THE MAN WITH THE MICROSCOPE H9 
I would never have put that beetle in my mouth, no 
matter how much I wanted it—would you? But this 
boy was so eager about beetle-hunting, as he was about 
everything he undertook, that in after life he could re¬ 
member posts, old trees and banks where he had made a 
good capture. He was a capital shot with a gun, and 
so fond of the sport that the first time he brought down 
a snipe his hands trembled so with excitement that he 
could hardly reload his gun. In his room at college he 
would ask his roommate to wave about a lighted candle; 
then he would fire at it with blank cartridges, and if his 
aim was correct the puff of wind would blow out the 
candle. Darwin was never caught at this trick, but one 
day a teacher remarked, 
“What a queer thing it is, Mr. Darwin seems to spend 
hours in cracking a horsewhip in his room, for I often 
hear the crack when I pass under his window!” 
When he was a school boy Charles Darwin had many 
friends. He says himself that he must have been a 
very simple fellow when he first went to school, and in 
his life history he tells how one of his school mates 
fooled him. 
A boy named Garnett took him into a cake shop and 
bought cakes, but did not pay for them. As the boys 
walked out, Garnett put his hand to his hat and moved 
it in a certain way. When Darwin asked why the shop- 
