Above
the scolding voice of the woman his own voice arose. "Look out, Hugh," he
called. "Be on the jump, lad! Perk yourself up. She'll be biting you if you
don't go mighty careful in there."
Hugh got little money for his work at the railroad station but for the
first time in his life he began to fare well. Henry Shepard bought the
boy clothes, and his wife, Sarah, who was a master of the art of cooking,
loaded the table with good things to eat. Hugh ate until both the man and
woman declared he would burst if he did not stop. Then when they were not
looking he went into the station yard and crawling under a bush went to
sleep. The station master came to look for him. He cut a switch from the
bush and began to beat the boy's bare feet. Hugh awoke and was overcome
with confusion. He got to his feet and stood trembling, half afraid he was
to be driven away from his new home. The man and the confused blushing boy
confronted each other for a moment and then the man adopted the method
of his wife and began to scold. He was annoyed at what he thought the
boy's indolence and found a hundred little tasks for him to do. He devoted
himself to finding tasks for Hugh, and when he could think of no new ones,
invented them. "We will have to keep the big lazy fellow on the jump.
That's the secret of things," he said to his wife.
The boy learned to keep his naturally indolent body moving and his clouded
sleepy mind fixed on definite things.
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