The Barnardo Boy
The only thing that young Buckney could say to express his surprise at
the wonderful stone buildings was "Blow me!" He had expected to find
that the great Canadian city of Montreal would be just a few slab
shacks, with forests on all sides, and painted Indians prowling,
tomahawk in hand, in search of scalps. When he left the big Atlantic
liner with twenty other raw English lads of his own street-bred sort, he
thought he was saying good-bye to civilization forever. And here, all
around him, arose the massive stone-built city, teeming with life, with
gayety, wealth, and poverty, carriages, horses, motor cars--why, it was
just like London, after all! And once more "Buck" said, "Blow me!"
"What's that he says, father?" asked a slender young lady who had
accompanied her father, the great surgeon, to help him select a
Barnardo boy to assist the stableman.
"Oh, it's an English street expression," smiled the surgeon. "I expect
he'll have dozens of queer sayings."
"Never mind," said the young lady; "he has a nice face, and his eyes
lock terribly straight at one.
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