THE STEADFAST HEART
followed he was kept busy a reasonable number of hours with tasks which had little to do with the trade itself, sweeping the shop, washing pans and forms, folding papers…. It is usual for an apprentice in a printing shop to run errands and to distribute papers on printing day, but this did not fall to Angus—for Angus never went unaccompanied on the streets after the first day when Jake sent him to the drug store for turpentine. He arrived safely at Ramsay’s, made his purchase, and started back…. It was then he was discovered by a group of boys of his own age, some of whom, unluckily, were members of Mary Trueman’s Sunday school class. Sammy Hammond was there and Harold Cuyler. At sight of Angus they raised the war cry of boyhood and came charging toward him with ferocious demonstrations.
Your boy of nine or ten is essentially a hunting animal; from daylight until dark he searches for his prey, which may be anything from the alley cat to a stranger with a peg leg. Especially does the strange, the unaccustomed, the bizarre attract his gifted attentions. Whatever is marked by peculiarity draws his attention and his enthusiasm. Let a red-haired traveling man alight from the train and walk up Main Street—and if he be a stranger and the hour is propitious, he will be followed by half a dozen urchins
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