CHAP. II. | Hunt after an Adder. 57 
His back was then looked at, and it was found that his 
shirt was hard with clotted blood, and still sticking to his 
skin. .The wales extended right down to his legs. Means 
were adopted to soften the shirt and remove it from the 
skin. But while that was being done, the boy fell back 
and fainted away. On coming to himself, he found his 
mother bathing his brow with cold water, and Mrs. Kelmar 
holding a smelling-bottle to his nose, which made his eyes 
ron with water. A large piece of linen, covered with oint- 
ment, was then put upon his back. His father went away, 
ordering him to keep the house, and not to go out that 
day. ; 
Whatever may have passed between his parents he did 
not know. He was in bed and asleep when his father re- 
turned at night. But he was never asked to return to the 
Lancaster school. 
He had now plenty of time for excursions into the coun- 
try. He wandered up the Dee and along the banks of the 
Don on both sides. He took long walks along shore— 
across the Aulten Links to the Auld Brig, and even up to 
the mountains, which at Aberdeen approach pretty near to 
the coast. 
During one of his excursions on the hills of Torrie, near 
the commencement of the Grampians, while looking for 
blackberries and cranberries, Edward saw something like the 
flash of an eel gliding through among the heather. He 
rushed after it, and pounced down upon it with both hands, 
but the animal had escaped. He began to tear up the 
heather, in order to get at it. His face streamed with per- 
spiration. He rested for a time, and then began again. 
Still there was no animal, nor a shadow of one. 
At this time another boy came up, and asked, “ What 
are ye doing there?’ “Naething.” “ D’ye call that nae- 
thing?” pointing to about a cart-load of heather torn up. 
“ Have ye lost ony thing?’ “No.” “What are ye look- 
ing’for, then?” “For something like an eel.” ‘Af eel !” 
3* 
