My Friend, The Tramp

I had been sauntering over the clover dowm of a eertain noted New England j seaport. It wae a Sabbatli morning, so singiilarly reposeful and gracious - so i plete with the signiiicance of the seventh I day of rest that even the Sabbath bells ! ringing a mile away over the salt marshes had little that was nionitory, mandatory, or even supplicatory in their drowsy ; voices. Bnther they seemed to cali from their cloudy towers, like sonie renegade Muezzin : " Sleep is better than prayer; sleep on, oh sons of thê Puritana ! Slumber still, oh deacons and vestrymen. Let. oh let those feet that are ewift to wickednesa curl up beiieath thee ; those palms that are itching for the Bhekels of the ungodly He clasped beneath thy pillow. Sleep is better than prayer. " And, indeed, tho'tgh it was high morning, sleep was still in the air. j Wrought upon at last by the combined influences of sea, and sky, and phere, I succumbed, and lay down on one of the boulders of a little stony slope thnt gave upon the sea. The great '■ Atlantic lny before me, not yet quite awake, but slowly heaving with the rythmical expiratiou of slnmbei-. There was no sail visible in the misty horizon, j There was nothing to do but to lie and stare at the unwinking ether. Suddenly I became aware of the strong fumes of tobáceo. Turning my head I i saw a palé, blue smoke curling up from behind an adjacent boulder. Rising and olimbing over the intervening granite, I carne vipon a little hollow, in which, conifortably extended on the mosses and lichens, lay a powerfully-built man. He was very ragged ; he was very dirty ; there was a strong suggestion about him of his having too much hair, too mueh nail, too much perspiration ; too much of those superfluous excrescences and j exudations that society and civilization j strive to keep under. But it was j able that he had not much of anything lse. It was The Tramp. Witli that swif t severity with which we always visit rebuke upon the person who happens to present any one of our vices j offensively before us, in his own person, I was deeply indignant at his laziness. j Perhaps I showed it in my manner, for he rose to a half-sittiug attitude, returned i my stare apologetically, and made a I movement toward knoeking the flre from his pipe against the granite. "Shure, sur, and if I'd bala ved that I was trispassin on yer Honor's groundw ifs meself that would hev laid down on the ; say shore and fcikin' the salt waves i for me blankits. But's sivinteen miles I've walked tliis blessed noight, with j nothin' to sustain me, and hevin a j tal wakeness to flght wid in me bowels, by reason of starvation, and only a bit o' baccy that the Widdy Maloney giv me at the cross roads, to kape me up intoirly. But it was the dark day I left me home in Milwaukee to walk to Boston, J and if ye.'ll oblige a lone man who lias left a wife and sixchildren in Milwaukee, wid Üie loan of 25 cints, furninst the time he gits wurruk, God'll be good o ye." It instantly flashed through my mind i that the man before me had the previous night partaken of the kitohen hospitality of my little cottage two miles aw;iy. That he presented himself in the guise of a distressed fishennan, mulcted of his wages by an inhuman Captain; that he had a wife lying sick of cousumption in the next village, and two cliildren, one of them a eripple, wandering in tlie streets of Boston. I remember that üiis tremendous indictment against Fortune j touched the family, and that the distressed fisherman was provided with clothes, food, and some small change. The food and small change had disappeared, but the garments for the consumptive wife, where were they? He had been using them for a pillow. I instantly pointed out this fact, and oharged him with the deception. To my surprise he took it quieüy and even a little complaceutly. " Bedad, yer roight ; ye see, sir fojnfidentially), ye see, sir,until I get to wor-ruk, and its ! woi-ruk I'm hdiin for, I have to desave ] now and thin to slmte the loeality. Ah, God save us, but on the say coast thay'r ! that liar-rud upon thim that don't belong j to the say." I ventured to suggest tliat a strong, healthy man like him might have found work somewhere between Milwaukee and Boston. Ah, but ye see I get tree passage on a freight train, and didn't sthop. It was in the Aist that I expicted to find worruk." " Have you any tirade ?" " Trade, is it? I'm a brickmaker. God knows, aud many'a the lift T've had at makin' bricks in Milwaukee. Sure, I've a& oisy a liand at it as anv man. Maybe ver Honor núfdit kaow of p kill hf-iviibo'ntsï" Jiow. my Cw'tHÍu ÍíbííwUkI was not a briek kilu withiu fifty miles of ; that spot, and of all unlikely places to fiud oue would liave been this sandy peiiinsulft, giveii up to the summer residences of a few wealthy people. Yet I could not help axlmiring the assumption of the seamp, who knew this fact as well as inyself. But I said, " I can give you work for a dayor two," and, bidding hini gather up his siek wife's apparel, lea tlie way across the downs to my cottage. At first I think the offer took liim by surprise, and gave him sume consternation, but he presently recovered his spirits, and almost instantly his speech. "All, j wur-ruk, is it ? God be praised ; its meself that's ready and willin'. Though niaybe me hand is spoilt wid brickmaïring." I assured him that the work I would j give him would require iio delicate manipulation, and bo we fared on over the sleepy downs. But I eould not. help ! noticing that, althoitgh an inValid, I was a inueh better pedestrian than my conipnnion, frequently leaving him behind, ■ and that, eVeli as il "tramp," he was ! etymologicaÜy an impostor. He had a way of lingering beside the fences we had to climb over as if to continue more ' confldentially the history of his misfortones and troubles, which he was delivering to me during our homeward walk, and I noticed that he could seldom resist the invitation of a mossy boulder or a tussock of salt grass. " Ye see, sir," he would say, suddenly sitting down; "it's along uv me misfortunes beginning in Milwaukee that "and it was not until I was out of hearing that he would languidly gather his trape again and saunter after me. Wlien I reached my own garden gate he leaned for a moment over it, witïi both of his ! powerfnl arms extended downward, and said, "All, but it's a blessin' that Sunday comes to give rest fur the wake and the weary, and tbim as walks sivinteen miles to get it. " Of course I took the hint. There was evidently no work to j be had from my fiïend tlie tramp that j day. Yet his eounteliance brightehed as he saw the linlited extent of my dottiain, and observed that the garden, so-called, was only a flower-bed about tweuty-five by ten. Ab he liad doubtless before this been utilized to the extent of his ; oapaoity in digging, he had probably pected that kind of work, and I dare say I discomfited him by pointing him to an almost leveled stone wall about twenty feet long, with the renlark that hls Work j would be the rebuilding of that stone wall with stone bïought from the neighboring sloper?. In a few moments he was ■ comfortably provided for in the kitchen, where the ook, a woman of his own nativity, apparently "chaffed" him With a raiïlery that Was to me quite j ligible. Yet I noticed that when, at sunset, he nccoittpahied Bridget to the spring for water, osteiitatiously flourishing the ernpty bucket in his hand, and when they ! returnedin the gloaming Bridget was i rying the water, and my friend, the Tramp, wassome paces behiud hercheerfully "colloguing," and pieking ' berries. At 7 the next morning he started in cheerfully to work. At 9 a. m. he had placed three large stones on the first ; eourse in position, an hour having been spent in looking for a piek and hammer, and in the incident "chaffing" with Bridget. At 10 o'clook I went to overlook his work ; it was a rash actioli, as it [ cau'sed him to respectfnlly doff nis hat, j discontinue his labors, and lean back against the fence in cheerftil and easy conversation. "Are ye fond uv blackberries, Captain ?" I told him that the children were in the habit of getting them from the meadow beyond - hoping to estop the suggestion I knew was coming. " Ah, but Captain, it's meself that with wandering and having nothin' to ! pass me lips but the berries I'd piek from the hedges - its meself knows where to ! find thim. Shure, it's yer chider, and j foine boys they are, Captain, that are j besaching me to go wid 'em to the place, i knownst only to meself." It is i sary to say that he triumphed. After ; j the maimer of vagabonds of all degrees, I he had enlisted the women and children on his side - and my friend the Tramp i had his own way. He depnrted at 11 ! 1 and returned at 4 p. m. (vith a tin dinner ; j pail half fllled. On interrogating the boys it appeared that they had "a bully I time, " but on eross-examination it came I out that they had pieked the berries. From 4 to 6 three more stones wcre i laid, and the arduous labors of the day ! were over. As I stood looking at the first eourse of six stones my friend, the Tramp, stretched his strong arms out to [ their fullest extent and said : " Ay, but i it's wor-ruk that's good for me : gin me wor-ruk, and it's all I'll be askin' fur." I ventured to suggest that he had not yet accompli shed much. ' ' Wait till to-morror. Ah, but ye'll see thin. It's me hand that's yet onasy wid brick-making and sthrange to the j shtones. Av ye'll wait till to-morror?" Unfortunatély I did not wait. An j gagement took me away at an early j hour, and, when I rode up to my cottage i at noon, my eyes were greeted with the j astonishing spectacle of my two boys hard at work laying the courses of the stone wall, assisted by Bridget and : Norall, who were dragging stones from i the hillsides, while comfortably stretched j on the top of the wall lay my friend, the j Tramp, quietly overseeing the operations with lazy and lmmorous comment. For an instant I was foolishly indignant, but he soon brought me to my senses. " Shure, sir, it's only larnin' the boys the habits uv industliry I was - and may they niver know, be the same token, what it is to wor-ruk for tlie bread betune their lips. Shure it's but makin' em think it was play I was. As for the colleens beyint in the kitchen, sure isn't it betther they was lielpin your Honor ï here than colloguing with themselves ! side ?" Nevertheless, I thought it expedient j to forbid henceforth any interruption of ! servants or children with my friend's j i "wor-ruk." Perhaps it was the result ! of this embargo that the next morning early the Tramp wanted to see me. "And it's sorry I am to say it to ye, ' surr," he began, " but it's the handlin' ; i of this stun that's desthroyiu' me touch i , at tlie brickmakin', and it's better I j should lave ye and find wor-ruk ut me own thrade. For it's wor-ruk I'm nadin'. It isn't meself, Captin, to ate the bread of oidleness. And so good-by to ye, and if it's 50 cinta ye can be givin' me ontil I'll find a kill - it's God that'll repuy ye. " He got the money. But he got also conditionally a note from me to my next i neighbor, a wealtliy retired physician, possessed of a large domain - a man eminently practical and business-like in his management of it. He employed many laborera on the sterile waste he callea his " farm," and it ocenrred to me that ! it' there rnally was any work ín my frifend 1 the Tramp, which me own indolenee and preoocüpatíon hal failnd to ln'iiig ont, he was the wan to do it. ! mei liim i week títep, Ü was wiüi , I0BM fiiiiüiiTiihsiui'iii tbftt I toOBÜfSd iiitcv my friend, the Tramp. "O, yes," he' sa'id, reflectivcly, " let's see - he oame Monday and left me Thurs&ay. He was, I think, a stout, strong man, a wellmeaning, good-humored fellow, but afflicted with a most singular variety of diseases. The ñrst day I put liim at work in the stables he developed chills and fever oanght in the swamps of Louisiana - " "Excuse me," I said hurriedly - "you mean in Milwaukee ! " "I know wliat I'm talking about," j tumed the Doctor, testily ; " he told me I his whole wretched story ; his escape from the Confedérate service ; the attack upon him by armed negroes ; his concealment in the bayous and swamps - " " Go on, Doctor," I Said, feebly; "you were speaking of his work. " "Yëswell, his systein was f uil of malaria ; the first day I had him wrapped up in blankets and dosed with quinine. The next day he was taken with all the symptoms of cholera morbus, and I had to keep him upon brandy and capsicum. Bheumatism set in on the following day j and inoapacitated him for work, and I concluded I had better give him a note to the director of the City Hospital than keep him here. As a pathological study j he was good, but as I was looking for i man to keep about the stable I couldn't afford to keep him in both capacities." As I never could really teil when the Doctor was in joke or in eamest I droppe 1 the subject. And so my friend the Tramp gradually faded from my memory, not, however, without leaving behind him in the bam, where he had slept, a lingering flavor of whisky, ornons, and fluffiness. But in two weeks thishad gone, and the " Shebang" (as my friends irreverently termed my habitation) knew him no more. Xet it was pleasant to think of him as having j turned to his family at Milwaukee, or I making his Louisiana house once more happy with liis preselice, agaiu tempting tlie fish-producing main- this time with a noble and equitable Captain. It was a lovely August morning when I rode across the sancly península tovisit q ceftain noted family, whereof aü the '■ sons were valiaut and the daughters beautiful. Tlie front of the house was deserted, but on the rear verandah I heard the mstle of gowns, and above it arose what seemed to be the voice of Ulysses, reciting his wanderings. There was no mistaking tliat voice - it was my I friend the Tramp. From what I could hastily gather ■ from his speech, he had walked from St. John, N. B., to rejoin a distressed wife in New York, who was, however, living with opiilent but objectionable reiatives. " An'shure, Miss, I wouldn't be asking ye the loan of a cint if I could get wor-ruk at me trade of carpet-wavin' ; - and maybe ye know of some manufacthory where they wave carpeta beyant . here. Ah, Miss, and if ye don't give me a cint, it's enough for the loikes of me to know that me troubles has brought . the tears in the most beautiful oiyes in j the wur-rnld, and God bless ye for it, j Miss I" Now I knew that the most beoutiful eyea in the world belouged to one of the j most sympathetic and tenderest hearts ' in the world, and I feit that common ; justice demanded my interferenoe i tween it and one of the biggest scamps in the wovld. So, without waiting to j be nnnounced by the servant, I opened the door and joined the group on the verandah, . If I expected to touch the conscienee I of my friend the Tramp by a dramatic en trance, I failed utterly ! For no sooner did he see me than he instantly gave ! vent to a howl of delight, and, falling on his knees beforo me, grasped my hand and turned oratorically to the ladies. "Oh, but it's Himself- Himself that has come as a witness to me charackther ! Oh, but it's Himeelí that lifted me four í wakes ago, when I was lyin' with a mortal wakeneas on the say coast and tuk me to his hoüse. Oh, but it's Himself that shupported me over the f aldes, and whin the chills and faver carne on me and I shivered wid the cold, it was Himself, God bless him, as sthripped the coat off his back, and giv it me, sayin', ' Tak it, j Dinnis, its stharved with the cowld say ! air ye'll be entoirly.' Ah, but look at I him - will ye, Miss ! Look at his swate, I modist face - a blushin' like yottr own. Miss. All ! look at him, will ye ? He '11 j be denyin' of it in a minit - may the blessin' uv God folly him. Look at him, Miss ! Ali, but its a swate pair ye'd make ! (the rascal knew I was a married man). Ah, Miss, if ye could see him wroightin' day and night with such an illigant hand óf his own - (he had I dently believed from the gossip of my servants that I was a professor of chirography) - if ye could see him, Miss, as I have, ye'd be proud of him." He stopped out of breath. I was so completely astounded I could say nothing; the tremendous indictment I had j framed to utter as I opened the door ; vanished completely. And as the Most i Beautiful Eyes on the Wur-ruld tumed gratefully to mine - well I still retained enough principie to nsk the ladies to with draw, while I would take I iipon myself the duty of examining into the case of my friend, the Tramp, and giving him such relief as was required. (I did not know until afterward, however, that the rascal had already despoiled their scant purses of $3.50.) When tlie door was closed upon üiem I turned upon him. " You infernal rascal I" " Ah, Captain, and would ye be refusin' me a carrakf ïer, and me givin' y e suoh u one as Oi did '! 1 God save us ! but if ye'd hav' seen the luk that the purty one give ye. Well, before the chille and faver bruk me spirits entirely, whea I was a young man, and makin' me tin dollars a week brick mtikin', its meself that wud huv giveu " " I cousider," 1 broke in, " that a dollar is a fair price for your story, and, as I shall have to take it all back and exposé you before the next twenty-four horas pass, I think you had better busten to Milwaukee, New York, or Louisiana." I handed him the dollar. "Mind, I don't want to see your face again." ' ' Ye wun't, Captaii i . " And I did not. But it so chanced that later in the sea; son, when the migratory inhabitants had flown to their hot-air registers in Boston and Providence, I broakfasted with one ' who had lingered. It was a certain Boston lawyer - replete with principie, honI esty, self-disi'ipline, statistics, esthetics, ! and a perfect consciousness of possessing all these virtues, and a full recogni tion of their market values. 1 tliink he ; tolerated me as a kind of foreigner, gentlybutñrmly waiving all iirgument on ; any topic, frequently distrusting niy , faets, generally my deduoüons, and nJ1 ways my ideas. In oonversation he. always nppeared to deseend only half way down a lons" inoriil md intellectual staivease, antj .:un:. ilclivcrcil hia CPBOlll sions oyer tlie baiusterp. 1 lliul Deen ', the i ramp, " Thêre ; iy treating that class of impostors ; it is simply to recognize the fact thnt the law calis liim a 'vagrant,' and maltes his trade a misdemeanor. Any sentiment on the other side renders yon parüeepe cri iti nis. I don't kuow but an action would lie against you for eneouraging tramps. Now, I have an efficacions way of dealing with these gentry." He rose and took a double-barreíed fowlingpiece from the ehiimiey. ' ' AVhen a tramp appears ou my property I waru him off. If he persista I fire on him - as I would on any criminal trespasser." 'Tire on him?" I echoed, in alarm. "Yes - Out with powdcr only f Of course he doesn't know that. But he doesn't como back." Jt struck me for the first time that possibly niany other of my friend's argumente migiit be only blank cartfidges, and used to frighten off other trespassing intellect. " Of course, if the Tramp still persisted I would be justitied in nsing shot. Last evening I had a visit frora one. He was coming over the wall. My shotgun was eflicacious ; you should have seen him run ! " It was useless to argüe with so positive a miad, and I dropped the subject. After breakfast I strolled over the downs, my friend promising to join me as soon as he arranged some houseliold business. It was a lovely, peaceful morning, not unlike the day when I first met my friend the Tramp. The hush of a great benediotion lay on land and sea. A few white sails twin'kled afar, but sleepily - one or two large ships were creeping in lazily - like my friend the Tramp. A voice behind me startled me. My host had rejoined me. His face, however, looked a little troubled. " I juet now learned something of importance," he begau ; " it appears that with all my precautions that Tramp has j visited my kitchen and the servants have ! entertained him. Yesterday morning, it j appears, while I was absent he had the audaoity to borrow my gun to go duck shooting. At the end of two or three hours he returned with two ducks and - the gun." " That was, at least, honest." " Yes - but ! That fooi of a girl says that, as he hauded back the gun, he told her it was all right, and that he had loo f1 ï it ttp again to save the master troüble. " ' ' I think I showed my concern in my face," for he added, hastily, "It was only duck-shot - a few wouldn't hurt him !" Nevertheless, we both walked on in silence for a moment. "Ithought the gun kicked a little, he said at last, musingly ; " but the idea of- Hallo ! what's thia ?" He had stopped before the hollow where I had first seen my Tramp. It was deserted, but on the mosses there were apots of blood and fragmenta of an old gown, blood-stained, as if used for bandages. I looked at it closely ; it was the gown intended for the eonsumptive wife of my friend, the Tramp. But my host was already nervously tracking the blood-stains that on rock, mosa ond boulder-were steadily leading toward the sea. Wlien I overtook him at laat on the shore, he was standing before a flat rock, on which lay a bundie I reeognized, tied up in a handkerchief, and a crooked grapevine stick. " He may have coine here to wash his wounda - salt is a styptic," aaid my host, who had recovered his correct precisión of statement. I said nothing, but looked toward the sea. Whatever secret lay hid in its breast, it kept it fast. Whatever its calm eyes had seen that summer night, it gave no reflection now. It lay there passive, imperturbable and reticent. But