an't glean up humour yourself in the village. The
yokels are so taken up with staring at your last new tie, or your
immaculate collar, that you don't get a word out of them. There was old
Jacob Linkfield, now, who----"

But at this point of the story Edward went for Dick, and chased him out
of the house and down to the stack-yard. He could occasionally stir his
long legs when he considered the "cheek" of the younger ones grew
beyond bounds, and, once he was moved, they deemed it prudent to flee
before him.

You must not think, however, that we spent the whole of our time at
Marshlands with the boys. They were frequently out with their father
upon some shooting or fishing expedition, and Cathy and I would potter
about the garden or in the fields with "the mater", only too delighted
to have the chance of getting her quite to ourselves. A sweeter or truer
gentlewoman than dear Mrs. Winstanley it has never been my good fortune
to meet. She took me to her kind heart at once, and gave me for the
first time in my life that "mothering" which I had so sadly lacked. I
have hinted that my aunt did not make too much of me; even her own
children did not run to her with their joys and sorrows, and I had never
been accustomed to think of her as in any sense a possible companion.
Mrs. Winstanley, on the other hand, was the most delightful of comrades.
She had not forgotten in the very least what it felt like to be young;
she could sympathize in all our amusements, indeed I think she enjoyed a
picnic tea in the woods, or a scramble for blackberries, fully as much
as we did ourselves; but she contrived at the same time to make us
interested in those intellectual pleasures which were the great resource
of her life. Under her guiding hand I made my first efforts at
sketching; she taught me the names of the trees and the flowers, of
which before I was lamentably ignorant; and a walk to see a cromlech or
a stone circle upon the moors was an opportunity for such delightful
stories about the early dwellers in our lands, that I became a lover of
"antiquities" on the spot. I feel I can never be grateful enough to her
for giving me in my childhood that taste for natural history which has
been such a joy to me in my after-life. She taught us to use our eyes,
and to see the beauty in each leaf and flower and every common thing
around us. At her suggestion Cathy and I each began a "Nature
Note-Book", in which we recorded all the plants, birds, anim