Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1881-07-26
THE TRAMp'S REVENGE.

A great, fertile hollow, in the Midland
hills, one man owned it all. Five hun
dred acres of level and upland. field and
forest. and well might Milly Van Vleeck
complain that she could not even visit a
neighbor withou, climbing over the hills.
But old Squire Van Vleeck had no use
for neighbors.
Was not the land his own, and the home.
stead and the saw-mill itself, half way
down the hollow
Such barns
Why. the biggest Of them had scarcely
rival in the country. There was twenty
fee, of sheer fall. between the mowa,
packed as they now were with tons Of clo-
yer and timothy.
Wha, did he or his need of neighbors:
Not much, perhaps, bu, that fall when
his ambition goaded him 10 reach out for
the civic honors he deemed the rightful
due OF so much land and forest, saw.mill
and crops. and all that, he suddenly dis
covered that the people in the other hol-
lows and on the hills and in the villages,
all had neighbors Of their own.
Such a snub they gave him.
No wonder the grim old squire went
back to his ample homestead and growled
at his patient wife, and even at Milly, in
spite of Der gentleness and her beauty,
and behaved himself, generally, like the
old bear he had grown to be.
The first heavy SHOWS came earlier than
usual, and the cold weather brought with
i, immunity from the one thing the squire
hated most.
Not tramp had been seen in the hol-
low for weeks, and no man troubled him.
self to ask whittier they had flown.
Allthe more, however, that bitter after
noon, did the old mans angry soul stir
itself within him when he met, at his own
gate, the most outrageous specimen OF the
abhorred breed that the whole season had
brought before him.
If other tramps had sometimes borne
only the seal of misfortune or Of common
vagabondage, this one was clearly and
undeniably prince of vice and crime.
Plenty of bone and muscle had be, and
the very swing and spring of his slouch-
ing gait proclaimed that no lack of mere
physical capacity had made him what he
was.
Can tramp have in him anything
like energy:
The squire would have said "No", at
any time before he gave that rowing ruffian
so large and so acrid piece of his mind
and temper.
He had scarcely dreamed of such q
change as his words produced.
There was some magic in them, stirring
up evil into power.
The begging whine swelled into vol
ume of coarse and stvident vituperation
The relics of a mind glowered fiercel!
through the hairy, filthy face. The who'll
lhulking frame seemed to quiver as TIT
the threats and curses with which the al
was blue behind him.
Fear is = bitter Ingredient to put In TIM
cup of anger, and Squire Van Vleeck wa
lin even worse humor than usual, ter
minutes later. when somewhat 6ue-look-
ing young man reined in his horse at th'
gate, and seemed about to spring from hi
sleigh.
''Good morning. Squire"
"Don't stop, Gil Morse! Drive righ
on !" roared the old man. "Don't sto
agin anywhere in this holler. Yer faith
er's son needn't quit the road anywher
on my land. Eft hedn't 3 been for him
might a-had the nomination"
4 More than that he said ]; but while tn
young mans face deepened to a hot Grim
J son, be controlled his temper suficientl