54 A Night under the Logs. [CHAP. II. 
stairs. And thus Edward was expelled from his third and 
last school. 
On reaching home, he told his parents the circumstances 
connected with his expulsion. He also added that he 
wouldn’t go to school any more; at all events, he wouldn’t 
go back to “yon school.” He would rather go to work. 
He was told that he was too young to work; for he was 
scarcely six years old. His father proposed to take him to 
the Lancaster school on the following day, for the purpose 
of inducing the master to take back the boy. 
The next day arrived. His father came home from his 
work for the purpose of taking the boy to school; but 
Tom had disappeared. He would not go back. He went 
first to the fish-market, where he spent the greater part of 
the day. Then he went down to the Inches. From thence 
he went toward the logs, and while there with a few more 
boys preparing sparrow-traps, one of them called out, “Tam, 
there’s yer faither!” Tom immediately got up and ran 
away. His father, following him, called out “Stop, sir! 
stop, sir! come back, come back, will you!” Tom’s father 
was a long, slender man, and could not stand much running. 
He soon dropped behind, while Tom went out Dee-side way 
like a lamp-lighter. He never stopped until he reached the 
Clayholes. Not seeing his father following him, he loiter- 
ed about there until it was nearly dark; he then returned, 
keeping a close lookout, and ready to run off again. At 
length, about dark, he got back to the logs. 
It must be mentioned that on the spare ground above 
the Inches large piles of logs were laid, some of them of 
great size. The logs were floated down the Dee, and were 
laid there until the timber merchants found it convenient 
to take them away. Little care being exercised in putting 
up the piles, there were often large openings left at the 
ends. Instead of going home, the boy got into one of 
these openings, and crept in as far as he could get. But 
though he was in a measure out of sight, he soon found 
