Work at the Saw Mill

One day he meets Daniel Sogun, a young fellow who has been skipping grades for a while and is now at the same level as Jack, although he is two years younger.

With most boys it can be said they're always moving, and sometimes thinking; with Daniel the opposite applies, he is always thinking, and sometimes moving. Even philosophical Jack is more active.

Daniel's father is a pharmacist and he's a talker, a member of the town council. Jack's dad is a doer, definitely not a talker. He is totally dedicated to the almost quota per day application of the Puritan work ethic - it's not at all unusual for Siem to get up at five and work till late, ten or eleven. It sometimes makes Jack feel a bit guilty, to not help out more.

Daniel is the only son of aging parents. He has the large round headed freckled chubbiness complete with upturned snub nose of a young boy, with the bearing, attitude, and mannerisms of an old man. His parents are quite a bit older than the Spiets.

Dan has thin brown hair, a very round protuberant forehead, blue eyes, small hands and feet. Quite solid in the chest. A little shorter than average, he nonetheless carries a lot of presence. He can be totally inflexible when he takes a stand on a question of principle. And that happens with annoying frequency.

His dislike for participating in sports is such that somehow he has managed to get himself excused from physical education classes, first by convincing his parents about its being a total waste of his time, and then by pretty much refusing to go.