11.  Howbeit, alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper.  The elder was peaceful, studious, and silent; the younger was warlike and noisy.  He was quick at learning when he began, but very slow at beginning.  No threats of the ferule would provoke Harry to learn in an idle fit, or would prevent George from helping his brother in his lesson.  Harry was of a strong military turn, drilled the little negroes on the estate, and caned them like a corporal, having many good boxing matches with them, and never bearing malice if he was worsted;—­whereas George was sparing of blows, and gentle with all about him.

12.  As the custom in all families was, each of the boys had a special little servant assigned him:  and it was a known fact that George, finding his little wretch of a blackamoor asleep on his master’s bed, sat down beside it, and brushed the flies off the child with a feather fan, to the horror of old Gumbo, the child’s father, who found his young master so engaged, and to the indignation of Madam Esmond, who ordered the young negro off to the proper officer for a whipping.  In vain George implored and entreated—­burst into passionate tears, and besought a remission of the sentence.  His mother was inflexible regarding the young rebel’s punishment, and the little negro went off beseeching his young master not to cry.

13.  On account of a certain apish drollery and humor which exhibited itself in the lad, and a liking for some of the old man’s pursuits, the first of the twins was the grandfather’s favorite and companion, and would laugh and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whom the younger had seldom a word to say.

14.  George was a demure, studious boy, and his senses seemed to brighten up in the library, where his brother was so gloomy.  He knew the books before he could well-nigh carry them, and read in them long before he could understand them.  Harry, on the other hand, was all alive in the stables or in the wood, eager for all parties of hunting and fishing, and promised to be a good sportsman from a very early age.

15.  At length the time came when Mr. Esmond was to have done with the affairs of this life, and he laid them down as if glad to be rid of their burden.  All who read and heard that discourse, wondered where Parson Broadbent of James Town found the eloquence and the Latin which adorned it.  Perhaps Mr. Dempster knew, the boys’ Scotch tutor, who corrected the proofs of the oration, which was printed, by the desire of his Excellency and many persons of honor, at Mr. Franklin’s press in Philadelphia.

16.  No such sumptuous funeral had ever bean seen in the country as that which Madam Esmond Warrington ordained for her father, who would have been the first to smile at that pompous grief.