"It is not what a man is in position but what he is in himself that makes for his happiness.

And I think," he would add thoughtfully, "that the more a man understands of life and the more he thinks upon it--in fact, the more he has inside himself--the less he cares for the smaller things outside." And I believe he was right.
He taught me all he knew concerning the farm and the land and the crops, and taught me not by rule of thumb, but showed me the why and wherefore of things, and opened the eyes of my understanding to notice the little things of nature as well as the great, which many people, I have found, pass all through their lives without ever seeing at all.
The same with the fishing.

He and Krok gave me all they had to give; and, without vainglory, but simply as grateful testimony to their goodness, I think that at two-and-twenty I knew as much as any of my age in Sercq, and more than most.

I knew too that there were things I did not know, and did not care to know, and for that, and all the higher things, I have to thank my dear mother and my grandfather.
But growth in its very nature requires a widening sphere.

Contentment comes of experience and satisfaction, and youth, to arrive at that, must needs have the experience, but craves it as a rule for itself alone.
Sercq is but a dot on the map, and not indeed that on most, and outside it lay all the great world, teeming with wonders which could only be seen by seeking them.
Up to the time I was sixteen, and Carette fourteen, we were comrades of the sea and shore and cliffs, and very great friends.