The Landloper

ll city of Marion and along a country road in his two-wheeled chaise. He sat er

e same properly were not so infernally touchy. As it is, cranky human nature drives me out on an expedit

. He seemed to take cheery and fresh interest in this place. He poked his rubicund face out from the shadow of the chaise's canopy and peered to right and to

sers in good repair, waistcoat, and a shirt. He also took out of the box a pair of shoes and a hat. With this load he went to the roadside and began to rig out a fence-post. When the garments were hung on it and the broad-brimmed, black, slouch-hat had been jau

-clock in the box. He wound this up carefully and p

aise a wagon came rattling around the bend of the road. There were firkins

ted the old gentleman with a sta

Judge?" he inq

d gentleman, edging away from

A jab of the forefing

aving t

e took off his hat and produced a placard. He straightened it and st

clothes away, are

one who chooses to take them.

from any man, Judge. If it's a polite question

r men have acted in the same way in the past when I have offered to give a fellow a good suit. I don't want to hurt o

so," volunteered Jolson. "It'll help

e every half-hour. It will call attention to the clothes. You see, a good many men rush

and rattled away down the

has satisfied his philanthropic ambitions, cl

s legs tried out a modest little gig as if some of the jocose spirit

ssers before another

y, and companionship with her might have suited even a judge's garments. But the young man and the gi

ly, but the driver did not look u

wn and the trousers and the coat hung with a sort of homeless, homesick, and wistful air. One might have thought they were trying to conceal themselves when

to one side on his head with the peak hauled down upon his ear, and he scuffed along in boots that were disreputable. Surely, a most unseemly and unwholesom

rms, climbed the fence and trotted into the woods. He kept looking behind him as if he feared pursuit. It was plain from his disturbed demeanor that he was much perplexed and was chased by the uncomfortable thought that he was stealing

who called hims

twig. He held the twig in one hand and an open book in the other. He looked up

n account of surprise at this irruption-one could see that they were naturally that way-ke

the attractions of this stranger; he was

egan to feel cheered. This stranger in the hollow had not been shaved recently, his clothing was unke

. "I'm sure glad to see one of the good old sort. I didn't know what I was dropping in on when I fell down

o the garments heaped in the man's arms. They were c

, my man. I do not desire to change tailors

not dampen the ot

othes were hung on a fence-post just above here on the

e the garments. The placard dropped out of the folds of the coat and

the dead ones at Harvard. Well, comrade, now you can see for yourself that I didn't steal this mess of moth-food. There was the sign right on

hung them on a bush, chattering his comme

abs of toasted bread and began to eat. He still held the o

the wisdom of one who has begged garments at back doors

e fat thief I saw running away into the woods! When such as these began to take to the road, knight-errantry vanished from the face of the earth. The varlets borrowed the grand idea of care-free itinerancy and debased it, as waiters borrow a gentleman's evening

at this person who employed such peculiar lan

ther's monologue. The coat was a ludicrous misfit; it would not me

es out of a clothing-store only the boys' sizes would drop in the same

tleman," stated the man at the fire.

s glint in his little eyes, as a pig might sta

on, perfesser

my frayed and fr

e one of these college dudes out on the road getting stuff to write into a book. I've heard about your kind. And that kind is getting

n of derogatory senti

ing his mouthful, regarding the tramp with a languid stare tha

ould be for use in a volume of this sort." He tapped the book in his

p forward. The man at the fire came to his feet and stood erect. He was tall, and the brown eyes talke

up North, and all the strength starved out of me," he w

sence of a gentleman who is dining mustn'

-not a real one,"

ontinued to play on this ignoramus his

a real tramp. You are a bum, a loafer, a yeg. You never traveled more than two hundred miles away from Hoboken-the capital city of hoboes. Have you ever hit the sage-b

agrant blink

ht, or thrown a stone at the Fox Train crew, or beaten the face

ou're chewing about,

u disgrace the name of nomad, you sully an ancient profes

said

ne-I'm going to cast you a pearl from one of my own poems. You may listen. It will pass your ears, that's a

take no heed, no c

d a train to jump, a

w

b for gold we give

arch of blue-our sha

the law, a secti

of a freight-car's t

off c

rld is ours-a title

o the nomad breed w

mae

f the sage-brush, some

country, dusty and

le to tell you-you'

and

me an

r Ishmael

laughed in the tr

he answer?" sco

or in his eyes, plainly enjo

lain the wanderlust that sent forth the tribes from the Aryan bowl of the birth of the races, my corpule

f at the next insane-asylum I come to that I met you headed north." The tramp gathered t

k-coat and pulled it on, the fat man squealing expostulation. With serene disregard of t

or a gentleman and that it fits

over, that's what you do," yel

t that it was not your co

t hanging on a fence-

ose frame was fitted to wear them. You illustrate the curse of modern society. Men are so fi

ot here, but I'll be jobeefed if I'll

t he was more than ever hugely enjoying his own verbosity-the f

sents an act that steals mere property. In that little book which I have just laid down Shakespeare speaks trenchantly on that m

f folding, and awkwardly and c

found it. I can stand a crazy man's gab, but when an

these garments of a gentleman which ha

e nearest second-hand shop, tha

rom a poor man! My friend, I was insulted tha

arm-clock purred

that of banter, of impish desire to harry and confuse by stilted

clothing. He scowled as if he had suddenly begun to reflect. Seriousness smoldered in the brown e

feeling in his voice that the tramp surveyed him with gaping mout

ss. He was willing to be informed. He sought the omens of true nature-he allowed Fate to guide him. He was not a pig running against the goad of circumstances, unheeding the upflung arms of Fortune, waving him toward the right path. He was simpler-he was truer. He felt that he was a p

ail where I was last winter and he didn't

ore you came, yearning sprang up in me-and I had thought all that sort of yearning was dead in me. A moment later came habiliments of a gentleman, borne in the arms of a wretch who could not wear them. There came Opportunity. Then

to the tramp. "I will admit, Friend Belly-brains, that you came upon Opportunity before I did this day. But tell me again, are you to mak

going to sell 'em," ret

. Otherwise you would gladly lay these garments in my hand

u trying to frisk

might be wrecking the future of a soul that is awake. I simply tell you that I shall keep the clothing for myself. Perhaps you can understand that plain statement!" The brown eyes became resolute and piercing. "Even if I had money I would not pay you for these garments. Money does such as you no

er did he resemble a pig at bay. The black hat, set on top of his greasy cap and topping with its re

I may be injured in all that gives life its flavor if I do not grasp this opportunity." Both raillery and earnestness dropped out of his tones. He became merely matter-of-fact. "I'll make it plain. Trot along abo

riated vagrant rush

d it to a place of safety. With the other hand he grabbed the attacker's a

that the concussion knocked th

raddled his victim, seated himself on the protruding abdomen, and began to beat the man's face. He battered the flabby cheeks and punched his fists into the pulpy neck. He ground his

licked?"

hined th

e. I whipped you for that job. Now

es

ness, will you, without any more

es

stole from that goo

es

rate victim, as a rider dismounts from a horse, and t

e Indian summer was beginning. When other fellows get hand-outs of pie I get cold potatoes and bannock bread. I have to walk when other fellow

stood up. He started away, wholly cowed, w

you know about luck, you animated lard-pail? A thing like you is in luck when he is in jail where there i

ger pounded one of those ha

or another man's cast-off clothes. And in between whiles I have hiked every path that the hobo knows between the oceans. N

k two steps as though to enfor

the highway and set out on his shuffling pilgrimage