The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-20
THE EVENING STORY
Harvest Hands.
(By John Philip Orth.)

They wanted them so bad that very
| high wages were offered and agents
! sent East to talk and advertise. 1t was
| free fare out, with keep on the road,
| and then So per day and the most lib
eral board for weeks and weeks 1t
was the greatest chance for the stud
ents working their way through college,
and scores of them took advantage
| of it
Dwight Carleton. of Columbia. looked
upon it as a speci / interposition of
| Providence In six weeks he could earn
sufficient to take him through the win
ter term. He had no wealthy father to
back him-no friends who were not as
| hard up as himself. Yes. one good
friend who could and would make a
! loan at any time, and be glad of the
| opportunity, but that kind of a friend
is the very one that q sensitive man
! hesitates to ask.
| Fourteen hours per day in the harvest
field, and the farmer carrying a crouch
| because he could not make it fifteeni A
bed on the hay in the barn, and every
man still hungry as he arose from the
! liberal tabIei'' The husky workers
groaned and perspired and stood il.
lThose who had never roughed it kept
| on as long as they could and dropped
out and were paid off and told to go.
And when Dwight Carleton was handed
his wages, after ten days of back
breaking work, he found them INSULT
Gent even to pay his railroad fare back
as far as Chicago. And then some one
stole his spare clothing, and when he
hit the pike" he had nothing to carry
in his hands. Not exactly a tramp.
but going somewhere with a few dollars
in his pocket. Chicago seemed 5000
miles aWay-NeW York 900.
A tramp would have made twenty
miles day and had a nap by the road
side to boot The ex-harvest hand hob
oled along at the rate of ten, and went
to sleep aching all over. A tramp
would have begged his way The ex-
harvest hand paid his as long as his
money lasted, and every farmer sus-
pected him of being a horse thief, and
every country constable held him up to
get his story. He was really glad when
arrested as a vagabond and given ten
days in Jail. It enambled him to get
rest for his aching feet and wabbIy
knees.
A tramp can travel the highways
A young man, dead broke, and tell
ing the truth to farmers and others,
is under the ban. There came a day
to Dwight Carleton when he had to
der if he could ever make another
mile. Exhausted with hunger and
tramping and exposure, and a fever
burning him, he sat with his head
in hands and his courage all gone.
And then the children from the coun-
try school, a quarter of a mile away,
came along on their way home and
stopped to look at him and make
comments And a little later came
the schoolma am in her pink sun
bonnet and clean calico dress.
You are ill.," she said, as she
glanced at the young man.
He nodded his head.
We'll, come back to the first house.
That's where I live. My father is
farmer, but I'm teaching this school
this term. You are ill and weak
Take my arm
But I'm penniIess,'' replied the
ex-harvest hand, with a ruefuI smile
Come now, and we'll walk slow
It was after the patient had got to
the house and found a bed and the
telephone had summoned a doctor.
that the farmer came up from the
field to say to his daughter:
For the last two years you've
been trying to turn this house into
a tramp hospital, and now you've
done it, That Teller is playing pos
sum on you. He's got to get out of
this and move along!"
The father was taken into the bed
room of the half-asleep, muttering
young man and shown the palms of
his hands. They were blistered
Guess he's been at work some
where's and played out, but it amt
for us to pay his doctor bills and
nurse him.
Il can pay, father. from my school
money"
"Humph. And when he gets able to
go, hell steal my best horse.
1t was two weeks before the pa
two more before he vas moving around
outdoors. Before that he had toad his
story and written a letter to be mail
ed to New York city.
Trying to get through college
bumpi" was the farmers reply. Ma
our Susie's soft as butter. She believes
every word that fellow says, and you
keep your eve out that they don't elope
together. That letter to New York was
only blind. IL never be took notice
cf''
But it was. There came an answer
and a big money order and young Mr..
Carleton was to get some clothes and
come on as soon as he could. He owed
something to the farmer. At a fam
lily council the farmer reckoned that
as they had been exposed to smallpox,
consumption. yellow fever and cholera,
and had had q doctor, and had Killed
two chickens for broth and the sheets
on the bed had been worn out consid-
erably, $50 would DE about the right
figure
He snal never pay It. father." ex-
claimed the daughter as the red blazed
up in her cheeks
Then who wilI?'
Il will: I told you so in the begin
nirg. That money is only loan from
a friend Hasn't Mr.. CaIlct.'r said that
ne was working his way through COL
lcge?'
Ma said tie farmer as he turned
to his wife, you can see what eddie
cation does for a gal. 1t makes her
pity ard fall in love with a feler
we;ll never see nor hear from after
he leaves the house,"
out in the orchard, The day before
Re left, the ex-harvest hand tried 10
nav the money to his nurse, but she
hold her hands behind her and said
She wanted to be his creditor.
For how 1ong2' he asked
.~ciH vou-you--