The Washington herald., 1912-09-22
CHAPTER XIV.
LOVE IN IDLENEss.

|HNE not born vagabond in heart
car never understand a vaga-
~ bonds love for the open places,
for absolute freedom, to go where he
wants, see wha, he wants, work when he
wants. To a'vagabond an Office is intol-
cradle, tine accumulation of dollars,
grinding another man to gain petty
advance for oneself, utterly uninspiring,
conventionality, the ceaseless humdrum
round of existence as a clerk at ten per,
revolving. Following step by step in the
well-worn, beaten path, where no man
dares step aside lest he be jeered at,
where none darcs fall, lest he be pushed
from the road and another take his
place, where all think alike, look alike,
act alike, spending ones days in an Of
fee. bent over Uttered, dusty. shabby
desk, ones nights at some cheap play
house, seeking to find an outlet for the
battered nerves, for the ceaseless strain
of the day by stupefying the senses with
some garish parody of life. is not living
TO a vagabond. He is willing to work
if the work is part of himself, devel-
opment of that clamorous ego that must
find peace in the open, in the physical
side of existence. II he is born rich, he
will become a traveller, a mountain
climber, an aviator; if poor, tramp,
and the Watermelon was born poor.
For the last few years his feet had
followed his errant will. now here, now
there He was impervious TO hardship
while he could wander as he wished, in
different to good clothes when the price
was eight hours a day spent in a stuffy
Office, bent. round d-shouldered. hump
backed, over column of figures.
Beneath good c-JtheS or shabby, there
was nothing hut human body, all more
or less alike So the Watermelon had
gone his careless, contented way, now
resting here, now working there. un-
worried by rent days falling due, by col
lars fraying around the edges, coats get
ting shabby and shiny at the seams, and
then Billy came along, Billy, young,
sweet, conventional. an honored member
of conventions band, walking around
and around the same well-beaten path,
in the same small inclosure. If he had
elected to be one OF the throng, he
would never have met her. Struggling
along at ten per. he would have been
so far down the line, plodding pain
fully on, that Billy would never have
seen him.,
But now he was out and a fence un-
scalable was between them. If he climb
ed the fence again. it would do no
good. No vagabond can ever fall in
line and keep step. and there is not
room enough in the inclosure for the
man who has dared to climb the fence
and drop down the other side.
Bartlett, like Billy, wondered if he
were growing simple-minded. A desire
to confde in Henrietta, to tell her what
he was up to, had come upon him and
seemed too strong to be resisted. Last
night, up the quiet country road, alone
with Henrietta, he had been forced to
suppress the desire sternly, and now in
him He took seat beside her on the
Portable as she hshed olives from a
nearly empty bottle, the remains OF last
nights supper.
Il wonder" said he. lowering on the
edge of his foolish desire, IF any one
can become man with nothing to re-
gret"
Certainly mot" said Henrietta.
There would always be the years"
Il mean something that he had done
himself" explained Bartlett soberly. a
sandwich in one hand, buttered roll III
the other.
Don't tell me your troubles" said
Henrietta, thinking miserably OF the
years it would soon be SO hard to deny.
Il have enough Of my own. Confession
may be good for the soul. but it's the
death-biow to your reputation"
Father used to say that if there were
public confession instead of private in
the Catholic Church, there would be no
Catholics" said the Watermelon, help
ing Billy to the last of the sardines.
Lets have public confession" cned
the artless Billy. Everybody tell the
worst thing that they ever did in their
lives"