A little afterwards his father hailed an omnibus. They climbed together to the roof, and were borne away by the sturdy horses through nests of cheerless houses, and hives of dismal human creatures, until green fields and tall trees came into view. As they walked in these groves already spread in the mantle of spring, and their feet felt the sweet and bright earth responsive beneath them, the boy said, “Why is it, my father, that we sometimes choose the dirt, the noise, and the darkness, when fair Elysium is so close about us?”
“I have observed, beloved one,” said his father, “that you do not always turn to the easy and pleasant authors.”
The boy blushed vividly.
“How I wish,” he said, with vehement lips, “that I had never asked to come here! We will forsake these groves, my father, which are spread with flowers, which are quick with the songs of birds, and not return to them for many days.”
“As you will, Achilles,” said his father gently.
In the spring and summer months the boy sometimes rose at dawn to sally out alone into the streets. They were almost free of traffic and street-persons at this time, and when his courage mounted high he was not afraid to move among them. But later in the day, when the press became so great he could only move abroad mistrustfully, and when the darkness came he only dared to do so in his father’s company.
He determined to celebrate his fifteenth birthday with an adventure. On the eve of that anniversary he made up his mind that on the following morning he would buy a newspaper. When it came he went forth soon after dawn, and remained in the streets until nearly eight o’clock. Then it was he encountered a boy standing by the kerb with a newsbill spread out before it. He had a bundle of newspapers under his arm, and was bawling lustily. The boy approached with many misgivings, but finding that the newsboy was taller, and that his voice was louder than he had at first suspected, he moved away without venturing to speak to him. However, a little farther off was a second newsboy who was very ragged, who was not so tall, and whose voice was not so loud. This boy he spoke to with an inflexible determination in his heart.
“I-if you p-please for w-what p-piece of m-money will you give me one of your n-newspapers?” he said.
“Hay?” said the newsboy, looking at him in amazement.
With infinite difficulty the boy stammered through his question again.