BORN BLIND AND DEAF. 57 



Whilst he was last in London, he happened to be in the 

 house of a friend of his father's, who was in the habit of 

 smoking; and a pipe being given him, he smoked it, and 

 seemed much delighted. Some little time ago, a gentle- 

 man came on a visit to Ardclach, who was also in the habit of 

 smoking, and having tobacco, wished for a pipe. Miss Mit- 

 chell gave the boy a halfpenny, and permitted him to smell 

 the tobacco. He understood her signs ; went out to a shoe- 

 maker's house in the neighbourhood, where pipes were to be 

 had, and returned with one only in his hand. They suspected 

 that he had another about him, and giving him to understand 

 as much, he at last unbuttoned his waistcoat, and, laughing 

 heartily, brought out the second pipe. The Sunday after this 

 occurrence, when his sister gave him a halfpenny, as usual, in 

 church, to put into the poors'-box, he immediately placed the 

 halfpenny between his teeth, like a pipe, and laughed ; but his 

 sister checking him, he dropped it into the box. 



He is still fond of the trick of locking people into the house 

 or the stable. The patron of the parish, Mr Dunbar Brodie, 

 (a gentleman who, I have reason to believe, has exceeded all 

 others in acts of substantial kindness to the Mitchell family), 

 happening lately to visit Ardclach, young Mitchell contrived 

 to make him a prisoner in this manner for a few minutes, laugh- 

 ing and jumping about all the while. On this particular occa- 

 sion, it was noticed, that he applied his eye to an aperture in 

 the door of the stable, as if to observe the motions of the 

 person within. But although my friend writes me, that the 

 other day upon holding out his hand to Mitchell, the boy 

 took hold of it ; it cannot be conceived, that his sight should 

 have suddenly so much improved, as to enable him to see any 

 object in a dark stable, through a hole in the door, without 

 the improvement being extremely obvious in other instances. 



Vol. VII. H NO. IL 



