CHAPTER X. 
RESUMES HIS FORMER HABITS. 
Epwarp had left Banff on the 31st of July, 1846, full 
of hope; after six weeks, he returned to it full of despair. 
He had gone to Aberdeen with his collection, accompanied 
by his wife and family; he returned from it alone and on 
foot, without a single specimen of his collection, and with- 
out a penny in his pocket that he could call his own. He 
felt ruined, disappointed, beggared—his aims and hopes in 
life blasted. He was under the necessity of leaving his 
wife and children at Aberdeen; for they could not travel 
fifty miles to Banff on foot. 
Edward felt terribly crushed on re-entering his desolate 
home. A strange-like heaviness of mind came over him. 
The place was drear and lonesome. It was so different 
from what it had once been. It was no longer enlivened 
by the prattle of his children, or the pleasant looks of his 
wife. There was neither fire, nor food, nor money. The 
walls, which only a few weeks before had been covered 
with his treasures—the results of the hard labor of years— 
were bare and destitute. The house was desolation itself. 
After remaining there for a short time, a neighbor came 
in and asked Edward to come to his house and get some 
food. He most gladly assented to the proposal. He aft- 
erward went to see his master, and arranged with him as 
to the re-commencement of his work. This was easily ac- 
complished, as Edward was considered a Don at his trade.* 
* Master shoe-makers, in those days, employed Men’s men (that is, 
men who made men’s shoes), Women’s men, Boot men, and Pump 
