A boy brought up and educated on an island can't be expected to prove very shrewd, and whatever the extent of his fortune it is liable to melt like snow in the sunshine." "After all," returned Arthur, "this experience won't hurt him.

He will still have his island to return to." They smoked for a time in silence.
"Has it ever occurred to you, sir," said Arthur, "that the story Jones has related to us, meager though it is, bears somewhat the stamp of a fairy tale ?" Uncle John removed his cigar and looked reflectively at the ash.
"You mean that the boy is not what he seems ?" "Scarcely that, sir.

He seems like a good boy, in the main.

But his story is--such as one might invent if he were loath to tell the truth." Uncle John struck a match and relit his cigar.
"I believe in A.Jones, and I see no reason to doubt his story," he asserted.

"If real life was not full of romance and surprises, the novelists would be unable to interest us in their books.".