LITERATURE

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 962, 26 July 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE

TDK TRAMP. By Bkete Hart. {Conoivdcd,') He stopped out of breath. I was so cm pletely astounded I could say nothing ; the tremendous indictment I had framed to utter an I opened the door vanished completely. And as the most beautiful eyes in the world turned gratefully to mine, we— I still retained euough principle to ask the ladies to withdraw, while I would take upon myself the duty ef examining into the case of my friend, the tramp, and giving him such relief as was required. (I did not know until afterward, however, that he had already despoiled their scant purses of 3dol. 50c.) When the door was closed upon them, I turned upoa him ' You infernal rascal! ' 'Ah, Captain, an' wud ye be refusin' a characther an' me givin' ye such a one as 1 did ? God save us ! but if ye'd have seen the luk that the purty one give ye. Well, before the chills and faver bruk me spirits entirely, when I was a young man, and makin' me tin dollars a week biickmakin' it's meself that wud have given —' ' I consider,' I broke in, ' that a dollar is a fair price for your story, and as I shall have to take it all back and expose you before the next twenty-four hours pass, I think you had better hasten to Milwaukee, New York, or Louisiana.' 1 handed him the dollar. ' Mind, I don't want to see your face again.' 'Yewon't, Captain. And I did not. But it so chanced that, later in the season, when the migratory inhabitants had flown to their hot-air registers in Boston and Providence, I breakfasted with one who had lingered. It was a certain Boston lawyer, replete with principle, honesty, selfdiscipline, statistics, aesthetics, and a perfect consciousness of possessing all these virtues, and a full recognition of their market values. I think he tolerated me as a sort of foreigner, gently but firmly waiving all argument on any topic, frequently distrusting my facts, generally my deductions, and always my ideas. In conversation be always appeared to descend only half way down a long, moral, and intellectual staircase, and always delivered his conclusions over the bannisters. I had been speaking of my friend the tramp. ' There is but one way of treating such impostors ; it is simply to recognise the fact that the law calls him a vagrant, and makes his trade a misdemeanor. Any sentiment on the other side renders you particep criminis. I don't know but an action would lie against you for encouraging tramps. Now I have an efficacious way of dealing with this gentry.' He aros<- and took a double barrelled fowling-piece from the chimney. ' VV hen a tramp appears on my property I warn him off. If he persists I fire on him as I would on any criminal trespasser.' ' Fire on him !' I echoed, in alarm. ' Yes, but with powder only. Of course, he does not know that.' It struck me for the first time that possibly many other of my friend's arguments might be only blank cartridges, and used to frighten off trespassing intellects. ' Of course, if the tramp still persisted I would be justified in using shot. Last evening I had a visit from one. He was coming over the wall. My shot gun was efficacious. You should have seen him run.'

It was useless to argue with so positive a mind, and I dropped the subject. After breakfast I strolled over the downs, my friend promising to join me as soon as he arranged some household affairs. It was a lovely, peaceful morning, not unlike the day when I first met my friend the tramp. The hush of a great benediction lay on land and sea. A few white sails twinkled afar, but slepily; one of two large shijiS were creeping in lazily—like my friend the tramp. A voice behind me startled me. My host had rejoined me. His face, however, looked a little troubled. ' I just now learned something of importance,' he began ; ' it appears that with all my precaution the tramp has visited my kitchen, and the servants have entertained him. Yesterday morning, it appears, while J was absent, he had the audacity to borrow my gun to go duck hunting. At the end of two or three hours he raturned with two ducks and the gun.' ' That was, at least, honest.' ' Yes—That fool of a girl says that, as he hauled back the gun, he told her it was all right, and that he had loaded it up again to save the master trouble.' I think I showed my concern in my face for he added hastily, 'lt was only duck shot; a few wouldn't hurt him.' Nevertheless we both walked on in silence for a moment. ' I thought the gun kicked a little,' he said at last musingly ; ' but the idea of— Halloa ! what's this ?' He had stopped before the hollow, where I had first seen my tramp. It was deserted, but on the mosses there were spots of blood and fragments of an old gown, blood stained, as if used for bandages. I looked at it closely. It was the gown intended for the consumptive wife of my friend the tramp. But my host was already nervously tracking the blood stains that on rock, moss, and boulder were steadily leading toward the sea When T overtook him at last on the shore, he was standing before a flat rock, on which lay a bundle I recognised, tied up in a handkerchief, and a crooked grape-vine stick. ' He may have come here to wash his wounds ; salt is a styptic,' said my host, who had recovered his correct precision of statement. 1 said nothing, but looked toward the sea. Whatever secret lay hid in his breast it kept it fast. What its calm eyes had seen that summer night, it gave no recollection now. It lay there passive, impertubable, and reticent. But my friend the tramp was gone.