Book Two Unit Seventy-three

To play truant from school, children usually spend the whole day either fishing or
watching the same film over and over again. They have all been put to shame by a boy who, while playing truant, travelled 1,600 miles. He hitched a lift to Dover. It was a
curious coincidence that he was shipped off to Calais. From there, he hitchhiked to
Paris in a lorry. Given a few biscuits and a cup of coffee, the boy was left by the driver
just outside the city. The next car he stopped did not take him into the center of Paris as he hoped it would, but to Perpignan on the French-Spanish border. He was sent back
to England by the local authorities after he was arrested. Of course, he has surely set
up a record for thousands of children who dream of evading school.