THOMAS EDWARD. 57 



week and week about. This was a glorious time for me. 

 I rejoiced particularly in the night- work. We got out 

 at six in the morning, and, instead of going directly 

 home, I used to go up to the woods of Scotston and 

 Scot-stem Moor, scoured the country round them, and 

 then returned home by the auld brig." "Ah, these 

 were happy days. There were no taws (strap) to 

 fear, and no tyrannical dominie to lay them on. True, 

 the farm people did halloo at me at times, but I 

 generally showed them a clean pair of heels. The 

 gamekeepers, also, sometimes gave me chase, but I 

 managed to outstrip them; and although no nests were 

 to be got, there was always something to be found or 

 seen." ..." This was life, genuine life, for the young. 

 But, alas ! a sad change was about to come ; and it came 

 very soon." 



After working for about two years at the factory, the 

 father thought that the time had arrived when his two 

 eldest sons should be apprenticed to some regular trade, 

 and he fixed upon that of shoemaking. He was forth- 

 with bound for six years to a shoemaker in the 

 Grallowgate, Aberdeen, where his wages were to be 

 eighteenpence per week, for the first year, and rising 

 sixpence a week afterwards. Cobbling and tippling 

 have for years gone together, and so it appeared to be 

 the case with Begg, the name of the man to whom 

 Edward was apprenticed. He was dissolute, irregular, 

 and quarrelsome in his habits, and when drink was in 

 him, not only wit, but " the milk of human kindness ' 

 was out of him. He was in many respects a typical 

 representative of the kind of masters to whom boys 



