The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1900-10-04
A Cessation Of HoStilitieS
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HE tramp was different from the
accepted type, inasmuch as his
clothes were fairly respectable and
whole, although they had been in
tended for a large man, and he was
understood and slightly built. He had
evidently been shaved within the last
three days. Not only had he been
shaved, but his hair had been cut
very closely, indeed, and his face was
lean and pale.
But with all this he was not much
0 pleasant to look at than any
bearded, tattered and bulky member
of the wandering fraternity would
have been. His face had hard lines
in it, and he was thin-lipped and
snaky-eyed, a down-looking man, with
the true trampish shamble in his gait
and sneaking shoulders. Apparently
he had been passing the night in the
lee of a hay stack, for there were
spears of timothy clinging to his coat
and in the rolled fold of his trousers,
and the SUI was not yet high. Yet
he already limped, and presently went
over to the ditch in the shade of the
Usage hedge and sat down with his
back to the road.
First he pulled a fat bottle from
his pocket and swore, seeing that it
was empty. Then he slowly took off
his shoes and examined a blister that
one of them had chafed on his heel.
Its condition was evidently unsatis-
factory, for he swore again, and then,
feeling in his pocket, drew forth a
dirty rag, which he tore into strips
and bound on the afflicted foot. At
last he rose slowly and reluctantly
and slouched on. There was a hill to
climb, and as he reached its crest he
saw a short distance away a little
farmhouse, with the smoke curling
from the kitchen chimney in graceful
wreaths.
The wanderer stopped and made a
careful reconnaissance. He saw two
or three fields away a man blowing
corn, and still farther away another
mar hoeing a row of something. He
reasoned that two men were about
all that were necessary to run a farm
of that size, and the smoke seemed to
promise a meal, so he GU. a stick from
the hedge and advanced to the gate.
Here he stopped a moment and ex-
amined the gate posts, and something
he saw there induced him to turn
back for a few steps, but hunger was
gnawing at his inwards, and he NUT
tered: "Ill risk it."
Mrs. Sim Leacox was known
throughout that neighborhood as a
real good manager and a terror. She
could get up such a thrashing good
dinner that her fame as a cook had
spread through three counties. Her
pies, cakes, doughnuts and preserves
were the envy of all the housewives
far and near; her energy was super
natural, and her tongue was sharp
and bitter. as Sam Leacox knew to
his cost. and as the hired man knew
almost as well. Mrs. Leacox was
nearly six feet tall, muscular and long
around. If Sim had ever shown any
signs of INSTRUMENTATION she would
have been perfectly capable of spank
ing him-and quite likely to have
done so. 1t was Sims thorough re-
alization of this that kept his home
peaceful to a certain extent. There
was another thing about Mrs. Lea
cox-she hated tramps.
The most masculine-minded and
muscled women have their little fem
mime weaknesses, however, and Mrs.
Leacox was a firm believer in ghosts
and signs and omens and dreams
more particularly dreams-because
she usually slept too soundly and her
digestion was toe good for her to be
bothered in that way very often. She
generally went to bed at nine o'clock,
and snored generously until four in
the summer, or six in the winter,
and, as she expressed it, she "never
knowed ,nothin' from the time her
head hit the pillar" But good diges-
ton will not prevent the falling of
dishrags or the thousand and one
other little warnings vouchsafed by
the powers of the middle. air to APP
prise initiated mortals of coming good
or evil fortune. On the same norm
ing that the tramp crawied out of
his nest by the timothy haystack
something uncanny happened to Mrs.
Leacox's stoye-lid litter.
For the Interpretation of signs Mrs.
Leacox relied upon the "Gipsy Queens
Dream Book" a green-paper-covered
brochure that she reverenced next to
the family Bible and consulted far
oftener, it is to be feared. When the
stoye-lid litter misconducted itself
Mrs. Leacox hied in perturbation of
spirit to her dream book, and found
that her worst f~orebodings were more
than confirmed. It %betokened, the
gypsy queen said, sudden death and
loss of fortune, with the making of
a powerful enemy, although she neg
lected to state in what order these
were to come. But there
was still a chance. eff" continued
the oracle, "this should happen on
and the dreamer feeds bounti-
fully the first beggar who comes to
the door the troubles may be
averted."
"Small chance of that" thought
Mrs. Leacox. "They amt likely to
come here any time, an they'd
nachally think twicet before they
took the resk of a Friday" The rec
objection of the last tramp who had
her and of his hurried retreat
to the road followed by Dentist and of
his fearful maledictions as he fed
this rose up in judgment against