The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-13
THE EVENING STORY
Down Came a Pippin."
(By Lawrence Alfred Clay.)

''Down Came a Pippin."
| (By Lawrence Alfred Clay.).
| Young Fitzhue Barton could have
spent his college vacation on a yacht
lin the woods-at the mountains or
the seashore, but there was nothing
| romantic about that.
If he went yachting, there would be
the same water all the time, and there
would be the same simpering girl.
If he went camping, there would
| be the same woods-same flies-same
rainy days to wet the salt and dis
solve the sugar.
Summer hotels are about all alike.
The scenery is made to order; so is the
bill of fare; so are the guests.
Mother" said young Barton's sis
ter Nellie, with some excitement in
her tones, as she came back from the
postoffice one day, what do you think
why, he hasn't been suspended,
has her, was gasped in alarm.
Not quite yet; though suspen-
sion by the neck for a few minutes
might be a great moral lesson to
him!"
What has he done?''
I'VE three were to go to the Cats
kills for six weeks"
That's what you planned"
And that selfish F'itz has knocked
it all over.''
What! Isn't he coming homer"
Not even for a day, he says. He
and two other crazy young fellows of
his class are going on walking tour
of 400 miles. They are going to turn
tramps and seek adventures
He is not going to do any such
thing!" Indignantly exclaimed the
mother. You write to him this min
ute that I forbid it,
Miss Nellie laughed and the mother
subsidized. A letter was written in a
day or two, however. 1t was very brief
and did not contain a joke from start
to finish. All it said was:
You are a mean old thing
Yes, that was the program of young
F'itz Barton and his two chums. He
had never walked a mile on the high
walk 400 of them. The trio would see
farmhouses-pass through villages
meet up with cows grazing by the
roadside-get rained on-sleep under
straw stacks for the novelty of it,
and-and-
That tramp would be glorious
thing for the health. At the end they
would be as rugged as buffaloes. One
of the adventures they We're sure to
meet with was arrest as tramps. They
might even decide to take ten days in
a county Jail in order to get the ex-
perience.
The day arrived and the trio set
forth. The Set-free young men halted
in the middle of the road after the
first mile and shook hands and vowed
they would die for their country as
soon as Japan was ready to pitch in.
At night they rubbed their tired
legs and thought of touring car.
Within a week there was only one
young man plodding along the high
way. and he wasn't taking much in
terest in the scenery.
Young Barton had stuck. One of
his traits was perseverance, and as he
had disappointed his mother and sis
ter he was ashamed to give up his
jaunt.
He was bitten by dogs. he was licked
by cows, he was licked by farmers
hired men, he was chased from kitch-
en- doors, he was rained on, he was
threatened with arrest and he was ar
rested. When he told the judge that
he was no tramp and brought out his
references to prove it, his honor ex
claimed:
DO you mean to tell me. that you
are walking 400 miles just to see the
country the roadsides?"
Certainly. sir was the. reply.
We'll, I don't believe it. You look
like an intelligent young man. but
there is something wrong with you.
In fact, I look upon you as sus-
picious character
Then you must doubt my refer |
ences?"
sI do, young man. and you will |
have to go to Jail while 1 investigate |
them
At the end of five days the young |
man was set at liberty, and the judge |
said
you are at liberty to go, but let |
this be lesson to YOU
How a lesson"
There isn't a thing for a hundred |
miles around here worth walking to |
see, and when a young man is found |
hoofing it along and gawping at red |
barns and spotted COWS as if they
were relics of the cave jewellers we /
suspect him of either being a fool or
a horse thief"
Young Barton had been on the hike
about 20 days when one afternoon he |
a hill by the roadside to get |
he could look down upon the front |
yard of house on the opposite side
of the road, and he also had a part
of an apple orchard under his sur
vey. Suspended between two of the
trees was a hammock. and in that
hammock was girl.
Was it the family cook or the wife
of the owner of the premises? Was it
his daughter an old maid sister?
How long had she been asleep? When
would she wake up?
This musing and specializing lasted
a good half hour, and then some of
the questions We're solved. The ham,
mockess yawned, threw up her
hands and woke up and sat UP.
She was a young girl.
Could a tramp slide down hill and
climb the stone wall and stand be-
fore that girl and say: ..Prithe, fair
maid. my cognomen is F'itz Barton, |
my age is two-andtwenty; my moth
er is widow and has the long green