doubt to get him out of the way; but Scotch schools for the children of
the working classes were in those days very rough hard places, where the
taws or leather strap was still regarded as the chief instrument of
education. Little Edward was not a child to be restrained by that
particular form of discipline; and after he had had two or three serious
tussles with his instructors, he was at last so cruelly beaten by one of
his masters that he refused to return, and his parents, who were
themselves by no means lacking in old Scotch severity, upheld him in his
determination. He had picked up reading by this time, and now for a
while he was left alone to hunt about to his heart's content among his
favourite fields and meadows. But by the time he was six years old, he
felt he ought to be going to work, brave little mortal that he was; and
as his father and mother thought so too, the poor wee mite was sent to
join his elder brother in working at a tobacco factory in the town, at
the wages of fourteen-pence a week. So, for the next two years, little
Tam waited upon a spinner (as the workers are called) and began life in
earnest as a working man. At the end of two years, however, the
brothers heard that better wages were being given, a couple of miles
away, at Grandholm, up the river Don. So off the lads tramped, one fast-
day (a recognized Scotch institution), to ask the manager of the
Grandholm factory if he could give them employment. They told nobody of
their intention, but trudged away on their own account; and when they
came back and told their parents what they had done, the father was not
very well satisfied with the proposal, because he thought it too far for
so small a boy as Tam to walk every day to and from his work. Tam,
however, was very anxious to go, not only on account of the increased
wages, but also (though this was a secret) because of the beautiful
woods and crags round Grandholm, through which he hoped to wander during
the short dinner hour. In the end, John Edward gave way, and the boys
were allowed to follow their own fancy in going to the new factory.