27f) RETURN TO ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



KETURN TO ENGLAND. 



IN the early part of October, 1827, the writer, then a 

 boy at Bodmin school, was asked by the master if any 

 particular news had come from home. Scarcely had 

 the curiosity of the boys subsided, when a tall man with 

 a broad-brimmed Leghorn hat on his head entered at 

 the door, and after a quick glance at his whereabouts, 

 marched towards the master's desk at the other end of the 

 room. When about half-way, and opposite the writer's 

 class, he stopped, took his hat off, and asked if his son 

 Francis was there. Mr. Boar, who had watched his 

 approach, rose at the removal of the hat, and replied in 

 the affirmative. For a moment a breathless silence 

 reigned in the school, while all eyes were turned on 

 the gaunt sun-burnt visitor ; and the blood, without a 

 defined reason, caused the writer's heart to beat as 

 though the unknown was his father, who eleven years 

 before had carried him on his shoulder to the pier-head 

 steps, and the boat going to the South Sea whaler. 



During the next six months father and son sat toge- 

 ther daily, the one drawing new schemes and calcula- 

 tions, the other observing, and learning, and calculating 

 the weight and size and speed of a poor swallow he had 

 shot, that the proportions of wings necessary to carry a 

 man's weight might be known. In these calculations 

 cube roots of quantities were extracted, which did not 

 accurately agree with Trevithick's figures, who, asking 



