when i watch them playing they seem like ordinary children by all rights they are ordinary children but circumstances of the for this is the story of one of these eighty boys donald peter ten years old how he lost his way how it left began to find we learned his story very in all these months donald has made no friends we have never seen him smile he is hardly spoke he is one of the quiet in all these months he has never had a letter this boy wants all my attention at his stage they are painfully jealous of donald's ever lucky enough to open up he'll have to go through that to mrs johnson has very good reasons for not keeping order her boys are very backward in their reading as in all their studies children are much more deeply ashamed of being they've failed so often they're afraid even to try and if for they can ever begin to trust their intelligence they have to be sure they're like no matter how stupid they seem before they know they're like they can't like you until they like you they can't even begin to learn donald has never learned to read a word but hears seeing and hearing simple words one of the time with nobody hurrying him or scolding or jeering at him terrible hunger  why the mother who has no room for him and her like these are the memories done lives in day and night and she is wishing to goodness she'd never in her life after smack him or scold him or go claim him back at children's court or ever look on his mean mopey nasty little face again peace making fail a heavy burden for an old woman heavy burden for a little boy that's the way it keeps on going this is one of the things that counts most heavily against arnold when he does go to school he can't seem to learn or even pay attention he's way behind the children he sits with the of course the streets of a city can be a wonderful school freedom is wonderful too but if you're as lonely as donna lives you learn is more lonely and arnaud's kind of freedom is solitary confinement everybody else has some place to go some definite thing to do and after a while you'll even want to go home so donald came to work these were the things which made him twen donald's kind have a desperate terror of rejection but now at last against our terror in front of everybody donald took the greatest risk of this life and made the first it was a great day for donald and for us to one of our social workers came over and congratulated clowne he wondered what for but ms roberts knew what donald had been through one day and crass class donald was making a little bow he wanted to make it look like a seashell couldn't say why i just wanted it to be  in the past when he was in trouble donald had nobody to turn to now for the first time he for life giving warmth and gratitude calmed being comfor and for the first time with clients and now it begins to take its place among the other boy even his failure to share in the beginning of a victory for with it has begun to make something tangible with his hand out of the depth of his past and after are together it looks as if he were really beginning to take hold of his life and during these next weeks as a matter of fact everything is going to go much better for who donald roaders and butterfly chasing of us all gets to be a pretty good basketball  he goes back to the little three share and keeps at it until he finishes it that gives him his first real sense of accomplishment by now he seems to have become very much a part of our life here it hardly seems like the same boy anymore so much can happen blindly by mischance and on this morning a great deal happened to  but it was only on its way to my office donald's mother had disappeared not even his grandmother knew where she was to go ahead rather than retreat to put your knee than your love once again another's trust in all of your life and again so recently you have been betrayed but he hasn't come far enough a starving man can't share food no matter how much there is and a child so desperate for affection and fear to share  it was a question whether donald needed more to talk out whatever or serving him or live it out for the director and i agreed we'd better give him a chance to work it out his own way but chances have to be taken because there there are things you can only find out for yourself and by there are things nobody can ever find out for you ever tell you or ever show you their two d he began to see the home he'd broken his heart over what it really was and seeing that accepting that his own spirit began to come of age they looking back knowing as much about it now as donald new van we can date a good deal from iran a from now on the real begin to make friends his own age as well that's the most we can hope to do here it won't work for any of the boring life sleeping here to clear away some of the great harm they suffered in the big old world a came from make them a little better a verdict take care of themselves