210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTIILY. 



tradesman should give whatever was wanted without payment to any- 

 one who wore his old hat and moved [it] in a particular manner?" and 

 he then showed me how it was moved. He then went into another 

 shop where he was trusted, and asked for some small article, moving 

 his hat in the proper manner, and of course obtained it without pay- 

 ment. When we came out he said, " Now, if you like to go by yourself 

 into that cake-shop" (how well I remember its exact position,) "I will 

 lend you my hat, and you can get whatever you like if you move the 

 hat on your head properly." I gladly accepted the generous offer, and 

 went in and asked for some cakes, moved the old hat, and was walking 

 out of the shop, when the shopman made a rush at me, so I dropped the 

 cakes and ran for dear life, and was astonished by being greeted by 

 shouts of laughter by my false friend Garnett. 



I can say in my own favor that I was as a boy humane, but I owed 

 this entirely to the instruction and example of my sisters. I doubt, in- 

 deed, whether humanity is a natural or innate quality. I was very fond 

 of collecting eggs, but I never took more than a single egg out of a 

 bird's nest, except on one single occasion, when I took all, not for 

 their value, but from a sort of bravado. 



I had a strong taste for angling, and would sit for any number of 

 hours on the bank of a river or pond watching the float. When at Maer* 

 I was told that I could kill the worms with salt and water, and from 

 that day I never spitted a living worm, though at the expense probably 

 of some loss of success. 



Once as a very little boy while at the day-school, or before that 

 time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy, I believe, simply from enjoy- 

 ing the sense of power ; but the beating could not have been severe, 

 for the puppy did not howl, of which I feel sure, as the spot was near 

 the house. This act lay heavily on my conscience, as is shown by my 

 remembering the exact spot where the crime was committed. It prob- 

 ably lay all the heavier from my love of dogs being then, and for a 

 long time afterward, a passion. Dogs seem to know this, for I was an 

 adept in robbing their love from their masters. 



I remember clearly only one other incident during this year while 

 at Mr, Case's daily school — namely, the burial of a dragoon-soldier ; 

 and it is surprising how clearly I can still seethe horse with the man's 

 empty boots and carbine suspended to the saddle, and the firing over 

 the grave. This scene deeply stirred whatever poetic fancy there was 

 in me. 



In the summer of 1818 I went to Dr. Butler's great school in Shrews- 

 bury, and remained there for seven years till midsummer, 1825, when 

 I was sixteen years old. I boarded at this school, so that I had the 

 great advantage of living the life of a true school-boy ; but as the dis- 

 tance was hardly more than a mile to my home, I very often ran there 

 in the longer intervals between the callings over and before locking up 

 * The house of his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood. 



