"Jules Verne. The Underground City OR The Black Indies" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Really! has your family never left the old mine since the cessation
of the works?"

"Not a day, Mr. Starr. You know my father. It is there he was born,
it is there he means to die!"


"I can understand that, Harry. I can understand that! His native mine!
He did not like to abandon it! And are you happy there?"

"Yes, Mr. Starr," replied the young miner, "for we love one another,
and we have but few wants."

"Well, Harry," said the engineer, "lead the way."

And walking rapidly through the streets of Callander, in a few
minutes they had left the town behind them.


CHAPTER III THE DOCHART PIT


HARRY FORD was a fine, strapping fellow of five and twenty.
His grave looks, his habitually passive expression, had from
childhood been noticed among his comrades in the mine.
His regular features, his deep blue eyes, his curly hair,
rather chestnut than fair, the natural grace of his person,
altogether made him a fine specimen of a lowlander.
Accustomed from his earliest days to the work of the mine,
he was strong and hardy, as well as brave and good.
Guided by his father, and impelled by his own inclinations,
he had early begun his education, and at an age when most lads

are little more than apprentices, he had managed to make himself
of some importance, a leader, in fact, among his fellows,
and few are very ignorant in a country which does all it can
to remove ignorance. Though, during the first years of his youth,
the pick was never out of Harry's hand, nevertheless the young
miner was not long in acquiring sufficient knowledge to raise
him into the upper class of the miners, and he would certainly
have succeeded his father as overman of the Dochart pit,
if the colliery had not been abandoned.

James Starr was still a good walker, yet he could not easily
have kept up with his guide, if the latter had not slackened
his pace. The young man, carrying the engineer's bag,
followed the left bank of the river for about a mile. Leaving its
winding course, they took a road under tall, dripping trees.
Wide fields lay on either side, around isolated farms.