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 everything was so still that I thought I
should have plenty of time to get home before the snow came down. Off I
set at a pretty quick pace. But night came on quicker. The right path
was clear enough in the day-time, although at several points two or three