MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 19 



the same time assuring him that it was I who gave 

 the blow, and not he. To the deaf man this was a 

 waste of words. It need not be added that the 

 congregation was greatly disturbed, while perhaps 

 none knew or suspected the cause except my father 

 and my preceptor in the pulpit. 



Sometimes the lads in the same class I belonged 

 to, when we had been doing amiss, were sent to 

 cut birch rods to whip us with. At other times we 

 were locked into the belfry, where we often amused 

 ourselves by drawing* each other up by the bell 

 ropes to the first floor ; but one of our comrades 

 having (by the rope slipping too violently through 

 the hands of those who held it) been precipitated 

 to the ground, by which he was a good deal hurt, 

 that mode of punishment was altogether dropped. 

 It sometimes happened to me to be confined there 

 alone, and once I got up to the top of the steeple. 

 Whether I had ventured a little down on the 

 outside to look for birds' nests I do not remember, 

 but this was asserted by some of the women in the 

 village, who upon this occasion found a deal of 

 fault with the Parson for putting me into a place 

 where such risks were to be run. Poor man, I think 

 he had had a troublesome time of it with one or other 

 of us ; and I remember well, once in particular, 

 of putting him into very great pain and distress of 

 mind. After a great flood, a large piece of ice, about 

 the size of the floor of a room, had been left in a place 

 called " Ned's Hole," by the side of the river. 

 This I got upon, and persuaded several others to 

 do the same, and we then set to work with a "boat- 

 stower" to push it off shore; and, in this manner, 

 we got some distance up the river, opposite to the 

 parsonage garden, where our master happened to 



