The Southern herald., 1913-07-18
BY GEORGE AoE.

mates were sitting near the windows
reading morning newspaper. They
had torn the paper into sheets and
divided 1t. The man who had drawn
the small lads" was dIscontented.
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"
III you're alive, it follows that
you're kicking. How long has It been?'
"A year, next month"
"You had to go crooked at last, did
your"
well, that's what they called it,
I'm lucky they didn't hang me. Some
of 'em wanted to-"
Tell me what you done. l amt the
court"
Say, listen, an see If you ever
heard the likes before. 1t was in Oc-
tober, year ago last October. I'd
walked from Loueyville to Terry Hut
with a 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 Danville. Some time in the night
q brakeman seen US an fred US out.
I'd been asleep an the first thing l re-
member was fallin' 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 a side
track and a chute for loadin' hogs.
About a mile off we could see some
lights an we judged as we was near
a purity good-sized town. Me an the
coon started to walk toward town an
then l stopped him an ses:
"'Here, IL we go to drillin' around
town at this time of night an one Of
them country coppers catches a peep
at US, he'll shoot us first and then ask
Us cur 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 l was sayin' this, we
happened to be walkin' along past tall
fence. l looked through the cracks
an could see one or two lights quite
a distance of an right near US was a
long bulldin' that looked something
like a barn. 1t was gettin' chilly an l
Bes to this pardner Of mine:
Coon, gimme boost over the fence
an / think we can find warm place
here
80 we skinned over the fence an
come to the building. 1t was long
one, still thought it was barn. We
walked around, lookln' for a door or
window, so we could crawl in. At
last this pardner of mlne-his name is
JEFF an I'll kill him II ever l lay eyes
on him again-Jeff found little door
that wasn't locked an we went in,
ieelin our way along, thinkin', you
know, that we might find some hay
or straw to sleep on. Purity soon JEFF
fell over somethin' an l 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 l reached out, an
what do you suppose l took hold Of
there in the pitch dark? This amt nc
dream I'm tellin' you. What do you
think l took holt of? A plate with
about dozen biscuits on it. Now,
amt no crook an l never broke into
a house to steal anything, but III
leave this to you. If you hadn't had
anything to eat for eighteen hours an
should happen to crawl into barn al
night an reach out into the dark an
find a dozen light biscuits, would you
eat 'em or throw 'em away?"
"I'd prob'ly eat EN-" was the re
ply,
That's what l done, except what
give to JEFF. He found a match in his
close an struck it, and we saw II
front of us a wooden shelf covered
with pies and cakes an all kinds o
cooked stuff The match only burned
for a minute, but we made out tina
much. Jeff found a plate of butter
an we ct the biscuit with butter an
amt tasted anything like 1t since
run away from home in Lowell thirt!
years ago. Then Jeff broke a cak,
In half an give me part Of it. 1t wal
kind of dry eatin', but we put lots o
butter on it. s'pose l ought to haV,
stopped an remembered that all thi