Quiet country folk we were; old-fashioned, and boastful of our old-fashionedness, albeit it meant little more than that our manners and customs were a generation behindhand of the more cultivated folk, who live nearer to London.

We were proud of our name too, which is written in the earliest registers and records of the parish, honourably connected with the land we lived on; but which may be searched for in vain in the lists of great or even learned Englishmen.
It never troubled dear old Jem that there had not been a man of mark among all the men who had handed on our name from generation to generation.

He had no feverish ambitions, and as to books, I 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 handed round for family prayers, and out of which we said the psalms for the day, verse about with my father.

I generally found the place, and Jem put his arm over my shoulder and read with me.
He was a yeoman born.

I can just remember--when I was not three years old and he was barely four--the fright our mother got from his fearless familiarity with the beasts about the homestead.