"ElizabethGaskell-TheHalfBrothers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gaskell Elizabeth C)

the fashion of the family, and slighted my poor orphan step-brother.
I don't think I ever scouted him, or was wilfully ill-natured to him;
but the habit of being considered in all things, and being treated as
something uncommon and superior, made me insolent in my prosperity,
and I exacted more than Gregory was always willing to grant, and
then, irritated, I sometimes repeated the disparaging words I had
heard others use with regard to him, without fully understanding
their meaning. Whether he did or not I cannot tell. I am afraid he
did. He used to turn silent and quiet--sullen and sulky, my father
thought it: stupid, aunt Fanny used to call it. But every one said
he was stupid and dull, and this stupidity and dullness grew upon
him. He would sit without speaking a word, sometimes, for hours;
then my father would bid him rise and do some piece of work, maybe,
about the farm. And he would take three or four tellings before he
would go. When we were sent to school, it was all the same. He
could never be made to remember his lessons; the school-master grew
weary of scolding and flogging, and at last advised my father just to
take him away, and set him to some farm-work that might not be above
his comprehension. I think he was more gloomy and stupid than ever
after this, yet he was not a cross lad; he was patient and good-
natured, and would try to do a kind turn for any one, even if they
had been scolding or cuffing him not a minute before. But very often
his attempts at kindness ended in some mischief to the very people he
was trying to serve, owing to his awkward, ungainly ways. I suppose
I was a clever lad; at any rate, I always got plenty of praise; and
was, as we called it, the cock of the school. The schoolmaster said
I could learn anything I chose, but my father, who had no great
learning himself, saw little use in much for me, and took me away
betimes, and kept me with him about the farm. Gregory was made into
a kind of shepherd, receiving his training under old Adam, who was
nearly past his work. I think old Adam was almost the first person
who had a good opinion of Gregory. He stood to it that my brother
had good parts, though he did not rightly know how to bring them out;
and, for knowing the bearings of the Fells, he said he had never seen
a lad like him. My father would try to bring Adam round to speak of
Gregory's faults and shortcomings; but, instead of that, he would
praise him twice as much, as soon as he found out what was my
father's object.

One winter-time, when I was about sixteen, and Gregory nineteen, I
was sent by my father on an errand to a place about seven miles
distant by the road, but only about four by the Fells. He bade me
return by the road, whichever way I took in going, for the evenings
closed in early, and were often thick and misty; besides which, old
Adam, now paralytic and bedridden, foretold a downfall of snow before
long. I soon got to my journey's end, and soon had done my business;
earlier by an hour, I thought, than my father had expected, so I took
the decision of the way by which I would return into my own hands,
and set off back again over the Fells, just as the first shades of
evening began to fall. It looked dark and gloomy enough; but