The Chums of Scranton High Out for the Pennant

ed quite

o watch just how they managed. I note that this fellow has a couple of old tomato cans he's picked up on some dump, and they're set over the fire to warm up some coffee, or something he'

ten go a whole day without breaking their fast; but when they do eat they stuff themselves until they near

n that one of us may be the sheriff, or some indignant farmer who's lost s

watched their approach with interest, and ev

mething of a jolly dog,

o chicken feathers aro

g your five o'cloc

than ordinary, the man in the ragged

npleasant to Hugh's ear, "that's about the size of it. I haven't had a bite si

ich is why we sighted your smoke. Fact is, Thad, my chum here, has never seen a knight of the railroad ties cooking his grub,

es, but good enough for me when it's piping hot. I don't take any frills with wine either, in the way of cream and sugar, leaving all that for those that sit at white tablecloths and have silver as well as china dishes. In this other can I've got some soup. Never mind where I got it; some ladies, bless their hearts

ertainly could be no "slops," for it had the real odor. The warmed-over soup, too, smelled very appetizing, Thad admitted. On the

middle age, for his face was covered with a bristly beard of a week's growth, verging on gray. His cheeks were well filled out

ich would perhaps hardly bear exploiting. Doubtless there were pages turned down in his career, things that he himself seldom liked to remember, giving himself up to a life of freedom from care, and conte

n carts from their resting places over the red embers of his fire, and opening the package produced the bread and the bologna. This latter looked

round him as he squatted there, t

say. "I'd do the same in a jiffy if the supply wasn't limited; besides, I do

ouldn't take a bite to save us now. But say everything seems mighty good, if the smell counts for much.

nd wide as Wandering Lu; because, you see, I've traveled all over the whole known world, and been in every country the sun shines

ing at a most tremendous ra

ew out a suspicious looking red handkerchief that had seen better days, to wipe the tears f

and in the region of

n Arizona, and I'm a whole lot afraid I may have caught the disease there. So, being afraid my time would soon come I just made up my mind to look up a

t subject for a speedy death; indeed, he looked as though he might hold out for a good many years still, exce

sort of a man this same Lu might be, if one could read him aright. Was he crooked, and inclined to evil wa

g hobo, later on, "didn't you tell me you lived i

now anybody there, Lu, and do you want

p grinne

e went on to say. "Now, about the folks in Scranto

on is a place of some seven or eight thousand inh

ny, and it's just as likely we might be acquainte

, but a lady," the other explained

s statement. "Well, we have some acquaintance among the ladies of the town also. They're nearly all deeply interested just now in helping Madam

n that appeals more to me than France did. If I was twenty years younger, hang me if I wouldn't find a way to cross over there now, and take my place i

as of shorter duration, Hugh noticed; just as though he had shown them wha

and then we could tell you if we happen to know any such person in Scranton?

ame was changed after she got hitched to a man. Do you hap

exchang

sews for my mother," remarked Thad, presently. "Y

"is his wife living, do you mean, younker,

ou want to see, is she, Lu? What can poor old Mrs. Hosmer, who has

h its stubbly growth of gray beard. There was also a twinkle in his

my long-lost sister, and the one I'm a-hopin' will nurse me from n

ant while Hugh on his part tried to read between the lines, and understand whether ther