38 Rubislaw Quarries. [cHAP. I. 
He then improved rapidly. He was able to go farther 
and farther every day. At first he wandered along the 
beach. Then he roamed about over the country. He got 
to know the best nesting places—the woods, plantations, 
and hedges—the streams, burns, locks, and mill-dams—all 
round Aberdeen. When the other boys missed a nest, it 
was always “that loon Edward” that took it. For this he 
was thrashed, though he was only about four years old. 
One of his favorite spots was the Den* and quarries of 
Rubislaw. There were five excellent places in the den for 
- bird’snests and wild flowers. But he went to the quarries 
chiefly to find the big bits of sheep’s silver, or mica, in the 
face of the rocks. Edward was much astonished at the 
size of the rocks. He knew how birds made their nests; 
he knew how flowers and whins grew out of the ground; 
but he did not know how rocks grew. He asked his par- 
ents for the reason. They told him that these rocks had 
existed from the beginning. This did not satisfy him, and 
he determined to ask one of the men at the quarry, who 
certainly ought to know how the rocks grew. “How do 
the rocks grow ?” asked he of a quarry-man one day. “ Fat 
say ye?’ Tom repeated the question. ‘To the deil wi’ 
ye, ye impudent brat, or I'll toss ye owre the head o’ the 
quarry!” Tom took to his heels and fled, never looking 
back. 
Another favorite haunt was Daiddie Brown’s burnie. 
There were plantations and hedges near it, and fields close 
at hand on either side. Its banks were thickly clothed 
with wild raspberries and whins—the habitats of numerous 
birds.. The burn itself had plenty of water-dogs, or water- 
rats, along its banks. That neighborhood has now been en- 
tirely overbuilt. The trees, the hedges, the whins, and even 
the burn itself, have all been swept away. 
Tom’s knowingness about bird’snests attracted many of 
* Den, dean, a dingle or small valley. 
