The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1901-06-07
|. A PEACE E.I!!' ADVOCATE !.l!!!.ll'.I!.!.#.

hold. All day long the rolling pin
thumped over the dough board; the
spice boxes shed their aroma abroad;
the piles Of sliced fruit and mincemeat
and the bowls of yellow custard and
lemon favored starch were devoured
by cavernous crust lined pie plates,
and the oven door creaked and clang-
ed. By mid-afternoon the "buttery"
shelves and window sills We're covered
thickly with pies, and Carmelius would
come in from his work, sniff of them,
and go out again with look of toler-
ant satisfaction on his set face
1t was the Wednesday after VIII
Camp had been forbidden the house
and Carmelius had just come In to sniff
of the pies, when there was a loud
knock at the kitchen door. Carmelius
answered it. There stood four ragged,
unkempt and desperate looking tramps.
'Well, what do you want?' demand
ed Carmelius.
'Them pies" responded the spokes-
man of the hungry looking crew, with
a significant jerk of the thumb to-
ward the pantry. 1--WE see some of 'em
on the winder sill-and we smelt EN-"
Old Carmelius shrank a little, in
spite of himself. The farm house was
at a distance from the village. The
nearest neighbOr was VIII Camps
father. The tramps were young, vigor-
GUS and desperately hungry. Besides,
there were four of them.
You can have one pie" said Car
melius at length, grudglngly.
THANK We, boss, but we'd prefer 'em
ALL" was the cool reply. "One pie
wouldn't go far with US fellers."
-Carmelius' whole soul rose up in de
Tense of his precious pies. you can't
have EN-" he said, doggedly. Get
outr' And he shut the door in the
tramps faces and locked it.
Scarcely had he returned to his terri
fed wife and daughter, when there
was a grating sound in the pantry.
The pies were being removed from the
sill of the open window! Then the
three plainly heard a man climb over
the sill and drop down into the pantry.
There was no strategy about it. The
tramps understood their physical adj
vantage, and they wanted the pies.
Carmelius opened the pantry door
and looked in. A man stood with his
back toward him, slowing pies away
in an old sack. Three fierce, intent
faces filed up the open window space.
Cornelius shut the door, stamped
across the kitchen and banged the table
savagely with his fist. Then he kicked
chair half way across the room. Few
things We're capable of stirring him to
such wrath as the loss of a pie. Final
ly, he unlocked the kitchen door and
limped out to the barn. He stood
glOwering there in the door as the
tramps departed with a sack full of
pies.
A week passed. There had been a
new pie baking day in the interim, and
the Foote's We're not disturbed. But
when the larder had once more fallen
empty and was being restocked with
the savOry disks, the same gang sud
denly rcappeared, and once more lit
orally sacked the pantry. Carmelius
was furiOus-so furious that he went
without pies for a fortnight, hoping
thus to Outwit and defeat the tramps
for he was man of peace. But no
Il ragged Outcast appeared during tina
time. On the third Wednesday he or
dered Il pie baking again, and Just a.
the last pie was out of the oven the
ragged quartette came slouching int,
the farm yard
Carmelius Foote was Harvesting
horse in the barn when he first saw
them. Stripping off all but the head
stall, he led the horse to the grain boz
and climbed from thence to its bar,
back. Then he Numbered out of tn,
barn and down the road.
+ In an amazingly short space of tim
he was seen returning, seated at VIII
, Camps side in the latter's light buggy
VIII had his soldier clothes on, and hi
gun rested against the edge of the sea
D between the two men. The buggy rat
tied into the farm yard and VIII Cam
! leaped out. leaving Carmelius to hitcl
T the horse to the fence with his SLOW
old fingers. The young soldier burs
, into the house just in time to see tn
: tramp in the pantry crawling over tn
n sill after a sack of pies which he ha
! delivered to his companions. VIII
I Camp appeared at the window, wit
b. his Springfield rifle at his shoulder
I ''Set down that bag and git"' he cried
q with a vernacular snap lacking to pre-
4 per military language. The tramp
+. dropped their sack with a great clatte
Of crockery, and ran helter-skelter 70
r the woods.
i Amber and Will were standing sid
5 by side, laughing happily, when Cal
?. | melius FOOte. ex-peace advocate an