Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 10.djvu/619

Rh that he must be either mad or drunk. At the intercession of some ladies, the punishment of his heinous offense against the military majesty of his country was remitted.

When about twenty years of age Edward left Aberdeen, and went to Banff (a pleasant country town about fifty miles away, standing upon a gentle slope inclining to the sea), to work at his trade. Wages were low, and he was confined many hours in the shop, but he continued to make his natural-history collections. When twenty-three years old he married, and was fortunate in finding a woman of common-sense, who sympathized with his peculiar tastes. She had nothing, and they began to keep house on his earnings, which were 9s. 6d. per week. But he now, for the first time, had a place and room for his specimens. His education had been very limited, he could hardly write, he knew next to nothing of books, did not possess a single work on natural history, or know the names of the birds and animals that he caught. He also knew little of the nature and habits of the creatures he went to seek, or where or how to find them But he had this great advantage, that he was compelled to observe for himself, to think for himself, so that the knowledge he acquired was his own. He was modest, self-depreciating, and shy, and as his fellow-mechanics were an ignorant and brutal lot, with whom he associated very little, he was alone and friendless, which again favored the absorption of his mind in natural objects. He got compensation, for he was an intense lover of Nature, and to be in the fields, the woods, the moors, was always a great delight. When he had been married about a year, he began to make a collection of natural objects. He bought an old gun for 4s. 6d., but it was so rickety that he had to tie the barrel to the stock with twine. This, with his powder-horn and shotbag, a few insect-bottles, some boxes for moths and butterflies, and a book for putting plants in, constituted his equipment. He had a two story hat, the upper chamber of which was a useful receptacle, while the crown served for sticking in and carrying his entomological pins. He carried no cloak or umbrella, and his food was a bit of bread, or a little oatmeal, which he washed down with water from the nearest spring. He never rambled on Sunday, but made it a day of rest, which was fortunate, as, without this break, he could hardly have continued his overstrained and exhausting life.

Mr. Edward had to support his family by piece-work, which occupied him from six in the morning to nine at night, and his wages were so small that he could not abridge his working-hours. But he was a man of invincible determination, and he resolved never to spend a moment idly, or a penny uselessly. Closely occupied during the day, the night was all that remained for "leisure," and that he divided between sleep and night-wanderings after animals. On returning home from his work at night, his usual course was to equip himself with his tools, and start for some one of his locations for observing. It