Year: 1878

The queerest fellow, without excep-
ton, in all Wexford, was Daniel Batter.


He was sixteen years of age, yet he
had the reputation of possessing as much
knowledge about odd and out-of-the way
things as any ten average lads. He was
believed to have an intimate acquaint-
ance with every trout in the streams and
every bird in the woods and every rabbit
in the burrows. He had the largest
collection of birds eggs to be found in
the country; and it was reported and
solemnly believed by all the small boys
in the neighborhood that he had secret
understanding with the king fishers and
orioles by which they agreed to surrender
an egg of each litter to him in considera-
tion of his promise to let all others
alore.


He was always taking up some new
idea to work out. If he did not know
al about many things, he really seemed
to know little about everything. He
knew how to print, how to bleed horse,
how to use telegraph instrument, how
to cultivate silk worms, how to make
the most outrageous noise with his
hands, how to grow pears, how to play
checkers with his eyes shut, and in short,
he knew how to do nearly everything
that came in his way to learn.





One day the neighbors opened their
eyes and pricked up their ears at the
news that Dan had taken up photo
graphy not that they were astonished
at anything that Dan did, but they were
interested in his enterprise, though re-
garding it simply as another freak of his
curious genius.


"Well, WE'LL" said they, Struggling
their shoulders, Dan is an old stick.
It's about time he went into something
useful. Photographs, eh?'


The report was true. Dan had OBJ
tanned camera of good size, and was
experimenting with it up in his den, "
in one end of his mothers garret.


1t would be hard to imagine more
untidy, chaotic-looking place then Dan s
eden. 1t was full of bottles, old
clothes, jars, bits of machinery, musical
instruments, carpenters tools, old maps,
torn pictures, pots of paint and chemi-
calls, fragments of old machines, stuffed
birds, etc., and it smelled so fearfully
that no one but Dan could ever stay long
enough to make an inventory of all the
contents.


Dan was as odd-looking a character as
one would be likely to see in years
travel. He was thin and lank in the
body and legs. His head was large,
and he had light blue eyes and long,
whitish hair, which he rarely combed,
and which struggled about all over his
head, as if the rats had made nests
in it the last time he slept.


He was not much of talker. He
generally kept silent and stared. No
body knew what an amount of thinking
he did meanwhile, and in fact many who
had laughed at his greenness had to con-
fess afterwards that he not only saw all
things that were going on, but knew
more about what he saw than the smart
est OF them.


Dan went on with his photographing
for several weeks. He learned to take
very good pictures, but he was far from
satisfied. His fingers were always
stained black and brown with acids that
he could not wash off, and his clothing
gave out peculiar scent of collodion.


Dams mother began to be really anxi-
ous. The boy was growing up loose
Jack of-all-trades, but without any par
ticular turn for one profitable calling.
1t was necessary that he should choose
some single business and stick to it. She
took the boy in hand and expostulated
with him. Dan looked distressed.


"I'm trying to do something, mother
I've just got hold of it now, I guess. ]
only want little more time"


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