Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-06-19

come liked when instead he became
one morning pitted with umbilical yes.
icles, and the doctors, with DelaroO's
brevity, said smallpox. The boarding
house keeper threw him out bodily and
at once. Having mo- better place to so,
Delaroo wandered into Steve BOyer's
saloon, where he was generally vel
come. Steve, however, pointed hos
pltable gun ut him and suggested his
getting AWAY Immediately from the
| front end Of It. DelaroO went from
there to the rOundhOuse with his um-
bilicals and asked Neighbor what q
man with the smallpox ought 10 do
with 1t. NeIghbor wouldn't run, not
even from the smallpox, but he told
Delaroo what II meant to get the
smallpox started in the roundhouse,
and Delaroo wandered quietly away
from the depot grounds, pretty sick
man then, staggered up the yards and
crawled stupid into box car to die
without embarrassing anybody.
BY some hook or crook, nobody to
| this day knows how, that car was
switched on to Maze SIMPSONS train
when it was made up that day for the
west. Maybe. 1t was done US trick
to scare the windbag engineer. II so.
the idea was successful. When the
hind end brakeman Mt the second stop
came forward and reported n tramp
with the smallpox In the empty box
car Maize was angry. bIr his curiosity
gradually got the upper hand. This
man might be by some distant chance.
he reflected. Il +. .. W. Of A., or
frater. or Il fellow, or Il knight or
something like, and when they stopped
again to throw Off crackers and beer
and catchup, Maize went back and en-
tered the infected car like lion tanner
to try lodge signals and things Oh him.
Maize advanced and gave the counter
sign. 1t was not cordially received.
He tried another and another and an
other; his passes We're lost In the air.
The smallpox man appeared totally
unable to come back at Maze with
anything. He was not only delirious.
but by this time 50 frightfully brJiien
out that Maize couldn't have touched
sound spot with Masonic signal OF
distress. Finally the venturesOne Ell
gineer walked closer into the dark
corner where the sick man lay-and,
by heaven, 1t was the Indian wiper,
DelaroO!
When Maize Sampson got back into
the cab he could not speak-at least not
for publication. He was tearing mad
and sputtered like safety. lie gath
cred up his cushion and a water bottle
and bottle that would explode If wa
ter touched it and crawled with his
plunder into the box car. He straight
ened DelarOO up and out and gave him
q drink and by way Of sanitary pre-
caution took one personally. for he him
self had never had the smallpoy-but
once. When he had done this little for
DelaroO he finished his run and came
back to the Bend hauling his pest house
box car. The fireman quit the cab I'M
mediately after Maize exposed himself.
The conductor communicated with him
only by signals. The Anderson Oper-
ator wired ahead that Maze Sampson
was bringing back man with small
pOX on 30, and when Maize, bulging ont
Of the 2Gi. cab, pulled into the division
yard nobody would come within Il
mile of him. He set out the box car
below the stock pens, cross lots from
his house up on the hill. and, not being
able to get advice from anybody else.
went home to consult Martic.
Though there were great many wo-
men In Medicine Bend. Maze Sampson
looked to but one, Martie. the little
washed out woman up ut Simpsons
wife, mother. nurse, cook, slave-Mar-
tie.
No particular color hair; no particu-
lar color eyes; no particular color
gown; no particular cut to it. A plain
bit of woman, mother Of six boys.
large and small, and wife Of great
big wind bag engineering as three OF
her by actual measurement. BY the time
Maze had taken counsel and walked
downtown prominent business men
were Tending of his approach With
shotguns. The city marshal from be-
hind bomb proof asked what he was
going to do with his patient, and Maze
retorted he was going to take him
home. He wasn't Il NJ. IL. W. Of L.
nor p. s. G.. of W. f., but he was
foundhouse man, and between Maize ana
a railroad man, u wiper even, there was
q bond stronger than grip or password
or jolly business Of any kind. The oth-
err things Maize, without realizing II,
merely played at, but as to the railroad
lay, II a railroad man was the right
sort he could borrow anything the big
fellow had-mOrcy, plug tobacco, pipe,
water bottle. strong bottle-it made no
odds what. And. on the other hand,
Maize wouldn't hesitate to borrow any
or all of these things in return. The
railroad man who got ahead Of MAZE
Sampson in this respect had claims to
be considered past grand i'll the
business.
The doughty engineer lifted and
dragged and hauled Delaroo home with
him. II there was no hospital, Martie
had said, no pest house, no nothing,
lust bring him home. They had all had
the smallpox up at SIMPSONS except
the baby, and the doctor had said
lately the baby appeared to need some
thing. They had really everything up
at Sampson's sooner or later-measles,
diphtheria, Group, everything on earth
except money. And Martie Sampson,
with the washing and mending and
scrubbing and cooking, nursed the out
cast wiper through his smallpox. The
baby took 1t, of course, and Martie
nursed the baby through and went on
lust the same as before - washing.
mending. cooking. scrubbing. Delaroo
when he got well went to firing; Neigh
bor offered the job as a kind OF con-
ISOLATION prize, and he went to firing
on the 264 for Maize Sampson.
It was then that Maze took Delaroo
| fairly in hand and showed him the
unspeakable folly Of trying to get
| through the world without the COM
radcsliip and benefits Of the B. s. LIS
| of q. and the fraters Of the order OF
| the double barreled star OF MacDuh.
| Delaroo caught good deal Of 1t on
the sidings, where they lay most OF
their time dodglng first class trains,
and evenings when they got In from