59 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



passion for collecting all sorts of natural objects, crabs, worms, bee- 

 tles, rats, tadpoles, frogs, snails, leeches, mice, birds, and birds'-nests, 

 which he would bring home, and which were the nuisance and pest of 

 the house. His mother protested and forbade, and threw his " ven- 

 omous beasts " away, but it was of no use. He was threatened with 

 punishment, and the same night brought in a nest of young rats, 

 when, of course, he was flogged. But blows did no more good than 

 words. When sent to carry his father's breakfast, he cut for the sea- 

 shore. One morning his mother tied him up firmly to a table to pre- 

 vent his going out, and set his little sister to watch him. As soon as 

 his mother was absent, with a mixture of promises and threats he 

 made his sister help him, when they pushed the table so close to the 

 grate that he was able to burn off the rope and get away. Tom got 

 at liberty and had a good time that day in the fields. One morning 

 his father hid his clothes, so that when the boy got up he had " noth- 

 ing to wear." His mother tied a bit of old petticoat around his neck, 

 saying, " I'm sure you'll be a prisoner this day." He tied a string 

 around his middle, hid himself awhile in the entry, and at an oppor- 

 tune moment bolted into the street, and was soon at the shore hunt- 

 ing for crabs, horse-leeches, puddocks, and sticklebacks. But the 

 exposure was too much for him, and he had a long fever, with delir- 

 ium, hanging between death and life for several weeks. When he 

 recovered, the first thing was to inquire after his beasts. When but 

 four years old he was thrashed and starved and shut up to keep him 

 at home, but he was self-willed, determined, stubborn, and thoroughly 

 incoi'rigible. He wandered about the beach, rambled over the coun- 

 try, learning all the best nesting-places of the birds in the woods, 

 plantations, hedges, streams, and mill-dams. He was inquisitive and 

 thoughtful, often asking for information, but rarely getting it. He 

 knew how birds made their nests, and how the flowers grew out of the 

 ground, but he did not know how the rocks grew. He asked his 

 parents, and they told him the rocks had existed from the beginning. 

 This did not satisfy him, so he went to the quarrymen. " How do 

 the rocks grow?" asked he. "Fat say ye?" Tom repeated the 

 question. " To the deil wi' ye, ye impudent brat, or I'll toss ye owre 

 the head o' the quarry ! " Once he saw a paper-like something up in a 

 tree, with lots of yellowish bees about it. This started his curiosity, 

 and he tried to get the other boys to join him in securing it. They 

 refused and ran home, leaving him alone. He climbed up near the 

 limb where it was suspended, and was met by a sting which he thought 

 was more painful than any he had ever had before. He sucked and 

 blew the wound, but there hung the wasp's nest, and he could not 

 leave it. It w r as growing dark, he could not put it in his bonnet nor 

 in his stockings, so he stripped off his shirt, and, though getting 

 numerous stings, wrapped it around the nest, detached it, and car- 

 ried it home. His father, seeiug him shirtless, threatened him with 



