59 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



treasure, " there's a bottle fu' o' them ! " " Give me the bottle," said 

 the master; and, looking at the culprit, he said, "You come this 

 way, Master Edward ! " Edward followed him quaking. On reach- 

 ing the desk he stopped, and, holding out the bottle, said, " That's 

 yours, is it not ? " " Yes." " Take it, then that is the way out," 

 pointing to the door ; "go as fast as you can, and never come back; 

 and take that, too ! " bringing the taws down heavily upon his back. 

 Tom thought that his back was broken, and that he should never get 

 his breath again. Tom's mother took him back to the school-room 

 door, but before she could open her mouth the master abruptly be- 

 gan : " Don't bring that boy here ! I'll not take him back not though 

 you were to give me twenty pounds ! Neither I nor my scholars have 

 had a day's peace since he came here." 



Tom was now sent to a third school, where he staid eighteen 

 months, but did not learn very much. The Bible was the reading- 

 book, and he got so that he could read it, and also repeat the Shorter 

 Catechism. But he knew very little of arithmetic and nothing of 

 grammar. He could add up two lines of figures, but could not man- 

 age the multiplication-table. He could only multiply by means of 

 his fingers, and knew nothing of writing. He had given up bringing 

 beasts with him to school, but he had got a bad name. One morn- 

 ing, when the boys were at their lessons, the master gave a loud 

 scream, and, jumping to his feet, shook a big worm from his arm ; 

 then, turning in Tom's direction, he exclaimed, "This is some more 

 of your work, Master Edward." Edward was then called to the floor. 

 "You've been at your old trade, Edward, I see; but I'll now take it 

 out of you. I have warned you not to bring any of your infernal 

 beasts here, and now I have just found one creeping up my arm and 

 biting me. Hold up ! " Edward here ventured to say that he had 

 not brought the beast, and he had not brought anything for a long 

 while past. " What ! a lie, too ? " said the master. " A lie added to 

 the crime makes it doubly criminal. Hold up, sir ! " Tom held up 

 his hand, and the master came down upon it very heavily with the 

 taws. " The other! " The other hand was then held up, and when 

 Tom had got his two hot hands the master exclaimed, " That's for the 

 lie, and this for the offense ! " and then he proceeded to bring the taws 

 heavily down upon his back. The boy, however, did not cry. 



" Now, sir," said the master, when almost out of breath, " will you 

 say now that you did not bring it ? " "I did not ; indeed, sir, I did 

 not ! " "Well, then, take that," giving him a number of tremendous 

 lashes along his back. "Well, now?" "I did not!" The master 

 went on again: "It's your own fault," he said, " for not confessing 

 your crime." " But I did not bring it," replied Edward. " I'll flog 

 you until you confess." And then he repeated his lashes upon his 

 hands, his shoulders, and his back. Edward was a mere mite of a 

 boy, so that the taws reached down to his legs, and smote him there. 



