AN UNWORTHY PUPIL. 23

holding so fast that I was obliged to get the assist-
ance of a negro to separate them; which we had
no sooner effected than, with the swiftness of a
bird, he darted to a block, on which was a wig of
my father’s, and, clinging round it, appeared satis-
fied. I therefore let him remain there, feeding
him with goat’s milk. He continued in this situa-
tion for three weeks, when he abandoned his nurse,
and became, by his tricks and merry conceits, the
friend of the family.

‘“T had, without suspicion, placed the wolf in the
sheepfold ; for one morning as I entered my apart-
ment, the door of which I had imprudently left
open, I saw my unworthy pupil breakfasting on my
beloved collection. In my first transports of fury
I could have strangled him; but rage soon gave
place to pity, when I saw how dreadfully he was
punished for his gluttony, having, in cracking the
scarabeei, swallowed the pins on which they were
stuck. His torments made me forget his fault, and
I only thought of helping the wretched sufferer ;
but my tears, and all the art of the slaves, could
not save him from death. This accident threw me
back a good deal, but did not quite discourage me.
I now turned my thoughts in a different direction,
and wished to collect birds; but as the slaves did
not procure them to my liking, I armed myself
with a shooting-tube and an Indian bow, which,