Bashful Fifteen by L.T. Meade — Read

The race of human beings who can neither read nor write are fast vanishing from the face of the civilized earth. They used, however, to abound in great numbers in old Ireland, and, strange as it may seem, these so-called uneducated people have proved themselves to be some of the shrewdest in the world.

For, never reading the books of men, they are always perusing the greater book of nature. Unacquainted with the art of writing, they trust absolutely to their memories. The observation, therefore, of the Irish peasant can scarcely be credited by those who have never come across him.