It was explained to him that gentlefolk were people who did not have to work for their living. Mrs. Strong'nth'arm had served them and knew.
There were others, who sat in offices and gave orders. To this lesser rank it was possible to climb by industry and virtue. But first of all you must go to school and learn.
His mother caught him up in her thin arms and pressed him passionately to her narrow bosom.
"You will be a gentleman," she prophesied. "I feel it. I've prayed God every night since you were born." She smothered him with kisses and then put him down.
"Don't say anything to your father," she added. "He doesn't understand."
He rather hoped his uncle in Australia wouldn't leave them too much money. He liked work: fighting with things, conquering them; tidying the workshop; combing the fleas out of his uncle's dogs. Lighting the kitchen fire was fun even when it was so cold that he wasn't quite sure he'd a nose on his face and could only tell what his hands were doing by looking at them. You lit the paper and then coaxed and blew and watched the little flame grow bigger, feeding it and guiding it. And when you had won, you warmed your hands.
His father had taught him to read during the
