34 Imprisoned at Home. (CHAP. I. 
him. The Stocket was a fine place for birds and bird’s- 
nests. They searched all day, and returned home at night. 
The father never received his breakfast: it was eaten by 
Edward and the loons. 
As a punishment for his various misdoings, he was told 
one morning that he was to be confined to the house all 
day. It was a terrible punishment, at least to him. Only 
a portion of his clothes was given him, that he might not 
go out; and as a further precaution, his mother tied him 
firmly to the table-leg with a thick wisp of thrums. She 
also tied his wrists together with a piece of cord. When 
she went out on family affairs, Tom’s little sister was set to 
watch him. But he disengaged himself from his bonds al- 
most as quickly as the Davenport brothers. With a mixt- 
ure of promises and threats, he made his little sister come 
to his help; and the two together pushed the table close to 
the grate, when, putting the rope which confined his legs 
between the ribs, it soon burned asunder, and he was free. 
He next tried to find his clothes, but his mother had hidden 
them too securely. He found a coat of his elder brother’s, 
much too big for himself: nevertheless he put it on. 
His mother’s feet were now heard on the stair. Tom 
hid himself at the back of the door, so that he might rush 
out as soon as she entered. The door was opened; his 
mother rushed in, screaming, and Tom ran away. The ta- 
ble to which the rope had been attached was on fire, and 
the house would soon have been in a blaze. In quenching 
the flames of the rope attached to the boy’s leg, he had for- 
gotten, in his hurry, to quench the burning of the rope 
still attached to the table. Hence the fire. But Tom was 
now at liberty. He soon got rid of his shackles, and spent 
a glorious day out-of-doors. He had a warm home-coming 
at night; but the less said of that, the better. 
In fact, the boy was found to be thoroughly incorrigible. 
He was self-willed, determined, and stubborn. As he could 
not be kept at home, and would not go a message, but was 
