Read "A Lady's Ride Across Spanish Honduras" by Maria Soltera online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The steerage passenger described by the head steward as being a thorough gentleman was already seated in the boat which was to convey us on board the Clyde. I saw at a glance that he was one of Britannia's sons, very poor, perhaps, but bearing withal that unmistakable air of "breed," which neither wealth, nor education even, has ever succeeded in imitating with success. The true stamp of nature's gentleman, the best of all, is ever inborn. This fellow-wanderer assisted us to seats, and then we exchanged a few words as we were being rowed to our new vessel. I gathered from these that this passenger was bound for the mines in Guatemala; and he added to this information an avowal of his determination never to set foot in England until he should return rich, or at least independent.
"I am going to work as a common miner," continued this young man, with great decision, "whether my family like it or not. They sent me off to make my way as best I could in the colonies; and because I could not get a situation as a clerk in an office the moment I landed, it is assumed that I am idle and all the rest of it; and so I am going to take my own way of it, and stick to the work that has been offered to me on this side."