The Lambertville record., 1903-04-22
CRIME OF
THE TRAMP
NN.NN<NNNNNNNNNNNNNN\N
BY Leo Crane

300 ocoo ocoo COCO oCoo oooo o

river, a SShinE village of great modes
ty. The morning sun would toss its
beauties out upon the waters of mild
lagoon. The roadways We're of shells
that had been pounded into powder of
the whiteSt Old fashioned cottages
lined the streets, their porches fcs
tooned with climbing roses whose
sweet scent welded the lavish per
fume of wandering honeysuckle and
set forth to meet the fresh smell of the
bay.
Upon the shore VAS II little shipyard
all covered with chips aud darkened
driftwood. Rotting ways bathed their
feet In the greenish water, and about
them played the children they had Civ
en- birth, n myriad of small boats upon
the sleeping waves. One of these be-
longed to higher caste than the 9th
ers. There was Il clean coat upon II,
and proudly it rode to we'll made
mooring. When the breeze would
swing it slowly, the old nun seated
upon last stretch of the ways could
read its name.
Mary he commented slowly re-
moving the pipe from his mouth and
putting out cloud of grayish smoke
Then, turning to II man close by, he
asked
Dye S'pose why It's named Mary?'
Hes sweet on Mary IIarte.' said
the other without displaying bit of
interest In anything save the chip he
was whiting
oh" remarked the old one, grinning
To himself and sticking the pipe back
into his mouth, proving II bit of sentl
ment could not lure him from the hab-
It, "Ycre he comes now"
Hes got his oars along" said the
other, looking across the quiet spaee
of water "D'ye s'pose he's goin' out?'
Reckon SO, but 'taint lookin' much
out there on the bay e;ittin' II peslly
fog up, I'm thinkin." And the old man
grunted at the foolishness of IT, why
in thunder don't he stay at home for
oncti o. late he's out on that stream
most o his time"
"S'posc hc wants 10 glt married" +" sug
gested the companion, cutting Il large
section off the chip with a contemptu-
Gus flourish OF the knife Hes an.
other one q these DANCED fules. But
these youngsters wont listen 10 no rea-
son. There's that feller brcallin his
back summer an winter, sunshine an
bad weather. come better or worse, all
SOS he can scrape enough together to
buy peck o trouble
81 can't understand it," said the old
man, smoking up on his pipe,
"Well, can see through II In way"
admitted the whittier meditatively
cause when was young an neces-
sarily foolish ! had the same thing in
mind fer quite spell. But Hank Jor-
dan-ye know lIunk-well, he gutter
ahead % me an married the woman,
Then ! says to myself, III see what's
In this game says |. So by Jing, Hank
starts IN 10 make livin' fer Il fambly
o. two. me havin' n quiet, peaceable
time all the while, but fore he was
through he was workin' like n plOw
horse in muddy furrow, tryin' 10
swim with six kids store bills on his
back. The Only things | had to owe fer
durln' that sans space q time was my
terbacker an one shirt, cause, We know,
I'm not hard on clothes, But Hank
Jordan bought enough clothes to cover
a regiment. uI' while they'd be shown
'em In the street llank'd he sittln' In
the back yard, with II bit o. chalk an
u board, tryin' to figger out how to
stave OFF the rent. ! never could see
the sense o II. In the las nine years
I've on'y had the chilblains an the
quinsy, but Hank Jordan had every
thing from mumps to milk rash not
him. We know, but them as he was
mainly responsible fer"
The man across the way tossed
pair of oyster tongs down into the
clean boat and whistled for ragged
looking dog playing about the towns
edge Then, with 1t beside him at the
tiller, he ran up the small sail and
steered out into the mist of the river
marshes. An hours run brought him
over the lodges, where with sounding
splash the stone anchor was dropped
and down, down, down, went the hun
cry tongs for the first clutch. Down
his happiness and wrench IL from the
bottom. There was scissorslike mo-
tiOn Of the long arms, Il twisting, tear
ing, sucking grapple of the teeth; then
up, up, up. came the swaying poles, the
water trickling back over the hands
that hauled, and with noisy clatter
the catch of grimy things was dumped
s,.f.
through the long day, sometimes star
ing stupidity out over the gray shifting
desert vt a passing steamer slowly
ploddiug up the channel or eying In
silent wonder yacht sweeping silent
ly and swiftly by his little craft
1t was In the afternoon. The boat
was half filed with muddy shells.
"Lemme see. Regs," said the man.
whats the date terday? The 1Othi
So it is. 'Tain't agoln' to be very long
now, Regs" He slowly counted u
number of deep scratches upon the
thwart Some OF them were crossed
over with n counter scratch. There
were nine not tailed. He got out
knife and rudely crossed another.
Eight more days to wait" he mutter
ed-'eight more days"
''Then won't there be a fine time,
RegsT he commenced gayly. The dog
cooked his head sideways and whined
an appreciation, "Ihe whole village u
talk o 1t, an the place II be fine Coin
to have Sam Lawder's house--that
new un--an' therell be sea scene
over the door an raft o curiositIes
Iii the mantei, sides rockin' chairs an
sofeys an all that sort o thing. But,
say, Regs. derned II | ever see such q
fog as IL glttin' up" The man peered
off into the dense yellow cloak that
had shut down upon him silent and
awesome. He pulled up the anchor
and started to row home.
The dull, monotonous clang of light
souse bell came at intervals from some
where. He knew not exactly where.
He was getting bewildered in this
smoky cloud of fog Then he rested