Sheppard is eating his cold cereal out of the small box it came in and mentally appraises his ten-year-old son, Norton, whose mother, Sheppard's wife, has been dead over a year. Sheppard is City Recreational Director and works as a counselor at the reformatory on Saturdays. This is where he meets Rufus Johnson, a fourteen-year-old with a clubfoot, who has been abused all his life and has become a rebellious, resentful juvenile. Sheppard regards his own son with distaste, concluding the boy has every advantage and the pitiful boy at the reformatory has none. He tries to point out the differences to Norton who is still grieving for his mother and who is very fragile, needing his father's support and love.
As the days and weeks go by, Rufus is discharged.....
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