52 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



into bed. His younger brother noticed the absence of 

 the shirt, and shouted out to their parents. Up the 

 stairs came father and mother, and on the appearance of 

 the strap of which he had often made acquaintance, he 

 confessed where his shirt was to be found, and offered 

 to go and fetch it for his father to show him that there 

 really was something peculiar about it. The father 

 declined this proof, and they poured some boiling water 

 on it. In the morning they found that what master 

 Tarn had really brought home was — a wasps' nest. 



Schooldays came on, and he was sent to a dame's 

 school to be out of the way, and here he became a 

 dreadful truant. The help of his grandmother was 

 called in to take him to school, and this she did day 

 after day, but he would trick her in a number of ways 

 that he became the bane of the poor old woman's life. 

 One day she had followed him on one of these truant 

 excursions, down to the Denburn, a little distance from 

 Aberdeen. Here he was searching for horse-leeches, 

 and while he was in the act of getting one of these, he 

 saw his grandmother's form reflected in the water, and 

 at once dropped the stone which he was lifting up, and 

 off he started as fast as his legs would carry him. The 

 poor old lady made a clutch at him, but missed her 

 footing, and fell headlong into the water. The dame 

 who kept the school, if she did not teach her little folks 

 much, had at least the merit of possessing much Scotch 

 piety. She prayed with the children twice a day. 

 Young Edward became a perfect dread to her. His 

 pockets were perpetually full of all kinds of live stock, 

 and time after time, he srot his ears boxed whilst he 



