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.

It was very hard work; the hours were from six in the morning till
eight at night, for there was no Factory Act then to guard the interest
of helpless children; so the boys had to be up at four in the morning,
and were seldom home again till nine at night. In winter, the snow
lies long and deep on those chilly Aberdeenshire roads, and the east
winds from the German Ocean blow cold and cutting up the narrow valley
of the Don; and it was dreary work toiling along them in the dark of
morning or of night in bleak and cheerless December weather. Still,
Tam liked it on the whole extremely well. His wage