Plot Summary:Professor John Sylvestus Applegate has been dismissed from his college teaching position for objecting too loudly to the predominant part that football and other sports play in the curriculum, and soon finds himself dead broke when publishers show no interest in the dry material he brings them. He meets a young boy, Laury, and his mother Sharon in the park and is quite taken with them. He gets a job-prospect letter, as a private tutor, and applies at once. His employer is Mr. Morley, a surly, sour, mean-tempered old man who informs John he is to act as a tutor for his grandson--who turns out to be Laury. Sharon, Morley's daughter, had eloped against her father's wishes and was abandoned by her husband after Laury's birth.
约翰·西尔维斯特斯·阿普盖特教授因过于强烈地反对足球和其他体育运动在课程中占据主导地位而被免职,当出版商对他带来的枯燥材料不感兴趣时,他很快发现自己身无分文。他在公园里遇到了一个小男孩劳里和他的母亲莎伦,他对他们非常着迷。他收到一封求职信,作为一名私人家教,并立即提出申请。他的雇主是莫利先生,一位脾气暴躁、脾气暴躁、脾气暴躁的老人,他告诉约翰,他将担任他的孙子(原来是劳里)的家教。莫利的女儿莎伦违背父亲的意愿私奔,在劳里出生后被丈夫遗弃。