CHAP. II. ] At Lancaster School. 51 
not tell you to bring no more of these things here?” “ Yes, 
sir; but I only got them on my way up, or I wouldn’t have 
brought them here.” ‘I don’t believe it,” said the master. 
“Yes, it’s true, it’s true,” shouted some of the scholars. 
“Silence! How do you know?” “We saw him harryin’ 
the nest as we came up School Hill.” “How?’ “He was 
on the top of a long ladder takin’ the nest oot 0’ a spoot.” 
“Well, sir,” he said to Edward, “ you are one of the most 
daring and determined little fellows that I have ever heard 
of. It seems you will follow nobody’s advice. If you do 
not give up your tricks, you will some day fall and break 
your neck. But as you have told me the truth, I will for- 
give you this once. But remember! it’s the last time. Now 
go, collect your birds, and take them away.” 
Edward groped about to collect the birds, but few of 
them were left. The windows having been let down, they 
had all escaped except one. He got that one, and descend- 
ed to the street. There he recovered two other “ gorbals.” 
He went home with his three birds; but, his sister being 
ill, his mother told him to take them away, because they 
made such a noise. In the course of the day he gave them 
to another boy, in exchange for a little picture-book con- 
taining “The Death and Burial of Cock-robin.” 
Next morning he went back to school, and from that 
time forward he continued to obey the master’s orders. He 
never brought any more “beasts” there. He was at the 
Lancaster school about eighteen months, though he was oc- 
casionally absent. He did not learn very much. The Bible 
was used as the reading-book, and when he left school he 
could read it fairly. He could also repeat the Shorter Cat- 
echism. But he knew very little of arithmetic, and noth- 
ing of grammar. He had only got the length of the rule 
of two—that is, he could add up two lines of figures. He 
could not manage the multiplication-table. He could only 
multiply by means of his fingers. He knew nothing of 
writing. 
