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CHAPTER I.
IN the autumn month of September, eighteen hundred and
fifty-seven, wherein these presents bear date, two idle
apprentices, exhausted by the long, hot summer, and the
long, hot work it had brought with it, ran away from their
employer. They were bound to a highly meritorious lady
(named Literature), of fair credit and repute, though, it
must be acknowledged, not quite so highly esteemed in the
City as she might be. ...
The misguided young men who thus shirked their duty to the
mistress from whom they had received many favours , were
actuated by the low idea of making a perfectly idle trip, in
any direction. They had no intention of going anywhere in
particular; they wanted to see nothing, they wanted to know
nothing, they wanted to learn nothing, they wanted to do
nothing, They wanted only to be idle. ...
The two apprentices of this tale are Thomas Idle and
Francis Goodchild.
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