CHAP. Itt. ] Charles Begg. 69 
don, where he learned the trade of shoe-making. He had 
gradually wandered northward, until he reached Inverness, 
where he lived for some time. Then he went eastward to 
Elgin, then to Banff, until at last he arrived at Aberdeen, 
where he married and settled. Begg was a good work- 
man; though, apart from shoe- making, he knew next to 
nothing. It is well, however, to be a good workman, if 
one does his work thoroughly and faithfully. The only 
things that Begg. 
could do, besides 
shoe-making, 
were drinking 
and fighting. 
He was a great 
friend of pugil- 
ism; though his 
principal diffi- < 
culty, when he 
got drunk, was 
to find any body 
to fight with in 
that pacific _ 
neighborhood. 
It was a great 
misfortune for 
the boy to have 
been placed un- 
der the charge 
of so dissolute a yagsbouit ‘He had, however, to do his 
best. He learned to make upper-leathers, and was pro- 
ceeding to make shoe-bottoms. He would, doubtless, have 
learned his trade very well, but for the drunkenness of 
his master, who was evidently going headlong to ruin. 
He was very often absent from the shop, and when custom- 
ers called, Edward was sent out by his mistress to search 
the public-houses frequented by Begg; but, when found, 
OHARLES BEGGS SHOP, GALLOWGATE. 
