The Story of 

 My Boyhood and TTouth 



i 



A BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 



Earliest Recollections The "Dandy Doctor" Terror 

 Deeds of Daring The Savagery of Boys School and 

 Fighting Birds'-nesting. 



WHEN I was a boy in Scotland I was 

 fond of everything that was wild, 

 and all my life I've been growing 

 fonder and fonder of wild places and wild 

 creatures. Fortunately around my native town 

 of Dunbar, by the stormy North Sea, there was 

 no lack of wildness, though most of the land lay 

 in smooth cultivation. With red-blooded play- 

 mates, wild as myself, I loved to wander in 

 the fields to hear the birds sing, and along the 

 seashore to gaze and wonder at the shells and 



