The main character in Blackwood's novel, Widge begins life in the country. During his first seven years, he bunks with a group of boys in an orphanage, and then he is apprenticed to Dr. Bright, a parson and physician who has devised a shorthand code that he calls charactery. He teaches it to Widge and sends him to a different church each Sunday to copy the minister's sermon.

Widge then transcribes the charactery into regular English, and two weeks later Dr.

Bright delivers that same sermon to his own congregation. When Widge discovers what Dr. Bright is doing, he asks if he can stop copying the sermons. He does not care if it is right or wrong, but he fears getting caught. Dr. Bright tells him that he is his boy and that he must continue to do as he is told. The notion...