CHAPTER IIL 
APPRENTICESHIP. 
-Tuz boy was learning idle habits. He refused to go 
back to the Lancaster school. Indeed, from the cruel treat- 
ment he had received there, his parents did not ask him to 
return. He had now been expelled from three schools. If 
he went to a fourth, it is probable that he might also have 
been expelled from that. It would not do for him to go 
scouring the hills in search of adders, or to bring them 
home, to the “ terrification” of his neighbors. He himself 
wished to go to work. His parents at last gave their con- 
sent, though he was then only about six years old. But 
poor people can always find something for their children 
to do out-of-doors. The little that they earn is always 
found very useful at home. 
Edward’s brother, who was about two years older than 
himself, was working at Craig and Johnston’s tobacco 
works. On inquiry, it was found that the firm was willing 
to take young Edward at the wage of fourteen- pence a 
week. The tobacco-spinners worked in an old house situa- 
ted at the end of the flour-mill in St. Nicholas Street. Each 
spinner had three boys under him—the wheeler, the pointer, 
and the stripper. Edward went through all these grades. 
As a stripper he could earn about eighteen-pence a week. 
The master was a bird- fancier, so that Edward got on 
very well with him. The boy brought him lots of nests 
and young birds in summer, and old birds which he trap- 
ped during winter. The master allowed him to keep rab- 
bits in the back yard; so that, what between working and 
playing, attending to his rabbits and catering for their food, 
