All the same, it would have paid us better if we'd read a little more and put the 'bullocking' on one side, at odd times.

A man can learn as much out of a book or a paper sometimes in an hour as will save his work for a week, or put him up to working to better purpose.

I can see that now--too late, and more's the pity.
Anyhow, Aileen could read pretty near as fast as any one I ever saw, and she used to reel it out for us, as we sat smoking over the fire, in a way that kept us jolly and laughing till it was nearly turning-in time.
Now and then George Storefield would come and stay an hour or two.
He could read well; nearly as well as she could.

Then he had always something to show her that she'd been asking about.

His place was eight miles off, but he'd always get his horse and go home, whatever the night was like.
'I must be at my work in the morning,' he'd say; 'it's more than half a day gone if you lose that, and I've no half-days to spare, or quarter-days either.'.