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CHAPTER I
He awoke to stretch cheerfully as he listened to the sparrows, then to remember that everything was wrong; that he was determined to go astray, and not in the least enjoying the process. Why, he wondered, should he be in rebellion? What was it all about? "Why not be sensible; stop all this idiotic running around, and enjoy himself with his family, his business, the fellows at the club? " What was he getting out of rebellion? Misery and shame -- the shame of being treated as an offensive small boy by a ragamuffin like Ida Putiak! And yet -- Always he came back to "And yet. " Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.