CHAPTER VII. 

 DISCOVERS THE "HOLY GRASS." 



" IT is surely," said Dick to a Mend, " a strange time we 

 live in, when a poor devil cannot gather weeds without 

 being made a nine days' wonder of to some, and a butt 

 of derision to others." 



Many people about Thurso, who saw Dick coming 

 into the town with his feet bedabbled with dirt and his 

 jean trousers wet up to the knees, said that he would 

 have been much better employed in attending to his 

 bakery than in wandering about the country in search 

 of beetles, bumbees, ferns, and wild plants. 



But he never missed attending to his business. 

 Science was his pleasure; and the. pursuit of it became 

 his habit. One science led to another. From Con- 

 chology he went to Entomology, and from these he 

 went to Botany and Geology. Nothing came amiss to 

 him. He found " sermons in stones, and good in every- 

 thing." 



For a long time he kept all that he did to him- 

 self. He had no friends to whom he could com- 

 municate the knowledge he had acquired. He was 

 only a poor baker. He did not mix with the educated 

 class. He spent his thrifty savings on books. His 



