's heart was full of tender pity for the old deaf woman, with her
weird helpless ways, at whose side he had grown since his infancy;
though she could hardly have been said to "bring him up," for Granny
Baxter had been shiftless and unlovable when she was in possession of
her faculties, and her character had not improved under her trying
infirmities. Her grandson, however, always treated her with a tender
patience which no querulousness of the old woman could weary. Not so
little Jean. Only once she could remember her brother looking very grave
and grieved, and it was one day when she had refused to do something
that the old woman wanted, and put her in a white heat of passion by her
rebellion. Having escaped beyond the reach of her poor granny's
tottering feet, and, finding her way to the field where Geordie was
herding, she began to narrate her story in triumph, when her brother's
grave silence made her feel how naughty she had been. After that day
little Jean always tried to "mind" granny more, though she never
attained to the same unwearied service as Geordie.

That Jean's education was being sadly neglected her brother felt
painfully, and he had made various efforts to teach her the little he
knew himself; but the knowledge contained in the "Third Primer" barely
sufficed for teaching purposes, and Geordie found, moreover, that the
little Jean was by no means an apt scholar. Indeed, the most hopeless
confusion continued to prevail in her small mind concerning the letters
of the alphabet, notwithstanding all his efforts. The natural history
lessons, however, had been a greater success; she had learnt from
Geordie the names of most trees and flowers that grew wild in the
valley, and knew the difference between a wagtail and a wren, which some
people who know their alphabet do not. Geordie sometimes thought that it
might be nice for Jean to go to the kirk, for it was from Jean's point
of view that he looked at most things in life. But then there was the
insuperable difficulty about Sunday clothes, so the idea had always
been given up after due consideration each time it presented itself to
his mind, and the church-going was reserved for that golden period when
Jean would be clothed in the blue-starred print frock, and he should
have a suit of Sunday clothes. Perhaps, with the encouragement of the
ear-trumpet, even frail granny might be conducted to church, Geordie
thought, hopefully, for he knew that she had the essentia