The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-06-26

time new sockdoIoger Of word come
along and | learnt how to spell her
and where she orter fit in to make
sense it kind o tickled me all over
And manys the time afterward when
me and the doctor had lost track OF
each other and they was quite spell
people got to thinking | was tramp
I've went into these here Andrew Car
neyie libraries in different towns jest
as much to see if they had anything
fifteen to read as fur to keep warm.
Well, we went easing over toward
the Indiany line, and we was having
a purity good time. They wasn't no
work to do you could call really hard,
and they was plenty Of vittles. After
Moons we'd lazy around the camp and
swap stories and make medicine If we
needed batch and josh back and
forth with the people that hung
around and loaf and doze and smoke.
nigh a crick.
And nights after the show was over
it was fun too. We always had fire.
even if it was hot night, fur to cook
by in the first place and fur to keep
mosquitoes off and to make things
seem more cheerful. They amt moth
ing so good as hanging round camp
fire, and they amt nothing any bet
ter than sleeping outdoors neither.
You roll up in your blanket with your
feet to the fire and you get to wonder
ing things about things afore you 60
to sleep The siIentness jest natcheral-
~ swamps everything after awhile,
and then all them queer little noises
you never hear in the daytime comes
popping and poking through the silent
ness or kind O scratching their way
through it sometimes and makes 1t
kind O. feel more silent than ever. And
if you are nigh a crck purity soon 1t
will sort O get to talking to you, only
you can't make out what it's trying to
say, and you get to wondering about
that too And if you are in tent and
it rains and the tent don't leak that
rain is kind Of a nice thing to listen
to itself But if you can see the stars
you get to wondering more'n ever.
They come out and they is SO many OF
them and they are so fur away, and yet.
they are so kind O. friendly-l1ke. too,t
if you happen to be feeling purity good
But if you amt feeling purity good
lest lay there and look at them stars
long enough. and then mebby you'll
see it don't make no difference whether
you're feeling good or not, fur they
got way O. making your private trou-
bles look mighty small.
Well, l never cared so much fur
houses after them days. They was
bully times, them was. And | was
kind of proud Of being with show
too Many's the time l have went
down the street in that there Injun
suit and seen how the young fellers
would of give all they owned to be
me- And every now and then you
would hear one say when you went
past:
"Huh, l know him. That's one of
them show fellersv
One afternoon we pitches Our tent
right on the edge of little town called
Athens. We was nigh tho bank of q
crick, and they was grove there. We
was camped jest outside of wood lot
fence, and back in through the trees
from US they was house with hedge
fence all around it. They was apple
trees and all kind Of flower bushes and
things inside Of the hedge. The second
day we was there takes walk back
through the wood lot and along past
the house, and they was one Of these
here early harvest apple trees splitting
apples through a gap in the fence,
Them is a mighty sweet and juicy
kind Of apple, and picks one up ana
bites into it.
81 think you might have asked 70
It," says some one. ~
fro ho nOntinuo61