The Young and Untrusted, or, The Runaway Boys,"_ **in _Puck of Pook's Hill_** The "Young and Untrusted" and their "misfits and rebels" are all the same in their devotion to the land. Even "Uncle Jim" (the one most likely to find himself "in trouble") is caught up in a land-worship that no doubt would horrify the world at large. The land is to Jim what his father's blood is to the others; the land is their love and country and family. Mr. Prew's "misfits and rebels" would probably be considered anarchistic outlaws in "the real world." The "Misfits" are in this novel a band of nature-loving runaways, while the "Runaway Boys" are part of a whole community of nature-loving runaways who seek to be free of the law of the old order and the new. While the "Misfits" are rebels and outlaws from the "misfit" point of view, they are in the "Runaway Boys" the rebels and outlaws from the world's point of view. They are simply an alternative to a society that they no longer can accept or even tolerate. By "the real world" Mr. Prew is really alluding to industrial society. The land and the natural world are what the "Misfits" and the "Runaway Boys" love and appreciate. Jim's "uncle" in this novel is "Grandpa' Jim" also known as, _("Mr. Prew is his name.")_ Mr. Prew. And the boy to whom he takes the boy he is caring for, Jim, calls him, "Grandpa' Jim." Mr. Prew is a strong leader and an expert woodcarver, "the real goods," who takes his apprentices out in their spare time for adventure trips, fishing, hunting, and the like. Mr. Prew's "Misfits and Runaway Boys" are really more like Robin Hood and his band of men. Jim is to some extent a runaway, though he has not been officially outlawed. As a matter of fact, he runs away and remains out of the city only long enough to meet Mr. Prew. Like the "Misfits and Runaway Boys," Jim is "all the time out." His world, to himself and to the reader, is a "great world," and he is really not of "this world." While the "Misfits" are by nature rebels, runaways, and even anarchists, the "Runaway Boys" are what Mr. Prew calls them, "Runners." Jim as a runaway is a "runner" because he would rather roam about in the woods than go to school. The word "run" is key in this story. The young ones of this family, along with Mr. Prew, refer to their trips as "hiking." They also "head for the woods" instead of to school. A boy who wants to be an "outlaw" and outrun the law may be running away from school, but the youngsters are not running away _from_ school as Jim is running away from the idea of going to school. He's running away from life itself in the city and from the future he will have in the city. In reading the story, if you have been hurt by the things in life or have felt like an outsider in life, you will probably "run" to the story and to the feelings it creates for you. The words "roam" and "hike" and "run" all mean to get away, get away from the law, the old order, and the beaten path of life. The characters in this story live close to the earth, and live in the woods or in a small community of people whose only "rule" is to live in the world of the "Great Outdoors," where the boy and his friends can "roam." These are not the great cities of the world, as represented by the city in which Mr. Prew lives. Mr. Prew's world is the woods and the forest, the river and the wild animals he lives with, and his "Runaway Boys." The world of the runaways, the misfits, the rebels, and the outlaws is a world in which the people do not have to go to school and where the boy can still be a wild animal. This is a world that Mr. Prew himself may never have known but to which his son Jim relates easily, because his son, Jim, is not himself an outlaw and does not "need to be one" in order to relate to it. The boy becomes, in this story, the leader of the "Runaway Boys," which is itself an extension of the "Misfits." Like the little "misfit" who came to live with them, little Jim finds his "real home" with the "Runaway Boys," the young boys on the run. These young boys, Jim, Mr. Prew's "Grandpa' Jim," his father, Mr. Prew's "Father Jim," and his friends, are "at one" with nature. They have a kinship with nature, especially animals, that sets them apart from the rest of society. These boys have a quality that allows them to go to the woods and become one with nature, a quality that goes far beyond any ability to hunt or shoot and trap game. There is also in this book a kind of love that has a strong sense of responsibility to life and all its living things, even those things they cannot "capture." They are "wild" children. These "wild" children are "Wild Men" of a sort, and we, the readers, are not so very different from them, as their nature-loving love is a real quality. And the young people who run away, those who "go wild," are always the misfits in society and the society will always reject them. This is in line with the fact that they are not part of the old order, and that they have not yet found the new order. The law society puts the "Little King" on trial, but it is really the society that is on trial. In this novel, the society is presented as a world of adults. All the adults are against these wild children. And we, the readers, are meant to feel the sting of being on trial, of being on trial for being individuals who are for the love of life and against those things that are against love. Here Mr. Prew and the boy he is guiding through the woods, Jim, are both in a "wild" state of "being." Mr. Prew, being a strong leader, knows what it is to be alone, out in the woods, and so does Jim. Jim is simply there because he has no one else and so goes along with his father. These are two human beings enjoying one another, enjoying their day in the woods and on the trail. In this sense they are wild, and in this sense they are together, each in their own world and together enjoying that world that is theirs. That the boy, Jim, does not "need" to go to school is the main reason why he is able to be wild, free, and alone in the woods and on the trail. He does not "need" to go to school; he simply goes out with his "Runaway Boys," the misfits and outlaws, and enjoys his life. The misfits and outlaws are really "outlaws in their own minds." The "Misfits and Runaway Boys" are in this story the outlaws against what is against life itself. "We're getting away," Jim says, "in a big way," as they leave the city behind. Jim is out of the city, and with the "Little King" as they leave, they are a "band of outlaws." This is in opposition to the society of the adult world that is "out of touch" with life. But these young people of nature are out to survive, and the "Little King," though outcast from the school, is a member of the community. They are all _outlaws against the old order_ , a law which stands in their way, and against the people who live with that law. They would rather be criminals than to live and die without a chance to prove to themselves what it is that they believe in. So while it is true that the "Little King" is a "Little King" in his old world, he is a member of the "Runaway Boys" and _is not part of the society of that world_. ### THE YOUNG AND UNTRUSTED, OR THE RUNAWAY BOYS # Part 1: Introduction _The "Misfit King" as a king over the wild animals in the woods or among the trees, the "misfits" being members of a band of "wild boys," who have all been turned out of the world and become "misfit_ " _or runaway boys living in the woods as a band of wild boys_. _The wild boy who was out to be king over the wild animals in the woods and in that way to live like a wild animal, is now the king over the world, over a certain portion of the world, because he lives in that world he is king over