This is an important work in the context of Hedley's career, being the first picture he showed at the Royal Academy, where he was to exhibit until 1911. The subject is a young paper-boy who, exhausted by his 'round', has fallen asleep on the steps of St John's Church, Newcastle. As John Millard observes, such pictures by Hedley may be 'mawkish, but they are not just an expression of Victorian sentimentality; they also reflect the concern of the newly prosperous Victorian middle class for social conditions in Newcastle. There were so many children of poorer families working in the streets that a Newcastle Street Vendors' Association was set up, and it held a charity 'breakfast' attended by thirty girls and over two hundred boys.'