old the father he had come to call for!
But what with helping his mother, tending the baker's shop in
after-school hours, serving his paper route, plying his street-car
trade, and acting as social reporter, it soon became evident to Edward
that he had not much time to prepare his school lessons. By a supreme
effort, he managed to hold his own in his class, but no more.
Instinctively, he felt that he was not getting all that he might from
his educational opportunities, yet the need for him to add to the
family income was, if anything, becoming greater. The idea of leaving
school was broached to his mother, but she rebelled. She told the boy
that he was earning something now and helping much. Perhaps the tide
with the father would turn and he would find the place to which his
unquestioned talents entitled him. Finally the father did. He
associated himself with the Western Union Telegraph Company as
translator, a position for which his easy command of languages
admirably fitted him. Thus, for a time, the strain upon the family
exchequer was lessened.
But the American spirit of initiative had entered deep into the soul of
Edward Bok. The brother had left school a year before, and found a
place as messenger in a lawyer's office; and when one evening Edward
heard his father say that the office boy in his department had left, he
asked that he be allowed to leave school, apply for the open position,
and get the rest of his education in the great world itself. It was
not easy for the parents to see the younger son leave school at so
early an age, but the earnestness of the boy prevailed.
And so, at the age of twelve, Edward Bok left school, and on Monday,
August 7, 1876, he became office boy in the electricians' department of
the Western Union Telegraph Company at six dollars and twenty-five
cents per week.
And, as such things will fall out in this curiously strange world, it
happened that as Edward drew up his chair for the first time to his
desk to begin his work on that Monday morning, there had been born in
Boston, exactly twelve hours before, a girl-baby who was destined to
become his wife. Thus at the earliest possible moment after her birth,
Edward Bok started to work for her!
CHAPTER III
THE HUNGER FOR SELF-EDUCATION
With school-days ended, the question of self-education became an
absorbing thought with Edward Bok. He had mastered a schoolboy's
English, but six years of public-school educ
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