AX UNWORTHY PUPIL. 23 



holding so fast that I was obliged to get the assist- 

 ance of a negro to separate them ; which we had 

 no sooner effected than, with the swiftness of a 

 bird, he darted to a block, on which was a wig of 

 my father's, and, clinging round it, appeared satis- 

 fied. I therefore let him remain there, feeding 

 him with goat's milk. He continued in this situa- 

 tion for three weeks, when he abandoned his nurse, 

 and became, by his tricks and merry conceits, the 

 friend of the family. 



" I had, without suspicion, placed the wolf in the 

 sheepfold ; for one morning as I entered my apart- 

 ment, the door of which I had imprudently left 

 open, I saw my unworthy pupil breakfasting on my 

 beloved collection. In my first transports of fury 

 I could have strangled him ; but rage soon gave 

 place to pity, when I saw how dreadfully he was 

 punished for his gluttony, having, in cracking the 

 scarabsei, swallowed the pins on which they were 

 stuck. His torments made me forget his fault, and 

 I only thought of helping the wretched sufferer; 

 but my tears, and all the art of the slaves, could 

 not save him from death.. This accident threw me 

 back a good deal, but did not quite discourage me. 

 I now turned my thoughts in a different direction, 

 and wished to collect birds ; but as the slaves did 

 not procure them to my liking, I armed myself 

 with a shooting-tube and an Indian bow, which, 



