of the congregation used
to draw near to the end of their pews to see and hear how we acquitted
ourselves, and, as it happened on this particular occasion, Master Isaac
was standing exactly opposite to me. As he leaned forward, his hands
crossed on the pew-top before him, I had been a good deal fascinated by
his face, which was a very noble one in its rugged way, with snow-white
hair and intense, keenly observing eyes, and when I saw the three bees
settle on him without his seeming to notice it, I cried, "They'll sting
you!" before I thought of what I was doing; for I had been severely
stung that week myself, and knew what it felt like, and how little good
powder-blue does.

With attending to the bees I had not heard the parson say, "Second
Commandment?" and as he was rather deaf he did not hear what I said. But
of course he knew it was not long enough for the right answer, and he
said, "Speak up, my boy," and Jem tried to start me by whispering, "Thou
shalt not make to thyself"--but the three bees went on sitting on Master
Isaac's hand, and though I began the Second Commandment, I could not
take my eyes off them, and when Master Isaac saw this he smiled and
nodded his white head, and said, "Never you mind me, sir. They won't
sting the old bee-keeper." This assertion so completely turned my head
that every other idea went out of it, and after saying "or in the earth
beneath" three times, and getting no further, the parson called out,
"Third Commandment?" and I was passed over--"out of respect to the
family," as I was reminded for a twelvemonth afterwards--and Jem pinched
my leg to comfort me, and my mother sank down on the seat, and did not
take her face out of her pocket-handkerchief till the workhouse boys
were saying "the sacraments."

My mother was our only teacher till Jem was nine and I was eight years
old. We had a thin, soft-backed reading book, bound in black cloth, on
the cover of which in gold letters was its name, _Chick-seed without
Chick-weed_; and in this book she wrote our names, and the date at the
end of each lesson we conned fairly through. I had got into Part II.,
which was "in words of four letters," and had the chapter about the Ship
in it, before Jem's name figured at the end of the chapter about the Dog
in Part I.

My mother was very glad that this chapter seemed to please Jem, and that
he learned to read it quickly, for, good-natured as he was, Jem was too
fond of fighting and laying about hi