Could John and his cousins have understood all this when the next
tobacco famine came to them, it seems that each would surely have
resisted the temptation to stoop down, pick up a partly chewed quid of
tobacco, cram it greedily into his watering mouth, and chew it as though
it was the sweetest morsel he had ever tasted. But the boys did not
know. They thought such things were manly.




CHAPTER IV

Early School Days


By the time John was eight years old, the evil influences with which he
had been surrounded in his uncle's home were rapidly telling on him. To
be sure, there was still the same pathetic expression in his deep, brown
eyes, and now and then there could be observed in them a mischievous
glance or a merry twinkle; but his general appearance was that of a
sadly neglected child. Still the busy aunt took little notice either
of him or of her own boys.

In his heart John was longing for someone to take an interest in him and
to love him--someone to whom he could go with his boyish heartaches and
from whom he could gain the sympathy for which his heart was craving.
To be sure, his father was still kind, and sometimes John would imagine
that he could even feel his father's love. At such times the boy would
press closer to his parent, hoping that he would at least with his arm