earth below; and then they must have gone
away, and given them up as hopeless. My boy never had the least notion
how he got home; and I dare say he was very young when he began these
excursions to the woods.

In some places Old River was a stagnant pool, covered with thick green
scum, and filled with frogs. The son of one of the tavern-keepers was
skilled in catching them, and I fancy supplied them to his father's
table; the important fact was his taking them, which he did by baiting a
cluster of three hooks with red flannel, and dropping them at the end of
a fish-line before a frog. The fated croaker plunged at the brilliant
bait, and was caught in the breast; even as a small boy, my boy thought
it a cruel sight. The boys pretended that the old frogs said, whenever
this frog-catching boy came in sight, "Here comes Hawkins!--here comes
Hawkins! Look out!--look out!" and a row of boys, perched on a log in
the water, would sound this warning in mockery of the frogs or their
foe, and plump one after another in the depths, as frogs follow their
leader in swift succession. They had nothing against Hawkins. They all
liked him, for he was a droll, good-natured fellow, always up to some
pleasantry. One day he laughed out in school. "Was that you laughed,
Henry?" asked the teacher, with unerring suspicion. "I was only smiling,
Mr. Slack." "The next time, see that you don't smile so loud," said Mr.
Slack, and forgave him, as any one who saw his honest face must have
wished to do. They called him Old Hawkins, for fondness; and while my
boy shuddered at him for his way of catching frogs, he was in love with
him for his laughing eyes and the kindly ways he had, especially with
the little boys.

VI.

SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.

MY boy had not a great deal to do with schools after his docile
childhood. When he began to run wild with the other boys he preferred
their savage freedom; and he got out of going to school by most of the
devices they used. He had never quite the hardihood to play truant, but
he was subject to sudden attacks of sickness, which came on about
school-time and went off towards the middle of the forenoon or afternoon
in a very strange manner. I suppose that such complaints are unknown at
the present time, but the Young People's fathers can tell them how much
suffering they used to cause among boys. At the age when my boy was
beginning to outgrow them he was taken into his father's
printing-office, and he c