BOYHOOD 261 



high moral worth he, even as a boy, could appreciate. 

 Having learnt to read while still of tender years, he 

 developed an insatiable thirst for books. What he 

 acquired in this way for himself seems to have been 

 at least as useful as the training gained during the 

 rather desultory years spent by him at the town 

 grammar-school. He was an intelligent but wayward 

 boy, as much ahead of his schoolmates in general 

 information as in all madcap adventures among the 

 crags and woods. When the time arrived at which 

 he had to choose his calling in life, he selected an 

 occupation that would still enable him to spend his 

 days in the open air and gratify his overmastering 

 propensity for natural history pursuits. Much to the 

 chagrin of his family he determined to be a stone- 

 mason, and at the age of 17 was apprenticed to that 

 trade. For some fifteen years he continued to work 

 in quarries and in the erection of buildings in various 

 districts of the north country, and even extended his 

 experience for a short time into Midlothian. Deeply 

 interesting and instructive is the record he has left 

 of these years of mechanical toil. But amidst all the 

 hardships and temptations of the life, the purity and 

 strength of his character bore him nobly through. 

 His keen love of nature and his intense enjoyment of 

 books were a never-failing solace. He continued to 

 gain access to, and even by degrees to possess, a con- 

 siderable body of the best literature in our language, 

 reading some of his favourite authors over twice in a 

 year. He thus laid up a store of information and 

 allusion which his retentive memory enabled him 

 eventually to turn to excellent advantage. 



