Adventures of Pudge

THE BICYCLE

Pudge’s bike was a piece of junk. It seemed to him that every time he rode it something happened. Yesterday, when he

was riding Dead Horse Hill, his chain came off. As a result, he had no brakes. As he went down the hill the bike went faster

and faster so that, by the time he reached the bottom of the hill, it felt like he was going a hundred miles an hour. He had to

coast half way up the next hill before he could slow down enough to jump off and stop the bike. Some day he was going to

get a new bike.

Pudge knew when he bought the bike that there were things wrong with it. Teeth were missing from the sprocket so that

each time he rode it I would skip on him, sometimes at an inappropriate time. Also, one of the tires had a slow leak; before

Pudge could use the bike he had to pump up the tire. His dad had told him that none of these things could be fixed without

spending more than the bike was worth. As Pudge had paid only $4 for it he had to agree with his dad. But he could still

wish for a new one.

Perhaps he could get a newspaper route, he could easily earn enough to pay for a new bike that way. One of the boys in

his class had just started one and had been telling the class about it. Clifford got out of bed every morning at 5 o’clock so

that he could fold his papers and get them ready for delivery. From 6 to 7:15 he delivered the papers, every day except

Sunday, and then had to be home by 7:30 to get ready for school. He had a large double sack, that the newspaper office

supplied, which he could fasten to the luggage carrier on his bike; This way he could deliver 60 papers each day. From this

Clifford earned about $2.50 a week.