The Snowflake herald., 1915-03-12

Tramp
GRACE CLINTOCK

i, cracker, wondering the while
Sor Pg she had ever come to insist that
~ oomD stove was a useless luxury.
y was her first season in camp, and
h, brothers had readily enough
~ won in to her demand for an abso-
isatov correct atmosphere. They had
'. '.mnpd in tents on the little lake
a,toad of in the comfortable wood
=, shack on Lower lake, and they
had cooked in primitive fashion over
I'D open fire.
The boys had done the cooking
,nce they had gone into camp three
weeks before, but it had all seemed
n essv that when they wanted to go
5ovn the lake to the village she had
insisted that it would be no trouble
At all to get her meals.
They had padded away just as the
mp began to tinge the clouds in the
sos and would not be back before
rght. Twice Teddy had spilled the
bacon into the fire, and as a crown
mo accident she had set the coffee
pot wrong, and that, too, was sliding
into the flames, putting out what lit
ts fire there was left. She had not
tried to rebuild the fire, but con-
tented herself with soda crackers and
Drng water while she glanced out
over the lake and wondered why the
time passed SO slowly.
After her disastrous experience
she certainly would not try to get
hot dinner, and already the soda
cracker diet was beginning tc pail.
Life had seemed so easy when the
boys had done the cooking.
A crashing in the underbrush
nused her and she sprang to her
feet, nervouSly handling the revolver
The boys had left with her for protec-
ton. She raised the glistening
Weapon as a man burst through the
hngle Of brush and with a voice that
she tried to make stern commanded
him to hold up his hands.
They went above his head in an
instant and stayed there while he
Pareyed. Teddy knew that the next
ahg was u UInu ner vlcrlm, but
bow to do that and retain the ro-
Dlver was something that was not
hd in books.
He smiled at her look of helpless
ness and came a few steps. forward.
e" am not a tramp or a robber,"
be said, with a flash of white teeth
beneath his mustache. '1 saw a fire
while back and thought that per-
hapS | might beg some breakfast. /
wandered further from our camp
Than | intended. / am on the other
rde Of the ridge on Blue lake."
"There isn't any breakfast" she
ald, forlornly. 'T spilled the bacon
INTO the fire, and then the coffee pot
leII in. l was eating these" She
waved her revolver toward the box
crackers, and the tramp smiled.
"lf you will take my parole" he
saggeSted, "I'll earn my breakfast.
lSeLeve that is the proper thing for
atramp to do"
= Teddy lowered her gun. He prob
lOly was a tramp, but he had nice
J" ana a pleasant smile, and she
I'LL That she could trust him.
one marveled at the dexterity with
'ach he built up the fire. It had
4hen her an hour. There were fish
u ae basket he carried, and as soon
%le had the coffee started and the
"Sult baking, he put these in the
II you will set the table," he
sG $a y III have things ready in a
N 3oF moment Teddy paused. She
,n ~nc quite like the idea of eating
4. ue same table with a tramp, and
" !. ielt that he must be a tramp.
nI 'ls OF the campers she knew wore
MN w outrageous garments. But the
l';1 1 Ol coffee and the frying fish
Iyu Sl;U. her, so she set two plates.
M SSllllully he dished up the fish
=. :. OOk the coffee from the fire. He
H,"1 even more expert than the boys.
'0'0ly that was because he had
NJ lp out the year around.
ntp tIe breakfast put her in an excel
p,t,3 3unor n and when the tramp sug-
Ns1 Nv 'nat If she would lend him a
sQ he mn,,ll