Bound to get there

“I won’t stand it!”
“What will you do, Nick?”
“I’ll run away. If I work for my money I ought to have it. Mr. Steele can get a new boy. I won’t work any longer and get nothing for it.”
The scene was a yard at the rear of a barn that belonged to a comfortable-looking house in Parkdale. Nick Collins, just turned his sixteenth year, was the first speaker, and his companion was Frank Alden, about the same age. Day had just died beyond the high, blue hills, and evening sounds were in the air.
Until two months before the story opens Nick had lived with his grandfather, his only known relative. The old man died, leaving the lad an orphan; at least, people told him so. His mother had passed away when he was very young, and his father, a sailor, had gone to sea and never returned.