1 6 MI-.MOIK OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



were all soon made fit for use, and with them, late 

 and early, I had a busy time of it, during the 

 summer months, until the frosts of autumn forbade 

 me to proceed. The uneasiness which my late 

 evening wadings by the waterside gave to my 

 father and mother, I have often since reflected 

 upon with regret. They could not go to bed with 

 the hopes of getting to sleep, while haunted with 

 the apprehension of my being drowned ; and well 

 do I remember to this day my father's well-known 

 whistle, which called me home. He went to a 

 little distance from the house, where nothing 

 obstructed the sound, and whistled so loud, through 

 his finger and thumb, that in the still hours of 

 evening it might be heard echoing up the vale of 

 the Tyne, to a very great distance. This whistle I 

 learned to imitate, and answered it as well as I 

 could, and then posted home. 



From early in the morning till night, I was 

 scarcely ever out of an action either good or bad ; 

 or, when not kept close at school, or in doing jobs 

 such as those I have described, I was almost 

 constantly engaged in some mischievous prank or 

 other ; but with a detail of these it would be weari- 

 some to load my narrative : they were occasioned 

 by the overflowings of an active, wild disposition. 

 At one time, in imitation of the savages described 

 in "Robinson Crusoe," or some other savages, I 

 often, in a morning, set off stark naked across the 

 fell, where I was joined by some associates, who, 

 in like manner, ran about like mad things, or like 

 Bedlamites who had escaped. Climbing the tall 

 trees at Eltringham for rook nests, at the hazard 

 of breaking our necks or our bones, was another 

 piece of business which employed our attention. I 



