spot of plush upon the air.

I had thus no opportunity of becoming intimate with him, but he was the
cause of a more lasting friendship--my friendship with Isaac Irvine, the
bee-keeper. For when I asked that silly question, my mother said, "Not
that I ever saw, love;" and my father said, "If he wants to know about
bees, he should go to old Isaac. He'll tell him plenty of queer stories
about them."

The first time I saw the bee-keeper was in church, on Catechism Sunday,
in circumstances which led to my disgracing myself in a manner that must
have been very annoying to my mother, who had taken infinite pains in
teaching us.

The provoking part of it was that I had not had a fear of breaking down.
With poor Jem it was very different. He took twice as much pains as I
did, but he could not get things into his head, and even if they did
stick there he found it almost harder to say them properly. We began to
learn the Catechism when we were three years old, and we went on till
long after we were in trousers; and I am sure Jem never got the three
words "and an inheritor" tidily off the tip of his tongue within my
remembrance. And I have seen both him and my mother crying over them on
a hot Sunday afternoon. He was always in a fright when we had to say the
Catechism in church, and that day, I remember, he shook so that I could
hardly stand straight myself, and Bob Furniss, the blacksmith's son, who
stood on the other side of him, whispered quite loud, "Eh! see thee, how
Master Jem _dodders_!" for which Jem gave him an eye as black as his
father's shop afterwards, for Jem could use his fists if he could not
learn by heart.

But at the time he could not even compose himself enough to count down
the line of boys and calculate what question would come to him. I did,
and when he found he had only got the First Commandment, he was more at
ease, and though the second, which fell to me, is much longer, I was not
in the least afraid of forgetting it, for I could have done the whole of
my duty to my neighbour if it had been necessary.

Jem got through very well, and I could hear my mother blessing him over
the top of the pew behind our backs; but just as he finished, no less
than three bees, who had been hovering over the heads of the workhouse
boys opposite, all settled down together on Isaac Irvine's bare hand.

At the public catechising, which came once a year, and after the second
lesson at evening prayer, the grown-up members