The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-07-15
THE TRAMp's HALT

most Of which was covered with a
coarse, bristling beard. AS he sham
bled on through the heat and dust his
eyes were fixed On the ground, but
now and then he raised his head slight
~ and took a rapid glance over the
fields and up to the distant hills.
Presently he reached a slight bend
in the road and, rounding this, ap-
preached a small frame house, entered
the yard, carefully closing the gate
after him, and after standing irreso-
lutely a few moments walked across
the lawn.
As he rounded the corner Of the
house a little terrier rushed at him,
yelping shrill defiance and calling to
the door of the kitchen a tall woman
Of perhaps fifty years of age. Her
iron gray hair, brushed straight back
from Ter forehead, was caught in a
knot at the crown Of her head and
held in place by a steel comb. At the
first glance she might have been called
III oA5uAA WOIA0AAS WAlCA CAYICS-
sion usually conveys the impression Of
an angular disposition, but the severe
plainness of her appearance was re-
lieved by her eyes. Soft gray they
were, with kind little wrinkles around
them, and they looked now at the
strange figure before her through spec
taclcs, with a twinkle of quizzical SYM
pathy.
Quieting with a sharp word the zeal
GUS dos. which was still yelping
around the tramp, she leaned against
the doorpost, drying her hands on a
coarse towel and surveying with a
slight smile of pity, shaded with con-
tempt, the ragged specimen Of human
ity who stood there awkwardly, the
battered remnant of a hat grasped in
one hand and gazing at her with a
look which might have indicated sui
lenness or respect.
"Well, what dye want, my man? l
reckon somethin' to eat an drink ID
about suit We, eh? Jest you set down
on the step there, an I'll see what I
can do fer We. l never could scare up
much affection fer a tramp somehow,
but l try to follow the Scriptural adj
vice bout the cup of cold water, an
mebbe that was meant t. include pie,
eff any was handy"
Not noticing the gesture Of dissent
from the tramp, she turned into the
kitchen and presently came back with
a bowl of milk and an immense piece
of dried apple pie, which she placed be-
fore her guest, telling him to ''set
down an pitch H."
The wanderer, though evidently not
suffering from hunger, ate and drank
with apparent but not unrestrained
enjoyment. The woman sat down on
the step above him and watched him
eat with an amused, nearsighted ex-
preston.
"Another thing makes me kinder feel
fer you tramps is my boy bein' gone.
Nigh on to eight years now since I
kissed him goodby down by the gate
yonder, an he started off SO brave an
h%opeful-like. Lord, how proud l was
of him, goin' away to make a fortune
would burst as I seen him disappear
round the bend in the road up there,
a-wavin' his hand to me, standin' look
in over the gate!"
"Where did he goy" asked the tramp,
who was crouching ON the step with
bent head. The woman's eyes were
fixed IN the blue hills in the distance,
and she did not notice him.
tout west. Got it into his head he
l "a - 1vo =, V31o ~ r~ornr 1,,% %hnro mn
1 thought so, too, cause Tom was a
right smart lad an steady as a rock.
An his letters was hopeful, too, but l
haven't heerd from him now these six
years. His fathers dead, too-died
three year ago from a horse kick, SO
I'm Alone"
Her voice grew tremulous, but she
frightened again.
Sometimes, settin' out there in front
O the house after tea, I doze off, kinder
dreamin', and then I think 1 can see
Tom comm up to the gate, back to
his old mother, him a grown man. An
when l wake up I always feel cold, an
l have a little cry to myself, IN then
I'm all right again, fer ! know I'll
meet him up there when
Maybe he's not dead. He might
have gone wrong said the tramp
without raising his head.
"My Tom go wrong? Why, man, eff
my boy was alive today I'm sure he'd
be honest an good as l am settin'
here. You're down in the world; but,
not knowin' the facts, I amt sayin'
but what it mightn't "a been all your
fault. But eff you'd known my boy as
l do you'd never believe he cd go
wrong. It's all l have now-my faith
in my religion an my faith in my boy
an eff anything shook either I'd rather
not live"
For several minutes they sat silent,
struggling with the thoughts that came
upon them.