The Adventures of a Boy ReporterMorrison, Harry Steele
General
The Adventures of a Boy Reporter
Morrison, Harry Steele
Reporters and reporting -- Juvenile fiction
THE transport did not remain long at Honolulu, and before leaving Archie
had several things which he wanted to do. In the first place, he felt
that he ought to write the story of his experiences so far, and send
it to Mr. Van Bunting; so he did sit down and describe in detail his
experiences at cleaning vegetables on board the Pacific liner. He wasn’t
sure whether this was anything that Mr. Van Bunting would care to print,
but he decided to send it on, anyhow. He would have been surprised
had he observed the enthusiasm with which this letter was read in the
Enterprise office a month later. He would have been no longer in any
doubt as to whether it was anything worth printing had he read the
Enterprise of the following day, when the letter appeared on the second
page as one of the chief features of the paper.
Before leaving, too, Archie sent a long, cheerful letter home, saying
nothing of his being seasick on board the liner, or of his having had to
work so hard. He devoted his letter to telling of the many interesting
things he had seen, and of his bright prospects for becoming a
successful newspaper man. He wrote a shorter letter to Jack Sullivan,
which was intended to be read to all the members of the Hut Club,
for Archie felt that it was no more than right that they should know
something of his success. He found it very hard to realise, away off
here in Honolulu, that he had ever been a member of the club, and that
he had ever lived in tents behind the barn. He felt very manly now, and
his boyhood seemed far away behind him, so far away that he now felt
like a man of twenty-five rather than like a boy of eighteen. He was
beginning to realise that age is not always governed by years alone, but
that experience does much to make one old.
As soon as the transport had anchored in the bay, Archie went aboard to
present his credentials to the commanding officer. He found the general
very pleasant to meet, and a very appreciative listener as he told of
his scheme for overtaking the transport. The officer was surprised,
of course, that such a young fellow should be going to the islands as
correspondent, but the things he said were very encouraging to Archie,
“I tell you what,” the general remarked, at one time during the
conversation, “I believe that a young fellow like Dunn, here, can find
out a great many more interesting things than an older man could ever
discover. You see the youngster has ambition and energy on his side,
and ambition and energy are two mighty powerful things when they’re
combined. I’d hate to buck up against ‘em myself.” The other officers
agreed with the general in this remark, and Archie began to feel that,
after all, he might not have such a hard time finding interesting things
to write about as he had expected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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