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The Adventures of a Boy Reporter by Harry Steele Morrison
page 26 of 153 (16%)
already nearly noon. He felt very much like bursting into tears, but
he was too proud to give way to his feelings. But he couldn't help
wishing that he were at home, playing with the members of the Hut
Club. "Those boys are much better off than I am," he said, over and
over, "though they have made no effort to improve themselves." After a
time, however, his ambition returned, and as he looked ahead into the
future, and remembered the wonderful things he was going to
accomplish, he felt more like working.

He finished the field at five o'clock in the afternoon, and was almost
fainting from hunger and from the hard work. The ploughing was fairly
well done, but Hiram Tinch could see no merit in the work. He swore at
Archie again, and gave him a supper of mush and milk. Mrs. Tinch sat
by, and Archie could see that she did not approve of his treatment.
The poor woman seemed afraid to speak, almost, but it was plain that
she had a good heart. So when Archie heard a noise in his garret room
that night, he was not surprised to see Mrs. Tinch at the window,
placing some doughnuts and sandwiches there for him to eat.

CHAPTER V.

THE NIGHT AMONG THE RUINS-- THE CAMP-FIRE OF THE TRAMPS.

IT seemed to Archie that he had just fallen asleep when old Hiram
Tinch was shaking him awake. "Git up out o' here now, ye lazy beggar,
and git to the field and finish that there ploughin'," he growled, and
the frightened lad awakened from a horrible nightmare, only to find a
worse experience awaiting him in the light of day. He hastily drew on
his trousers, and didn't wait to don either shoes or stockings, for if
he was to spend the day ploughing in a field, he knew he would be more
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