Freedom. ( 25 



been contented if I had only learnt to write well 

 and keep accounts, which was all that a woman was 

 expected to know. 



This passed over, and I was like a wild animal 

 escaped out of a cage. I was no longer amused 

 in the gardens, but wandered about the country. 

 When the tide was out I spent hours on the sands, 

 looking at the star-fish and sea-urchins, or watch- 

 ing the children digging for sand-eels, cockles, and 

 the spouting razor-fish. I made a collection of 

 shells, such as were cast ashore, some so small that 

 they appeared like white specks in patches of black 

 sand. There was a small pier on the sands for 

 shipping limestone brought from the coal mines 

 inland. I was astonished to see the surface of 

 these blocks of stone covered with beautiful im- 

 pressions of what seemed to be leaves; how they 

 got there I could not imagine, but I picked up 

 the broken bits, and even large pieces, and brought 

 them to my repository. I knew the eggs of many 

 birds, and made a collection of them. I never 

 robbed a nest, but bought strings of eggs, which 

 were sold by boys, besides getting sea-fowl eggs 

 from sailors who had been in whalers or on other 

 northern voyages. It was believed by these sailors 

 that there was a gigantic flat fish in the North Sea, 

 called a kraken. It was so enormous that when 



