JOHN WHOPPER IN CHINA, By the Air-Line Route.
JOHN WHOPPER AT THE NORTH POLE.JOHN WHOPPER
THE NEWSBOY.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1871.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
ROBERTS BROTHERS,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
Stereotyped and Printed by
Alfred Mudge & Son,
Boston, Mass.
CHAPTER I.
HOW JOHN WHOPPER DISCOVERED THE AIR-LINE TO CHINA.
Two years ago last February, I think it was on a Tuesday morning, Istarted as usual very early to distribute my papers. I had a largebundle to dispose of that day, and thought that if I took a short cutacross the fields, instead of following the road from Roxbury to JamaicaPlain, I could go my rounds in much less time. I do not care to tell[Pg 6]precisely where it was that I jumped over the fence; but it is a rough,barren kind of spot, which nobody has ever done any thing to improve.
After walking about a third of a mile, I began to think that I hadbetter have kept to the turnpike; for I found that I was obliged toclamber over an uneven, rocky place, among trees and bushes and shrubs,that grew just thick enough to bother me, so that I hardly knew where toput my feet. All at once I lost my balance, and felt that I was slidingdown the side of a smooth, steep rock; while underneath, to my horror, Isaw what looked like a circular cave, or well, some five or six feet indiameter. I tried to grasp the rock with my hands, and ground my heels[Pg 7]as hard as I could against the surface, but it was of no use; down Islipped, faster and faster, until at last I plunged, feet foremost, intothe dark hole below. For a moment I held my breath, expecting to bedashed to pieces; and oh, how many things I thought of in that shortminute! It seemed as if every thing that I had ever done came back tome, especially all the bad things; and how I wished then that I hadlived a better life! I thought, too, of my poor mother and my littlebrother and sister at home, and how they would wait breakfast for methat morning; and how they would keep on waiting and waiting, hour afterhour and day after day; and how the neighbors would all turn out andsearch for me; and how I should never be found, and nobody would ever[Pg 8]know what had become of me. And then I wondered whether Mr. Simpson,who employed me to distribute the papers, would suppose that I had runaway somewhere, to sell them on my own account; and so I went onthinking and wondering, until it seemed as if there was no end to thetime. And yet I didn't strike the b