66 ROBERT STEPHENSON'S BOYISH TRICKS. CHAP. V 



this fellow. He was also a great boaster, and used to 

 crow over the robbers whom he had put to flight ; mere 

 men in buckram, as everybody knew. We boys," he 

 continued, " believed him to be a great coward, and 

 determined to play him a trick. Two other boys joined 

 me in waylaying Straker one night at that corner," 

 pointing to it. " We sprang out and called upon him, 

 in as gruff voices as we could assume, to ' stand and 

 deliver ! ' He dropped down upon his knees in the dirt, 

 declaring he was a poor man, with a sma' family, 

 asking for ' mercy,' and imploring us, as 6 gentlemen, for 

 (rod's sake, t' let him a-be ! ' We couldn't stand this 

 any longer, and set up a shout of laughter. Recognizing 

 our boys' voices, he sprang to his feet again and rattled 

 out a volley of oaths ; on which we cut through the 

 hedge, and heard him shortly after swearing his way 

 along the road to the yill-house." 



On another occasion, he played a series of tricks of a 

 somewhat different character. Like his father, he was 

 very fond of reducing his scientific reading to practice ; 

 and after studying Franklin's description of the light- 

 ning experiment, he proceeded to expend his store of 

 Saturday pennies in purchasing about half-a-mile of 

 copper wire at a brazier's shop in Newcastle. Having 

 prepared his kite, he sent it up in the field opposite his 

 father's door, and bringing the wire, insulated by means 

 of a few feet of silk cord, over the backs of some of 

 Farmer Wigham's cows, he soon had them skipping 

 about the field in all directions with their tails up. One 

 day he had his kite flying at the cottage-door as his 

 father's galloway was hanging by the bridle to the 

 paling, waiting for the master to mount. Bringing the 

 end of the wire just over the pony's crupper, so smart 

 an electric shock was given it, that the brute was almost 

 knocked down. At this juncture the father issued from 

 the door, riding-whip in hand, and was witness to 

 the scientific trick just played off upon his galloway. 



