This Boy's Life Part 5, Chapter 2 Summary

  • Jack gets a letter from his brother Geoffrey, who's going to school at Princeton. They haven't seen each other in six years.
  • He plans to hitchhike to Princeton… and steal a check to get money for it
  • He goes to a Scout banquet in Bellingham, and snatches a convenience check from a bank. Then he gets a card from the library, using a phony name to establish an ID. Quite the burgeoning young criminal he is.
  • He tries to pass the check off in a drugstore, but the clerk calls him on it: asking for his address, which he can't remember from the card.
  • Jack runs and the clerk calls after him, apparently hoping to help.
  • He keeps running, then ducks into a diner and changes into his Scout's uniforms.
  • He mentions that he has all the qualifications to become an Eagle Scout, but won't because Dwight won't send in the papers. (If you have to ask why, you haven't been paying attention.)
  • Jack goes back to the Scout banquet and sees the clerk in the audience. She looks him over, but eventually decides that he wasn't the boy who tried to pass the phony check.