he pulled one of his thumbs out of the belt loop when he finished saying this and shoved the frame of his glasses up his nose ; the toe of his boot ( it was one of a fancy pair that was destined later to be mine and had the most lovely brown shiny slope inside where your foot slid in , as shiny as the surface of an english flint , though i only saw those years later ) scuffed the sidewalk in a shy , shuffling imitation of a humble hometown cowboy , though our own , real , 64 acre ranch in the avra valley , homesteaded by our great-grandfather , had long before been deeded from my grandfather , the older , urbanized brother , to his younger brother , jim after he had been gassed in world war i ; and we had only visited it twice on sunday afternoons , enduring in shy , embarrassed humility a tour of the ridiculously small measure of wealth and prestige we had lost .