{"product_id":"2940014853606","title":"In the World","description":"An excerpt from the beginning of:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI WENT out into the world as \"shop-boy\" at a fashionable boot-shop in the main street of the town.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy master was a small, round man. He had a brown, rugged face, green teeth, and watery, mud-colored eyes. At first I thought he was blind, and to see if my supposition was correct, I made a grimace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't pull your face about!\" he said to me gently, but sternly. The thought that those dull eyes could see me was unpleasant, and I did not want to believe that this was the case. Was it not more than probable that he had guessed I was making grimaces?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I told you not to pull your face about,\" he said again, hardly moving his thick lips.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't scratch your hands,\" his dry whisper came to me, as it were, stealthily. \"You are serving in a first-class shop in the main street of the town, and you must not forget it. The door-boy ought to stand like a statue.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI did not know what a statue was, and I couldn't help scratching my hands, which were covered with red pimples and sores, for they had been simply devoured by vermin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What did you do for a living when you were at home?\" asked my master, looking at my hands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI told him, and he shook his round head, which was closely covered with gray hair, and said in a shocked voice:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rag-picking! Why, that is worse than begging or stealing!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI informed him, not without pride:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But I stole as well.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt this he laid his hands on his desk, looking just like a cat with her paws up, and fixed his eyes on my face with a terrified expression as he whispered:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Wha—a—t? How did you steal?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI explained how and what I had stolen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, well, I look upon that as nothing but a prank. But if you rob me of boots or money, I will have you put in prison, and kept there for the rest of your life.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe said this quite calmly, and I was frightened, and did not like him any more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides the master, there were serving in the shop my cousin, Sascha Jaakov, and the senior assistant, a competent, unctuous person with a red face. Sascha now wore a brown frock-coat, a false shirt-front, a cravat, and long trousers, and was too proud to take any notice of me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen grandfather had brought me to my master, he had asked Sascha to help me and to teach me. Sascha had frowned with an air of importance as he said warningly:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"He will have to do what I tell him, then.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLaying his hand on my head, grandfather had forced me to bend my neck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You are to obey him; he is older than you both in years and experience.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd Sascha said to me, with a nod:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't forget what grandfather has said.\" He lost no time in profiting by his seniority.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Kashirin, don't look so goggle-eyed,\" his master would advise him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I—I'm all right,\" Sascha would mutter, putting his head down. But the master would not leave him alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't butt; the customers will think you are a goat.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe assistant smiled respectfully, the master stretched his lips in a hideous grin, and Sascha, his face flushing, retreated behind the counter. I did not like the tone of these conversations. Many of the words they used were unintelligible to me, and sometimes they seemed to be speaking in a strange language. When a lady customer came in,, the master would take his hands out of his pockets, tug at his mustache, and fix a sweet smile upon his face—a smile which wrinkled his cheeks, but did not change the expression of his dull eyes. The assistant would draw himself up, with his elbows pressed closely against his sides, and his wrists respectfully dangling. Sascha would blink shyly, trying to hide his protruding eyes, while I would stand at the door, surreptitiously scratching my hands, and observing the ceremonial of selling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKneeling before the customer, the assistant would try on shoes with wonderfully deft fingers. He touched the foot of the woman so carefully that his hands trembled, as if he were afraid of breaking her leg. But the leg was stout enough. It looked like a bottle with sloping shoulders, turned neck downward.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of these ladies pulled her foot away one day, shrieking:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh, you are tickling me!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"That is—because—you are so sensitive,\" the assistant explained hastily, with warmth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was comical to watch him fawning upon the customers, and I had to turn and look through the glass of the door to keep myself from laughing. But something used to draw me back to watch the sale. The proceedings of the assistant were very interesting, and while I looked at him I was thinking that I should never be able to make my fingers move so delicately, or so deftly put boots on other people's feet.","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147704910064,"sku":"2940014853606","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014853606_p0.jpg?v=1763615963","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014853606","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}