PUBLISHED BY RICHARD GROOMBRIDGE, PANYER ALLEY, 1837. THE TWO BROTHERS. CHAP. I. I was my father's first-born son: three other members composed our whole family, my mother, my brother, and my uncle. We did not, however, always form one fire-side circle, as will appear in the sequel. He My father was in independent circumstances, inheriting a small family estate, with a farm annexed to it, and, with my mother's little jointure, about seven hundred pounds per annum. was what we have been accustomed to call " a true born Englishman." His rosy cheeks, his keen black eye, his portly mien, and his athletic form well covered with flesh, would have given to a foreigner a good specimen of John Bull. He could be often grave and thoughtful, though on what subjects no one dared to ask; but in company with a friend, or at the dinner-table, no one was more cheerful and talkative. He was loyal to the back-bone, and made it a rule every day B |