I went down into the most solitary place in the steerage, that I might enjoy it without interruption.

I cried with pleasure before I opened it, but I cried a great deal more with grief, after I had read the contents--for my eldest brother Tom was dead of a typhus fever.

Poor Tom! when I called to mind what tricks he used to play me--how he used to borrow my money and never pay me--and how he used to thrash me and make me obey him, because he was my eldest brother--I shed a torrent of tears at his loss; and then I reflected how miserable my poor mother must be, and I cried still more.
"What's the matter, spooney ?" said O'Brien, coming up to me.

"Who has been licking you now ?" "O, nobody," replied I; "but my eldest brother Tom is dead, and I have no other." "Well, Peter, I dare say that your brother was a very good brother; but I'll tell you a secret.

When you've lived long enough to have a beard to scrape at, you'll know better than to make a fuss about an elder brother.