OUT OF SCHOOL
As we stated in the last chapter, Steve was taken from school before
his education was at all fairly completed and placed in an office. This
was done against the wishes of his mother; but his stepfather said
he could not have him eating the roof off the house and live a lazy,
good-for-nothing life any longer--he must work and earn his living.
William Waitz (which was the name of Steve’s stepfather) wanted to make
a mechanic of the poor boy, but his mother, who understood his nature,
would not allow this. _She_ knew this was altogether against the wishes
and abilities of her son, and she insisted that he should be placed in
an office. Her influence--and a good woman’s influence, even on a bad
man, always makes itself felt--gained for Steve the victory, and he
was not placed with a mechanic, which he would have hated. He desired
opportunities to improve himself mentally, and how could he improve
himself so as a mason or brick-layer?
Steve knew his education was by no means complete, but he did not mind
leaving school, for he ardently desired to earn his own living and to
be independent; besides, he did not intend to leave off studying, only
now he could choose his own subjects for study. History--political and
natural--astronomy, geography, books on agriculture, horticulture,
tree culture, apiculture, all were welcome to him; he would as readily
read and study the one as the other, and on many a night, when his
stepfather sent him hungry and starving to bed as a punishment for
doing nothing in particular, he would console himself and forget his
hunger in reading some book or other. It was nothing unusual for him
to be caught by the daybreak stealing into his little room, his candle
still burning, and he deeply immersed in his book.