A Redmond Boy Runs Away to Live Out a Storybook
Edwin Keller’s father sided with his teacher, so the blue-eyed country boy started for Seattle—until Officer Hadeen found him at police headquarters.
Edwin, a typical country boy, with large blue eyes and an abundance of light hair, sat in the captain’s office at police headquarters yesterday afternoon trying to appear brave, and hold back the tears that kept springing up in his eyes. He is a son of Maurice Keller, a Redmond rancher. The boy had gotten into some trouble with his school teacher, in which his father sided with the teacher. This was too much for Edwin to stand, so he started for Seattle intent on beginning life’s battle in the same way many of Oliver Optic’s heroes did. What might have happened if Officer Hadeen had not found him no one knows. As it is, he will go back to “father’s ranch” and the log schoolhouse.
“He started for Seattle intent on beginning life’s battle in the same way many of Oliver Optic’s heroes did.”
Redmond was still a rural settlement of farms and log schools when Edwin ran; Seattle was the distant city where a boy could imagine a new life. The story is a small reminder of how close the city and the countryside were—and how runaway children have long been part of both.
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