The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-07-10
BY GEORGE ABE.

reading q morning newspaper. They
had torn the paper into sheets and
divided 1t. The man who had drawn
the small lads" was disconnected.
He could find nothing on his sheet
except Help Wanted" He lowered
his paper and before him sat Con
dola" Wilson, seemingly yellow in the
filtered light
Where's the committee?" asked
"Gondola. where's the triumphal
arch. Welcome Homer"
You're alive, them"
ALIVE and kicking"
IF you're alive, it follows that
you're kicking. How long has 1t BEEN
"A year. next month"
You had to go crooked al last did
your"
We'll, that's what they called II.
I'm lucky they didn't hans me, some
of EN- wanted to-
Tell me What you done amt the
court
Say, listen. an see if YOU ever
heard the likes before. II was in Cc-
tober, year ago last October. I'd
walked from Loueyyille to Terry Hut
with niger that played the mouth
harp We hid in the yards at Terry
Hut an got into an empty stock car
that we thot we thought was bound
for Danyile. Some time in the night
a brakeman seen us an fired us out
I'd been asleep an the first thing re-
member was falln' out o the car an
lightin' hard with the coon comm
after me We didn't know where we
was, but we could make out side
track and a chute for loadn' hogs.
About mile of We could see some
lights an we Judged as we was near
purity good sized town Me an the
coon started to walk toward town an
then | stopped him an ses
Here, if we go to drillin' around
town at this time of night an one OF
them country coppers catches peep
at us, he'll shoot us first and then ask
US our names after Let's crawl In
somewheres an sleep till mOrnin' an
then we'll go In town an try to round
up handout
We'll, just as | was sayin' this, we
happened to be walkin' along past tall
fence | looked through the cracks
an could see one or two lights quite
q distance of an right near Us was a
long buildin' that looked something
like barn It was gsttin' chilly an |
ses to this pardner Of mine:
Coon, gimme boost over the fence
an I think we can find a warm place
here
80 We skinned over the fence an
come to the building. 1t was long
one. still thought It was a barn. We
walked around, lookin' for q door or
window, 30 we could crawl In. At
last this pardner of mine-his name 10
JEFF an I'll kill him II ever lay eyes
on him again-Jeff found little door
that wasn't locked an we went in
feelin' our way along. thinkin'. you
know, that we might find some hay
or straw to sleep on. Purity soon Jeff
fell over somethin' an landed on top
of him. We felt around US an dis
covered that we'd run into lot OF
watermelons layin' on the floor. |
s'pose the coon was sorry to meet
them melons, huh? The first thing |
knew he'd split one OF 'em open an |
could hear him chompin in the dark
Well, got up an felt my way along
an purity soon reached out, an
what do you suppose | took hold of
there In the pitch dark? This amt no
dream I'm tellin' you. What do you
think | took holt Of? A plate with
about a dozen biscuits on it. Now,
amt no crook an | never broke into
house to steal anything, but I'll
leave this to you. II you hadn't had
anything to eat for eighteen hours an
should happen to crawl into barn at
night an reach out into the dark an
find a dozen light biscuits, would you
eat 'em or throw 'em away"
"I'd prob1y eat EN-" was the re-
ply.
That's what | done, except what
give to JEFF. He found match in his
close an struck it. and we saw In
front Of US a wooden shelf covered
with pies and cakes an all kinds o
evoked stuff. The match only burned
for a minute, but We made out that
much. JEFF found plate Of butter,
an we ct the biscuit with butter an
amt tasted anything like it since |
run away from home in Lowell thirty
years ago. Then JEFF broke a cake
in half an give me part of It. II was
kind of dry eatin'. but we put lots OF
butter on It. Is'pose | ought to have
stopped an remembered that all this
provender belonged to somebody. but
I was 20 blamed hungry didn't wait
70 think Of nothin' An I must say