Shakespeare. 27 



banks of a little stream that ran into the sea. The 

 bed of this stream or burn was thickly covered 

 with the freshwater mussel, which I knew often 

 contained pearls, but I did not like to kill the 

 creatures to get the pearls. 



One day my father, who was a keen sportsman, 

 having gone to fish for red trout at the mouth of this 

 stream, found a young whale, or grampus, stranded 

 in the shallow water. He immediately ran back 

 to the town, got boats, captured the whale, and 

 landed it in the harbour, where I went with the 

 rest of the crowd to see the mucJdefish. 



There was always a good deal of shipbuilding 

 carried on in the harbour, generally coasting vessels 

 or colliers. We, of course, went to see them launched, 

 which was a pretty sight. 



* * * # # 



When the bad weather began I did not know 

 what to do with myself. Fortunately we had a 

 small collection of books, among which I found 

 Shakespeare, and read it at every moment I could 

 spare from my domestic duties. These occupied a 

 great part of my time ; besides, I had to shew 

 (sew) my sampler, working the alphabet from A 

 to Z, as well as the ten numbers, on canvas. 



My mother did not prevent me from reading, but 

 my aunt Janet, who came to live in Burntisland 



