Her authority was defied, her officer scorned and insulted, her youngest child perverted, by the obstinate elder brother.

She made a desperate and unhappy attempt to maintain her power.
The boys were fourteen years of age, Harry being taller and much more advanced than his brother, who was delicate, and as yet almost childlike in stature and appearance.

The baculine method was a quite common mode of argument in those days.

Sergeants, schoolmasters, slave-overseers, used the cane freely.

Our little boys had been horsed many a day by Mr.
Dempster, their Scotch tutor, in their grandfather's time; and Harry, especially, had got to be quite accustomed to the practice, and made very light of it.