BITS OF OAK BARK. 29 



perhaps she got to beat him from habit rather than 

 from any particular anger of the moment, just as she 

 fetched water and filled her kettle, as one of the ordi- 

 nary events of the day. Why did not the father 

 interfere ? Because if so he would have had to keep 

 his son : so many shillings a week the less for ale. 



In the garden attached to the cottage there was a 

 small shed with a padlock, used to store produce or 

 wood in. One morning, after a severe beating, she 

 drove the boy in there and locked him in the whole 

 day without food. It was no use, he was as hardened 

 as ever. 



A footpath which crossed the field went by the 

 cottage, and every Sunday those who were walking 

 to church could see the boy in the window with 

 granny's Bible open before him. There he had to sit, 

 the door locked, under terror of stick, and study the 

 page. What was the use of compelling him to do that ? 

 He could not read. *' No," said the old woman, " he 

 won't read, but I makes him look at his book." 



The thwacking went on for some time, when one 

 day the boy was sent on an errand two or three miles, 

 and for a wonder started willingly enough. At night 

 he did not return, nor the next day, nor the next, and 

 it was as clear as possible that he had run away. No 

 one thought of tracking his footsteps, or following up 

 the path he had to take, which passed a railway, 

 brooks, and a canal. He had run away, and he might 

 stop away : it was beautiful sumner weather and it 

 would do him no harm to stop out for a week. A 

 dealer who had business in a field by the canal thought 

 indeed that he saw something in the water, but he 



