The boy woke up feeling exhausted. What a chore to greet the morning! he thought, and turned over to groan and sigh and contemplate the dreariness ahead. He did not like to think too long of his work, for he found the office dreadful and dull—it gave him a headache. Nor did he do well to meditate on his friends, for he had very few and the ones he did have talked with a lisp and were always preoccupied with their own affairs. The only thing that got the boy to roll from bed was the prospect of breakfast: a biscuit and honey with a hot cup of tea. Without the thought of breakfast to cheer him, he might have pulled the blankets across his head and slumbered right through the noon.