pose, like the rest of 'em?"
"He's a very pleasant gentleman," answered Robin warmly.
"Oh, of coorse he is. All the Smiths are so--more or less. They're a
glorious family. I knows at least half a dozen of 'em in what superfine
people call the `slums' of London."
"And I know _more_ than half a dozen of 'em," retorted Robin, somewhat
sharply, "in what unrefined people call the _h_aristocracy of London."
"Whew!" whistled Mister Slagg, gazing at Robin in silent surprise.
What the whistle implied was not explained at that time, because the
locomotive whistle took up the tune with intense violence, causing a
rush to the train, in which the two lads--like many other friends--were
abruptly parted for a season.