| (1) Things to eat (apples, pears, cakes, pies, oranges, bananas, etc.) | 198 | different things |
| (2) Things to sell (lead, coal, wood) | 23 | |
| (3) Things used in games (balls, bats, gloves, etc.) | 48 | |
| (4) Tools (saws, hammers, knives) | 36 | |
| (5) Jewelry (watches, rings, etc.) | 24 | times |
| (6) Animals and birds (dogs and pigeons) | 24 | |
| (7) Money | 80 | |
| Total, | 433 | things and times |
There was no use in asking the boys how many times they had taken fruit; life would be too short to take down the answers.
CHAPTER V
FURTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE GANG
There is probably no more characteristic difference between boyhood and middle age than the strange Wanderlust of youth. We adults are content to work year after year at the same desk, and think ourselves lucky if we can warm our feet year after year over the same register. But the boy,—
“He must go, go, go away from here,”
and “the old spring fret comes o’er him” at all seasons of the year.
Migratory Activities
The migratory impulse takes a sudden rise at the dawn of adolescence. Nearly all boys with good, red blood in their veins are touched by it. It appears to come as a strong wave at the gang age, and then gradually subsides; but it rarely entirely disappears.
Boys in their gangs love to tell and to hear stories of adventure, and there is no question that the gang is often a direct agent for stirring the call of the wild. In forty-four (67 per cent) of the sixty-six gangs there are records of the travel of one or more of the group. A boy who has taken some adventurous trip is a hero, and his stories are listened to with great zest. Boys rarely go off in large companies, for it is impossible for them all to get away at once. Commonly, not more than three or four go at a time; often a boy and his companion together; sometimes a boy goes alone.