Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1901-04-24

portant occasion in the Foote house
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 We're deyoured
by cayernous crust lined pie plates,
and the oven door creaked and ciang-
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 so out again with a look of toler
ant satisfaction on his set face.
It was the Wednesday after VIII
Camp had been forbidden the house,
and Carmelius had just come In to sniff
of the pies, wien 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
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 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, vlgor-
Gus and desperately hungry. Besides
there were four of them.
"You can have one pie" said Car
melius at length, grudgingly.
'Thank ye, boss, but we'd prefer 'em
ALL" was the cool reply. Zone pie
wouldn't go far with us fellers."
Carmelius' whole soul rose up in de
fense of his precious pies. "You can't
have 'em," he said, doggedly. "Get
OutW 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 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 1t. 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 filled up the open window space.
Carmelius 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 were capable of stirring him to
such wrath as The loss of pie. Final
ly he unlocked the kitchen door and
limped out to the barn. He stood
glowerlng there in the door as the
tramps departed with sack full of
pies.
A week passed. There had been q
new pie baking day in the interim, and
the Foote's were not disturbed. But
empty and was being restocked with
the savory disks, the same gang sud
denly reappeared, 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 a man of peace. But not
a ragged outcast appeared during that
time. On the third Wednesday he or.
dered pie baking again, and just MS
the last pie was out of the oven the
ragged quartette came slouching into
the farm yard.
Carmelius Foote was harnessing q
horse In the barn when he first saw
them. Stripping off all but the head
stall, he led the horse to the grain box
and climbed from thence to its bare
back. Then he thundered out of the
barn and down the road
In an amazingly short space of time
he was seen returning, seated at viii
Camps side in the latter's light buggy
Will had his soldier clothes on, and his
gun rested against the edge of the seal
between the two men. The buggy rat
tied into the farm yard and VIII CAM
leaped out. leaving Carmellus to hitcl
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 the
sill after sack of pies which he haf
delivered to his companions. VII
Camp appeared at the window, witt
his Springfield rifle at his shoulder
"Set down that bag and git" he cried
with a vernacular snap lacking to pro
per military language. The tramp
dropped their sack with a great clatte
of crockery, and ran helter-skelter TO
+ the woods.
Amber and VIII were standing sid
5 by side, laughing happily, when Car
meius Foote, ex-peace advocate an'
, exemplar, came into the kitchen, flush
e ed and chuckllng.
i. i. fnlr rhv