He felt now merely that he ought to settle down to something.

Even Sharon Whipple plainly told him so.

He said it was all right to knock about from one thing to another while you were still in the gristle.

Up to twenty a boy's years were kind of yeasty and uncertain, and if he was any way self-headed he ought to be left to run.
But after twenty he lost his pinfeathers and should begin to think about things.
So Wilbur began to think about things.

He continued to do everything that old Porter Howgill was asked to do, to repair cars for the Mansion garage, and to be a shield and buckler to Sam Pickering in time of need.
The _Advance_ office became freshly attractive at this time, because Sam had installed a wonderful new power press to print the paper daily; for the _Advance_, as Sam put it, could be found ever in the van of progress.
The new press had innermost secrets of structure that were presently best known to Wilbur Cowan.