"Not only for playing hookey," she said; "but for going into the water
at all."
The little fellow rescued that day is Thomas McCaffery, now a member of
the Alleghany City Fire Department. Many years afterwards he gave Paul
a gold medal in remembrance of their first meeting.
In vacation Paul started out to look for work, for with all his wildness
he was industrious. He secured a place in a paper box factory at the
princely salary of fifty cents a week. His business was to lower great
packages of boxes from the upper story to the ground floor. He thought
how delightful it would be to go down himself on the rope. One day he
induced a small boy who worked near, pasting, to mind the windlass while
he descended by hanging on above the usual pits of boxes. The sensation
was novel and pleasing and it became exciting when the boy above leaned
over and shouted: "The boss is coming, look out for yourself. I'll have
to go." An instant later Paul and the boxes crashed together on the
bottom floor. The proprietor dragged him out of the ruin he had made and
assisted him energetically to the street, without even the hint of a
recommendation.
As Paul slowly and painfully wended his way home, a lady called him:
"Little boy, do you want a job?" Paul said he did and was put to work.
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