Litchfield enquirer., 1877-04-19
MY FRIEND. THE TRAMP.
BY BRET HARTE.

| QOWQS OI a C6ftalD uOI0O N0W E0SIhuu seapork. It was a Sabbath morning, so singularly reposefnl and gracions--so leplete with the significance of the seventh day of rest that even the Sabbath bells ] ringing a mile away over the salt marshes had little that was monitory, mandatory or even supplicatory in their drowsy voices. ] Rather they seemed to call from their cloudy towers, like some renegade Muez- zin:-"eleep is better than prayer; sleep on, O sons of the puritans! Slumber stilll O deacons and vestrymen! Let, oh let those feet that are swift to wickedness curl up beneath thee; those palms thas are itching for the shekels of the ungodly, lie clasped beneath thy pillow. Sleep is bet ter than prayer" &
 And, indeed, though it was high morn ing, sleep was still in the ar. Wrought upon at last by the combined influences of sea and sky, and atmosphere, l suc- cumbed, and lay down on one of the boulders of little stony slope that look ed upon the sea The great Atlantic. lay !, fore me. not yet quite awake, but slow ly heavlng with the rythmical expiration of slumber. There was no sail visible in the misty horizon. There was nothing to do but to lie and stare at the unwinking ether.
 Suddenly became aware of the strong fumes of tobacco. Turning my head l saw a pale, blue smoke curling up from behind an adjacent boulder. Rising and climbing over the intervening granite, l came upon little hollow in which, com fortably extended on the mosses and lich- ems, lay powerfully built man. He was very ragged: he vas very diryy; tbere. was Ia strong suggesti0n about fifla Of his shav-a l iprY k~< hasr vosrnf1 mail fan much precipitation; too much of those su- perfuOus. excrescences and exudations | that society and civilization strive to keep under. But it was noticeable that he had not much of anything else. It way The Tramp. ..-...-...e..ss4tt With that swift severity with which we always visit rebake upon the person who l happens to present any one of our vices offensively before us, in his own person, was deeply indignant at his laziness. Per- haps showed it in my manner, for he rose to a half sltting attitude, returned my stare apologeticaliy, and madea move ment toward knocking the fire from his pipe against the granite. E 2 x9 '.Shure, sur, and if I'd behaved that was trispasslng' on yer honors ground 1t 8 meself that would hev laid down on the say shore and taken the salt waves for me blakits. But it's sivinteen miles that I have walked thls blessed noight, wid nothin' to sustain me. and hevin nor. tai wakeness to fight wid in me bowels, by reason of starvation, and only bit O baccy that the Widdy Maloney giv me at the cross roads, to kape me up entoirly4 But 1t was the dark day I left me home in Milwaukee to walk to Boston, and if yell oblige a lone man who has left a wife and six children in Milwaukee, wid the loan of twenty-five cants, furnisr the time he get wurruk, God will be good to ye."
 It instantly flashed through my mind that the man before me had the previous night partaken of the kitchen hospitality of my little cottage. two miles away. That he presented himself in the guise of distressed fisherman, nulcted of his wages by an inhuman captain; that he had wife ly1ng sick of consumption in the next village. and two cnildren-one of them a acripple-wandering in the streets of Boston. remember that this tremen- dous indictment against Fortune touched the family. apd that the distressed fisher. man 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 pill low. .......-. .....s I instantly pointed out this fact and char ged him with the deception. To my surprlse he took 1t quietly and even a lit tie complacently. "Bdad, yer roight. ye see, sir (confidentially), ye see, sir, until I get wurruk. and it's wurruk I'm looking for, have to desave LOW and thin to shute the locality. An, God save us, but on the say choast thay'r that harrud upon thim that don't belong to the say"
 I ventured to suggest that 8 strong. healthy man like him, might have found work somewhere between Milwaukee and Boston.
 ''Ah, but ye see get free passes on freight train. and didn't shtop. It was in the aist that expected to find wurruk."
 "Have you any trader"
 Trade, is it? I'm brickmake God knows, and many's the lift I've had at makin' bricks in Milwaukee. Sue. I've as aisy hand at it as any man. MabbY yer. honor might know of kill hereabout?"
 Now, to my certain knowledge, there was not brick kiln within fifty miles of that spot, and of all unlikely places to. find one would have been this sandy pen isular, given up to the summer residences of few wealthy people. Yet I could not help admiring the assumption of the scamp. who knew this fact as we'll as my. self. But said, ''I can give you work for day or two." and. bidding him gath CT up his sick wife's apparel, led the way across the downs to my cottage. At first think the offer took hlm by surprise, and gave him some consternation, but he presently recovered his spirits, and al- most instantly his speech. "Ah, wurruk, it is? God be praised; It's meseif that's ready and willin'. Though, may be, me hand is spoilt wid brick making"
 assured him that the work would give him would require no delicate man. ipulatlon, and so we fared on over the sleepy downs. E, But I could not help no-. ticing that, althoughan invalid, was a much better pedestrian than my compan- ion, frequently leaving him behind, and that, even as Tramp" he was etymolo- gically an impostor. He had way of lingering beside the fences we had to climb over as if to continue more conf dentialiy the history of his misfortunes and troubles, which he was delivering to l me during our homeward walk, and no- ticed that he could seldom resist the inc vltation of a messy boulder or tussock of salt grass ''Ye see. sir, The would say. suddenly sitting down, ''it's along uv me misfortunes beginning in Milwaukee that 1 -" and it was not until was out of hearing that he, would lanRuidiy gather his traps again and saunter after me. When I reached my o~n garden.gate he leaned for moment over it, with both of his powerful arms extended downward, and sald. ''Ah, but it's a blessin' that Sun day comes to give rest fur the wake and the weary, and thim as walks siyinteen miles to get il" Of course l took the hint. There was evidently nc work to be had from my friend the Tramp that day.
 Yet his countenance frightened as he saw the limited extent of my domain, and ob- served that the garden. so called, was on I ly fower-bed about twenty-five by ten. As he had doubtless before been utilized to the extent of hls capacity in digging.
 he had probably expected that kind of work, and I dare say 1 discomftted him by pointing him to an almost leveled stone wsh about twenty feet long. with
 the remark that his work would be the re- buil0inU 0f 7thak at,,no. WaN with stone