We and the World, Part I

hereditary transmission of home-bred virtues and local attachments, that speak deeply

ut the crops, or the rise in wages, or our prospects, and had thought better of it again, and

gave them more trouble than I can think of with a comfortable conscience as it was; but the

nd his head in the clouds, on a fine June day, with the hay all out, and the glass falling: b

s of dogs and horses and cattle, and the price of hay. We were north-of-England people, but not of a commercial or adventurous class, though we were within easy reach of some of the great manufacturing centres. Quiet country folk we were; old-fashioned, and boastful of our old-fashionedness, albeit it meant little more than that our man

doubt if he ever opened a volume, if he could avoid it, after he wore out three horn-books and our mother's patience in learning his letters-not even the mottle-backed prayer-books which were

we knew well by sight and name, got into the garden and drew near us. As I sat on the grass-my head at no higher level than the buttercups in the field beyond-Dolly loomed so large above me that I felt frightened and began to cry. But Jem, only conscious that she had no business

ead, he waddled bravely up to the cow, flourishing his stick. The process interested me, and I dri

s in farming-man fashion, and belabouring

ged her mind, and swinging heavily round, trotted off towards the field, followed by Jem, waving, shouting, and victorious. My mother got out in t

addle across, and to "grip" with our knees in orthodox fashion was a matter of principle, but impossible in practice. Laddie's pace was always discreet, however, and I do not think we should have found a saddle any improvement, even as to safety, upo

uttered down over our heads for peas, and the pigs humped themselves against the wall of the sty as tightly as they could lean, in hopes of having their backs scratched. The long sweet faces of the plough horses, as they turned in the furrows, were as familiar to us as the faces of an

me into trouble. Want of sympathy became absolute annoyance as I grew older, and wandered farther, and adopted a perfect menagerie of odd beasts in whom my friends could see no good qualities: such as the snake I kept warm in my trousers-pocket; the stickleback that I am convinced I tamed in its own waters; the toad fo

ading: I was so fond of Buffon's Natural History, of which t

and teased my father into taking in the Penny Cyclop?dia; and those number

way in which I had gone astray from the family habits and traditions,

a new kind into the family. In a quiet way of her own, as she went gently about household matters, or knitted my father's stockings, she was a great day-dreamer-one of

ction of some instinctive sense of justice) he almost always ended by adopting them, whether they wer

of, he'll make plenty of money, and he must live with Jem when we're gone, and let Jem manage it for him, for clever people are never any good at taking care of what they get. And when their families get too big for the old house, love, Jack must build, as he'll

gether." I am sure in her tender heart she blessed my bookish genius, which was to make weal

to turn my father's footsteps towards the Ladycroft every Sund

ity, before the big pink thorn, and had stood so long absorb

and where a

gravely. "The window is to the north of cour

ered women that ever lived, and never dreamed that any one was laughing at her. I have heard my father say she la

-day, my dear; and thor

gravely: "There's plenty of time yet, love. The boys are only just in trousers;

ther with a sigh. But she had full confidence in my father-a tr

ds. Perhaps, after all, I inherited that idle fancy, those unsatisfied yearnings of

inherited her

mper of his had no doubt much to do with it. He was very much led by me, thoug

rom the kitchen-garden to the other side of the world. (Jem helped me to fill it up again, when the gardener made a fuss about our having chosen the asparagus-bed as the point of departure, which we did b

e. How he did deride me when I asked our mot

lvet mantle. I knew, for I had kissed him lightly as he sat on the window-frame. I had seen him brushing first one side and then the other side of his head, with an action so exactly that of my father brushing his

ing his cheeks for myself. He began to dance all over the window, humming his own tune, and before he got

th Isaac Irvine, the bee-keeper. For when I asked that silly question, my mother said, "Not that I ever saw, love;" and my

ircumstances which led to my disgracing myself in a manner that must have b

nd we went on till long after we were in trousers; and I am sure Jem never got the three words "and an inheritor" tidily off the tip of his tongue within my remembrance. And I have seen both him and my mother crying over them on a hot Sunday afternoon. He was always in a fright when we had to say the Catechism in church, and that day

did, and when he found he had only got the First Commandment, he was more at ease, and though the second, which fell to me, is much lon

ind our backs; but just as he finished, no less than three bees, who had been hovering over th

casion, Master Isaac was standing exactly opposite to me. As he leaned forward, his hands crossed on the pew-top before him, I had been a good deal fascinated by his face, which was a very noble one in its rugged way, with snow-white hair and intense, keenly observin

c's hand, and though I began the Second Commandment, I could not take my eyes off them, and when Master Isaac saw this he smiled and nodded his white head, and said, "Never you mind me, sir. They won't sting the old beekeeper." This assertion so completely turned my head that every other idea went out of it, and after saying "or in the earth beneath" three

letters was its name, Chick-seed without Chick-weed; and in this book she wrote our names, and the date at the end of each lesson we conned fairly through. I had got i

d-natured as he was, Jem was too fond of fighting and laying about him: and though it was only "in words of thre

alled "T

the bat if you hit the Dog. It is a hot day, and the Dog may go mad. One day a Dog bit a boy in the arm, and the boy had his arm cut off, for the Dog was mad. A

red at my mother's knees, to point with his own little stumpy forefinger

much pleased. "And now read this las

and then with a hasty dog's-ear he turned back to the previous page, and spelled out, "I had my bat and I

t don't forget, my darling, that my Jem must never 'hit a do

s he passed the ottoman near the door, he saw Kitty, our old tortoise-shell puss, lying on it, and (moved perhaps by the occurrence of the word cat in the last sentence of the lesson) he

n of having laid my nice, thick, fresh green crop of mustard and cress flat with the back of the coal-shovel, which he could barely lift, but with which he was still battering my salad-

mother said, that "you never know what

d notions it was high time we were sent to school, our parents were spared the trouble of looking out for a school for us by the fac

e track. Grass and milfoil grew thickly between the stones, and the turf stretched half-way over the road from each side, for there was little traffic in the lane, beyond the yearly rumble of the harv

e a good deal, but th

n it (for it had ceased to be the dwelling-house of a real farm) was an eccentric old miser, the chief object of whose existence seemed to be to thwar

fferent from the house which was our home, that everyth

ugly, but it was in such excellent repair that one could never indulge a more lawless fancy

r educated or farther-travelled than my father, had built a pretty one, whilst my

windows, a broad and gracefully proportioned doorway with several shallow steps and quaintly-ornamented lintel; bits of fine work and ornamentation about the woodwork here a

nd it was the sort of house that became Walnu