The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two BoysGaris, Howard Roger
General
The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys
Garis, Howard Roger
Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Country life -- Juvenile fiction; Cousins -- Juvenile fiction; Farm life -- Juvenile fiction
"All right," agreed Roger, with just a little disappointment in his
tone, for he did want to see the fire. But he soon forgot that in
wondering what would happen if he didn't have to go to school for a
whole year. The suggestion contained such possibilities that he was lost
in a maze with plans of what he would do with his time.
Meanwhile the car continued along more rapidly, and it was not a great
while before father and son reached home. Then, as Roger helped his
five-year-old brother Edward to build a castle out of blocks, Mr.
Anderson told his wife the result of the visit to Dr. Glasby. She was
much relieved when she learned there was nothing serious the matter with
her son, and there was a happy look in her eyes as she glanced at her
two boys playing together on the floor.
The Andersons lived in a large but pleasant apartment house on the "west
side," as it is called in New York. It was on Thirty-third Street, just
west of Ninth Avenue, along which thoroughfare the elevated railroad
passed. It was so near this, that in warm weather, when the windows were
open nights, Roger could hear the rattle of the trains and the clatter
and hum of the electric motor cars. In fact it was quite a noisy place,
where Roger lived, but no one in the neighborhood seemed to mind it, or,
if they did, they had grown so used to it that they never spoke of it.
Of course there was no yard, and no place to play, except in the street,
for space is too valuable in New York to have yards to houses. But there
was the flat roof of the big apartment, where scores of families lived,
and Roger and his boy friends sometimes enjoyed their sports up there.
Roger Anderson was just past his fifteenth year, rather small for his
age, and not nearly as strong and sturdy as his parents wished he was.
Lately his eyes had been troubling him, and he had complained of
frequent headaches. He was in his first season at high school, and what,
with taking up Latin and algebra, two new worlds of study for the boy,
he had been rather closely applied to his books at night. As he was
ambitious he threw himself into the vim of learning with an energy that
was pleasing to his parents and teachers, though it had a bad effect on
his health. For, after a few weeks of school, it was noticed that he was
failing in energy. There were many days when, in spite of his desire, he
felt disinclined to go to his classes, and he was troubled with
dizziness. In short he seemed in such poor shape that Mr. Anderson
determined on a visit to Dr. Glasby, the old family physician. That
night, after the consultation with the medical man, when Roger had gone
to bed, his father and mother sat up to talk the matter over.
"I don't like to think of his losing a year's schooling," said Mr.
Anderson, as he thought how valuable education was.
"Better that than to have him get really ill and have to stop
altogether," replied Mrs. Anderson.
Both were silent a few minutes, turning the question over in their
minds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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