THOMAS EDWARD. 53 



was emptying them at the nearest safe place. But all 

 the corporal punishment which he ever received, did 

 not deter him from following the bent of his inclina- 

 tions, and he became not a whit better. The more he 

 was punished at home, and scolded at school, the more 

 he visited his favourite haunts. 



One day, he took with him to the dame's school a 

 jackdaw, which became very fond of him, and he of it. 

 His mother had become tired of its noise at home. He 

 received strict injunctions to get rid of it, and what to 

 do with it he did not know. At last he hit upon the 

 plan of lodging it in his baggy trousers, and so went 

 into the room where the school was held. During the 

 time the scholars were on their knees, the jackdaw had 

 struggled to get its head out between the top of the 

 lad's trousers and his vest, and then commenced its 

 peculiar noise, startling the old dame out of her wits. 

 In answer to her hurried questions as to what it was, she 

 was informed that it was " a beast of Tarn Edward's," 

 and the youngster was seized by the coat collar, and 

 carried bodily out of the room, and deposited safely 

 into the street. The old dame had had quite enough of 

 young Edward, and that was the last of his first experi- 

 ences at school. Edward was not more fortunate at his 

 second school. He was very soon ignominiously dis- 

 missed for taking horse-leeches in broken bottles. 



A third school was found for him, but there seemed 

 to be a dreadful fate hanging over the youngster. His 

 reputation for carrying beasts about with him had 

 spread to every school in the district, and this bad name 

 clung dreadfully to him. On a hot summer's day, one 



