The Last and the First Read Online Free PDF

thinking of ourselves and our own lives.”
    â€œThere is not often much thought left over from them.”
    â€œThere was one form of courage in this case,” said Angus. “And Hermia showed it.”
    â€œI am glad I am without it,” said Roberta. “To think what I might have to do!”
    â€œTo think what Hermia did do!”
    â€œI am not sure that courage is the right word,” said Madeline. “Or at any rate the only one.”
    â€œI am sure it is,” said Hermia.

Chapter III
    â€œOsbert, you ought to know how to cut a ham.”
    â€œThen I do know, Grannie. I only dare to do what I ought.”
    â€œDo you expect other people to eat the fat you have left?”
    â€œIs it any good to expect it? Do you think they would?”
    â€œThe fat of ham is quite different from other fat.”
    â€œThat hardly seems worth while when it all has the same end.”
    â€œYou should cut the fat and lean together, and leave what you can’t eat.”
    â€œI knew waste was not wicked. That is what I will do.”
    â€œWhat good do you suppose the fat is by itself?”
    â€œNo good. Or with anything else. What good could it be?”
    â€œA young man should eat whatever is provided. The fat of ham is quite a wholesome food.”
    â€œHow do you know? What means is there of knowing?”
    â€œI know from my own experience.”
    â€œGrannie, what words are these? Pray do not go any further.”
    â€œCan’t we forget the ham?” said Osbert’s sister. “It dominates the sideboard, but it need hardly do the same to our lives.”
    â€œYou are late, Amy,” said Mrs. Grimstone, turning to the door as a girl of fourteen appeared and came to herseat. “And must you edge into the room as if you were ashamed of entering?”
    Her grand-daughter did not explain that she was ashamed of entering at this hour.
    â€œAnd what a time to come down! Were you not called?”
    â€œOh I think so, Grannie. Yes, I believe I was. I don’t remember.”
    â€œI suppose you were so sunk in sloth that you forgot who you were,” said Mrs. Grimstone, speaking a true word, if hardly in jest.
    â€œI fear your words may apply to me, Mamma,” said a slow, deep voice, as a middle-aged man entered and stooped to salute his mother. “The spirit may have been willing, but the flesh was weak.”
    â€œWell, what will you have?” said Mrs. Grimstone, accepting this form of the account, and distinguishing by her tone between a son and a grand-child. “There is hot fish here, and a ham at the side.”
    Hamilton Grimstone paused and bent his head before making a material choice. He was deliberate over the observance, and raised his eyes as if he had conferred and gained some benefit.
    â€œWe have said grace,” said his mother, just enunciating the words.
    â€œBut I had not, Mamma. And it is not an omission I care to make. One of the penalties of tardiness is the missing of the ritual that inaugurates our day, and without which the day itself is never the same to me.”
    â€œWhat will you have, Amy?” said Mrs. Grimstone, turning from her son, whose beliefs she shared without sharing his pleasure in them.
    â€œOh, I think some ham please, Grannie.”
    â€œI am of similar mind,” said Hamilton, with his slowsmile. “But I hesitate to broach the oleaginous mass that obstructs it.”
    â€œThe fish should be used,” said Mrs. Grimstone, in a considering manner, supplying a plate of it for Amy, and meeting a silent acceptance. “It is Osbert who cuts the ham in that way. I have dealt with the matter.”
    â€œWhen matters arise, that is what she does with them,” said Erica.
    Erica alone of Jocasta Grimstone’s grand-children took her on equal terms, and was regarded as qualified to do so. Jocasta did not esteem people for being dependent on herself. She was a tall, upright