Horatio Alger

The Errand Boy (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

CHAPTER I.

PHIL HAS A LITTLE DIFFICULTY.

Phil Brent was plodding through the snow in the direction of the house where he lived with his step-mother and her son, when a snow-ball, moist and hard, struck him just below his ear with stinging emphasis. The pain was considerable, and Phil's anger rose.
He turned suddenly, his eyes flashing fiercely, intent upon discovering who had committed this outrage, for he had no doubt that it was intentional.
He looked in all directions, but saw no one except a mild old gentleman in spectacles, who appeared to have some difficulty in making his way through the obstructed street.
Phil did not need to be told that it was not the old gentleman who had taken such an unwarrantable liberty with him. So he looked farther, but his ears gave him the first clew.
He heard a chuckling laugh, which seemed to proceed from behind the stone wall that ran along the roadside.
"I will see who it is," he decided, and plunging through the snow he surmounted the wall, in time to see a boy of about his own age running away across the fields as fast as the deep snow would allow.
"So it's you, Jonas!" he shouted wrathfully. "I thought it was some sneaking fellow like you."
Jonas Webb, his step-brother, his freckled face showing a degree of dismay, for he had not calculated on discovery, ran the faster, but while fear winged his steps, anger proved the more effectual spur, and Phil overtook him after a brief run, from the effects of which both boys panted.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: CAIMAN
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. Juli 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9789881831217
• Artikelnr.: 58974366

Autorenporträt

Horatio Alger, an American novelist who lived from January 13, 1832, to July 18, 1899, authored books for young adults about poor lads who, through their good deeds, climb from impoverished roots to lives of stability and comfort in the middle class. His works are known for their "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative influence on the Gilded Age United States. All of Alger's young adult books revolve around the idea that a young man can change his situation for the better by acting morally. The "Horatio Alger myth" holds that the young man achieves success via toil, however, this is untrue. The youngster behaves according to classic characteristics like honesty, generosity, and altruism in the actual stories, and success is invariably the result of an accident that works to the boy's advantage. The youngster might recover a sizable sum of money that was misplaced or save a passenger from a derailed carriage. A wealthy person notices the youngster and his predicament as a result of this. For instance, in one tale, a little child narrowly avoids being hit by a streetcar before being snatched away to safety by a homeless orphan youth.