The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1908-02-06
BY ALICE ANDERSON
Copyright, BY Joseph B. BOwles. }

This Is freedom; to be able to
sling all ones personal property on a
stick over ones shoulder, and to walk
of on ones own two feet; to be
subject to no conventionalitles requir-'
ing ones shoes to be mates, and ones
hat to possess a brim; to know not
the necessity of meals at stated hours
and of roof to cover ones head at
night. All! the tramp instinct trans
mitted from our nomadic fOrefathers
still breaks out now and then to show
that civilization has not yet spoiled the
race for freedom.
"Whsre'll we get somethin' to ate
next. daddy" asked Maggie.
wen pick up bite someer' along
Don't ye be afther thrubh!iu' yerself,
me darlint," replied Nike.
Faith, hope and love!
81 wisht ! had drink" said Mag.
gle
A thicket Of young spruce grew be-
side the railroad. and the ground had
o moist look.
There's wsther in there, bet
We. I'll go see," said Mike.
Now 1t CHANGED that a forgotten
country road meandering dreamiy
through the quiet woods, dropped I'm.
expectedly upon the not path of the
rushing railway demon, leaped clear
across IT, and SHE'D around the bend
of the spruce thicket, where it ran
plump up to the doorstep of an old
house. Mikes search for water
brought him through the thicket, and
into tangle of briers, growing up
through the ruins of what had once
been cider mill. The stone walls Of
the flume were still standing, with
ferns clinging into their creyices, and
bit of brook trickled down over a
messy ledge, worn smooth by the flow
Of the river which once had been
there.
Mike assured himself at glance
that the house was uninhabited.
Come on, Biddy; come on, Maggie.
There's wather. And there's blackber.
ries!" he cried, and said no more, be.
Ing too full for utterance.
Biddy and Maggie plunged through
the thicket and settled upon the black.
berry hedge. There was silence for
space, the silence of absorption.
Then Maggie's growing sense of the
felicity of the situation expressed it.
self with a sigh, drawn from the very
depths of her being, and smile which
was unimpalred by the blackberry
stains about her lips.
Let us stay here tonight Then
nobody'll put US in tramp house."
she said
"Roight We are, me baby" replied
Biddy. The door of the house hung
ajar on one hinge Maggie peeped in
curiously. A bird futtered suddenly
from a nest over the window-casing
and few out at broken pane There
were young ones in the nest.
"Oh. my" sQuealed Maggie.
"Shure, it's foine house." exclaim
ed Biddy taking in the scene with
charmed eyes.
"Oh, nanny, don't We wish we
lived here?" said Maggie.
"Mebbe we'd best rint the place, an
take in lodgers,' said Bddy, good-na
! turedly
"Will ye place to look over the
house an see If we thinks it'll suit We,
ladIes?" said Mike, opening one of
the inside doors with a flourish.
Through. all the musty, dusty old
ruins they looked, up into the cobweb.
by attic, into the queer little closets
around the big chimneys, and down
into the cellars, smelling of darkness
and mold and rotting timbers. Every.
where they found treasures-two or
three rickety, splint-bottomed chairs;
q table on three legs; half dozen old
spinning-wheels and reels, clustering
together in an oak-paneled room. as
If rehearsng tales of days gone by;
heavy wooden cradle, worn on the
tops of the rockers, where the moth.
er's foot had pressed; a broken accor.
dion with a cracked and squeaky
voice; and hidden away in a dark cor.
ner under the caves, a dusty moth-eat.
en- rag doll, which Maggie seized with
n rADtupOuR scream
"Oh, nanny, niver had a doll In
all me loife," she cried.
Bless the choild!" exclaimed Biddy.
grinning broadly.
Mike brought the table and chairs
down into the bright west room.
"Win we set the table for tay, Mrs.
Flanagan, whilst | just step out to
the market over beyant?" he said.
Where be- yez afther goin'? Ye'd
betther kape an eye cut ahead" warn.
ed Biddy.
"Niver ye fret. Mike FIannagan's
not the by to be caught nappin'. l
hit me eye on carnfiel' a bit back.
I'm thinkin' some roast earn 'u'd taste
rRle good, eh, Maggis' Do you get