inc OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAX MORNING, , NOVEMBER 21, 1005,
&3g &elen Corinrio Cambridge
: ' ' ' , - '
HI RLEY, sitting out oo the front porch, sewing.
was atartlcd out of her summer afternoon's wak
ing dream by teeing a roan enter the gate. Not
hat tuch sight was unusual, but such' roan
hY came slowly and deliberately up jthe box-
hedged walk towards the house sheWted bim carefully.
Ho was , tall and wore a knickerbocker suit of dull
brown velveteen, with an old slouch hat pulled rakishly
ever his eyes. Around his neck was knotted a red silk'
ihandkerchief, and through his open coat was visible a
iwts.
f As
audible from the rooms beyond. " You may have some
;of"that If you like.".
... "Perhaps your parents will object," the stranger said,
as' if not wishing to get her into trouble by bis request
She could not be over seventeen or eighteen, he thought
"-though in fact she was twenty and therefore wss cer-'
tainly not the mistress of the farmhouse itself. ' ;
"Lhave no parents," Shirley said ,'aimply; "there is
only Aunt Luella." 's ;
-And Aunt Luella?" he interrogated.
"Is away nursing a sick friend. She is the village
- iTlie fiddler looked at the serving-maid quite ,' as'
gravely as he bad looked at the girl on the p6rcb." You
re quite right," he said, "but I really prefer this to a
wood-pile just now "touching his violin. v; - ,
"Of course you da .You tramps is all lazier jhan
cold molasses. ,' But we never' tura no one away hungry;
do we, miss?"-,' . t ',' '.'.'.-v
Shirley said that they did not; and told Hannah to
'Jay an extra plate on the dining-table
V Hannah was horrified. " Land ' sakes I " she ex-
claimed. " You don't mean that you're a-goin' to set
down, with a common tramp off the, road I Why, yer-
she Jiad been led. by his absorbed interest in her every , your aunt might be there, end perhaps well, pernaps'sho'
arri4 fnfA crusalrinnr fit Vim afTaiM 4 a m at ratirv F
TV ws w sinv mymkt tj v av a mmm tu m w 1 A v ') - ' ji
"And X live nowhere," he told her, as If owing her
a confidence in return.," But I have been an orphan,,
too, these many years. The sky is my "mother , and the
earth my Vather,, and the road is my pal ' and fellow ,:
traveler. It goes with me step by '.step, opening outs'
its heart as we go,"always new, strange and alluring.-
i ..... -
It waits for me now at the gate, as you see, and I -must
. , . . -. . ' . '. .
go on. Thank you for a supper that was- meant for' a
king and not for a poor tramp. . '.f- J ": r -
Shirley followed hlra out on the porch. "Won't you
' Onward
" May I waKc by-your side for a few
illue flannel ,hirt, ln 0 hand he carried a violin case,' good angel- - Then she added, a. ; if . she had perhaps down with a common tramp OR troaai vvny yer. , ey ,ouow a mm qk on xne porco. -on , yo,
in' the other .heavy' stick for' walking, and on his, spoken imprudently: "And of coune there is Ben,.thf ; rant will be madder than a wet hen when she hear. ., lay for me ust once mor before you gO?;,.heen
iin the other a heavy stick for walking,
shoulders was strapped a light knapsack.
spoken imprudently: "And of course there is Ben,, the
hjred man, and Hannah, the. hired girl" - 'v
v f - V- ' '
I ' . if -NX f.H
f-: 1 .3 r 7 4 fc " ' -
'' W x 1 w SS ' ; ;
treated. "It has been so long since I heard any really
good music. ; In Washington I used to go to some con
certs, and the opera whenever it came there ; but ndw I
never hear anything better than the 4 Frolic ; of'Jthe
Frogs ' or Silvery Waves? of . the ; village miiaic'
teacher", ', '"v'
. The tramp smiled and again laid his fiddle under his
chin.' , He played in . the twilight now, for 'dusk had
nearly fallen. The west was red still, but a single great ':
sUr burned there. Seeing it he played the evening star
song.' , " O, thou sublime, sweet evening, star!", the
music yearned J and , there seemed, as he " played, a
bridge between earthly thoughts and those strange etnoV
tions born of God. r v.,,
Shirley shut the gate with a little click behind him
at he.fih'ally went out 'but he lingered yet a moment
, ' outsidej as if loath to Jeave the little garden, f '
" Good-higiit," he said reluctantly. J. ' , ;, v
. " And you," the girl exclaimed bluhtly, "you ;who
might not appreciate music
V 1 ' She wouldn't," Shirley laughed, "except
Christian Soldiers'-or 'Old Hundred.'"
."Which, unfortunately," are not n my repertoire," he
laughed in return,
steps?"
- Why not?" the girl answered, 'j .1 '; ;
, "There is no reason, really-he'said in return "The
, road has no conventions, - V i
"We are, three,", she said, smiling,-"you," your paV
and myself. You may walk with me as far as the cross
roads; there by the big willow you shall play: for me
again, and then you can go on.'your own free -way and I
will go back to my conventions," she ended, a little
.sadly. :- ', ,'4'";V';';'V;.v,-', ', ' '
Shirley scanned his face in one swift glance. "YotI .
look different a great deal better," she said,., ;
"lira no longer ill," he told her; and then went on,
' speaking rapidly, f I think I . will tell you part of ray .
story, at least," he said. ;"It will take only few mo-N
,' iments. I should like to have, left you that June day
..with a better opinion of me, but as-it was only an ex
periment I "didn't think I ought to. I am not a trampi
a real hobo, he told her, - gut a very ordinary man in '
the disguise of one. I am Willard Baker, newspaper'
man, at your service." '---t: ;
"And I am Shirley Baker, schoolmistress," he said,
vYes,T know," he answered. "I found out by a few
discreet questions back there in the village to-day. I did
" not do it f or .duriosity, but because I wanted to know the
name of the one "person who, in all my wanderings, has
treated me like an equal A flannel ihirt and knapsack
make lots of difference, cton't they?" he Said a trifle
" bitterly. " v: 4,-y' ' ; :V "' "",:.', ' '-:
k "It's like this," he went on. ,r While on a story one
.'day in ihe Nev York slums I contracted ttyphoid feyer.
play-these beautiful things and Understand them youI had iff for seven months, and when I finally got on my
are an ordinary tramp 1 I cannot believe it." -The
man flushed deeply, and then laughed. '.Then he
said) "Don't think meust an ordinary, tramp, but an
extraordinary one, who likes "erdi and Wagner, and
bread and butter in; plenty, "but4 who most of all likes
and need! . the freedom, of God's out-of-doors." He
lifted his hat, but the held hlra back. ! C f f 1 -:
7" But jt1 isn't always sunrise , or? sunset," she said.
feet again they were about all I had left - The doctors
ifl the hospital said my heart'and lungs were shaky, and
that I must take a long sea voyage, or a summer in the
mountains, and that I must sleep out of doors if possible.
As I had, just fifty dollars to my name the paper had
kept me on the payroll as Jong as they decently could '
,the tiling looked preposterous But, I didn't intend to
- let a little thing like the lack of money keep me down
after fighting for my life all those'monthsi,: So I thought
out the plan of coming up here in- the Berkshfres and
-"It's dark, creepy, night, awthere are fearful, storm j.fwtraniping it for a while. I was studying snusic and
i 'Where do you find shelter such times?" - could play fairly well, and l could draw in a siap-uasn
THE TRAMP TUCKED HIS OLD BiOWN F(DDLK UrDER HIS CHIM AND BIO AN TO FLAY.
'A' peddler," thought Shirley, "or a wandering musi-
Probably the latter though I never saw such a
i-looking one. He has rather a brigandish air, too,
id if he swaggered instead of walking so straightfor-
bvardly.I think Td call for Hannah to come to my
WEsistance." These thoughts passed rapidly thro6gh the
jirl's mind, but her face reflected none of them.
j The stranger, "coming to the foot of the steps and
leeing the girl -for the first time, took off his hat with a
Slow, bow, and she saw that he was very thin, indeed so
Ifcmaciated that his clothes just hung on his body. His
Ejace was white, but a slightly bronzed look was begin
ning to appear, as if he were living out in the sun and
Wind a grot deal nad ft cnrlin brown hair
!nd a high white forehead. These details Shirley added
to her mental inventory of the man before he spoke,
TRhich he did not do until he had deposited his violin
isase on the step of the porch. Noting the girl's gaze he
ieppeared a little confused, for a tIl streak of red
tnounted to his temples, but he said unhesitatingly:
l would like to ask for a dinner bere, if I may."
Shirley drew her brows together in annorance at this
"Speech. It had not been what she expected, though she
coo!4 'not hare told why. She was ashamed of the
tnonentiry interest the man had awakened in her. He
jrasva mere tramp, after a!L . '
'And," he continued, "I can pay for it in either cf
'.:jee ways : one, by j taring some tunes on my fiddle
Z.trt, another, by making you a little peit-and-ink sketch .
c f yorr haotc, and the third, is vulgar peace thongh
Z.3 that iry limit is ff'.een cents for a meal"
' riiirUy laughed unaii!y. Dinaer b owtt bocrs asxf
; ours as si e answered. In fart, 1 think surper is
. '.it iy ecw" for a cbeerfsl rattle cf diibea wss -
"Thank you," the man replied. "Then what is the
price to be a tune, a penny, or a sketch ? "
"The tune, if you please." -
The tramp opened his violin case, took out an old
brown fiddle, tucked it. under his chin and began- to
play. It was early summer. The dooryard was rife
with roses, and the porch thickly screened by Japanese
honeysuckle vines; and as he played their combined
fragrance, stirred by the soft summer breeze, smote his
senses like an intoxicant
Ah, indeed, how he played 1 The girl sat listening,
her hands folded quietly in her lap, her thoughts far
away. He questioned as he saw her abstracted look
whether she understood music. He could not tell, for
Shirley's face did not reflect her emotions.
He was soon enlightened, however, for as he con
cluded she said rather timidly: "I don't like Strauss
that is, not for just now. Play me some Italian music;
the kind that fits in with the roses and June."
So the musician played a and on and well earned
his supper, and as he played he wondered if this maiden
in the simple white frock knew she was very beautiful,
with her rose-leaf cheeks and her red-gold hair. Did
she know, too, that her voice was lie a little strain of
a Strauss waltz itself? " Pshaw ! of coarse she does," he
jeered at himself. "She is probably the village beauty
and has half the swains of the countryside at ber feet! "
He brought down his bow with a start as a loud and
diitipctly antagonistic voice from the doorway called
mt "Tea's ready. That there fidget can take his'n in
tbe kitchen whh the hired" man. ' I s'pose what he's
Vincin' 'round next for is omelhia to eat If yrf-rant
araa here ahe'd ptst tsim to work at the wood -file instead
ef aawin that c4d ;ncaky thing." . '
"Please do what I ask yod to, Hannah," Shirley said,
and Hannah flounced off to do as she was bid. -The
man held up his dust-stained hands ruefully, and ,.
Shirley noticed their long, slender fingers. "I Ihink
Hannah is right again," he said, smiling gravely. " I'll
just have a snack in the kitchen."
" I wasn't brought up in that fashion," the girl, an
swered with some spirit " My father always taught us
that the stranger within our gates must share our best
Of course," she added laughingly, "these are Aunt
Luclla's gates, but you are a gentleman even" .
" Even if I am a tramp," he concluded for her. - .
" Youll find a basin and water and soap on the back
porch," she told him. "And Hannah will give you a
clean towel and don't mind her scolding,-please. Han
nah means welL"
As they ate their hot biscuits, omelet, and strawber
ries with cream they said little, but the girl wondered
more and more what sort of man this . could be who
tramped the country, and played for his dinner, yet who .
ate like a gentleman, and certainly talked like one. 1
When he did speak, however, it was only of the country
through which he was passing the' plenitade. of things,
the general prosperity, and the glorious air.
"I don't know very much about this, part of the
world," she told him, in answer to some question he
had put to her. " I've only been here ,a month. Jt's
nice, of course, but these fulls don't take the place of ,
"my blue Virginia mountains. I'ra a Southerner, you
see, but since my father and mother died sereral rears
ago Tra beea at a . boarding-school n Washington.
Now I've come tp here to mother's sister and in the
fall Tsn going to teach in the village school." She
flashed deep'y as she concluded hurriedly, ashajied that
' corrtrsrrT.w ..
The man, as if prompted by a sudden impulse, lifted
his: violin out of its box again. ( "Listen, and I'll tell
you," he said. He played once more, and this time Jie
sang, too, in t deep, rich barytone!
"By road and river, countryside and town .:
I wander daily with rpy fiddle brown,
Creeping under tarns so gladly,
". When outside the tempest how!s,r
PiayingVsadly, playing madly,
, Waking Jip the rats and .owls.
.... " -. ft
Ah, it is gay, night and day'
1 Fair aild cloudy weathef j i
Fiddle and I wandering by
Over the world together, .. '
" Down . by the willow, summer nights tt,
Flowers for my pillow, and for roof the sky,
. Playing all that heart remembers, 4
Old, old songs from far away. .1
- Golden-JunesTantfblealc Decembers, j "
Rise around me as I play. .
( Ah, it is gay, night and day..,.
1 Fair and cloudy weather ; ; v,
v Fiddle and I wandering by i :
Over the world together." ,. ; '. ...
-
7. The -listener's eyes were moist, but she smiled as If
to hide her feeling. "Pomtse me" she said, "that you
will come back this way again this summer .and play.
'forme,", " ' ',' - ''f s CV'-."''
s, The man turned resolutely. "I promise, ' he said,
"God willing." ',.. - ' . s'' . '
He wept at last, but turned once at the. crossroads
where he might have a last sight of the white farm- -house.
. Shirley was; still standing at the gate gazing'
after his retreating form. -;V - t
Jo late September the tramp passed that way again
not the same tramp, for he was made new by the heal-
ingiOf nature. He was no longer thin and pale, but stal
wart and ruddy, and he swung along with the buoyancy
of health. . ''" .'.'- , .
Shirley came from the village, where she had been to
get the mail It was a good mile and a half to the farm
house, but she liked the walk, and better still to get
away from the narrow circle of her aunt's insular but
kindly nature and from Hannah's sharp tongue.: As ."
she got quite out of the village she was surprised, to
'hear, musi coming from behind a great oak-tree fcy.
the side of the road. She stopped suddenly, for she
recognized the songlier "extraordinary tramp l aha
always called him in' her- thoughts had played and
sung for her that June day. Seeing her pause he came
out in the road and bowed to her.
- "I was in the village," he explained, "ar.d saw yea
jro into the post-ofSee, Iame cut heft and waited on
the chance of meeting yoa ?. Vtepwg iry. premise t
rplay for yoa sgsia." He did not teTl her how rany
miles he had corse out cf Ms wsy to keep that prcrrJsa,
"I themght," he contliued, " if I west x t &a 5?bm
sort of way. I thought the two combined might earn
me food enough, though I should have preferred the
more muscular sort of work. I'd have sawed wood
that day, you know," he added quickly, as if he wanted
to explain something particularly, "if I had been able."
"You see,' he concluded, "the experiment has been
a success., I'm on my way back to the city again. The
paper .will give me job, so it's shoulder arms and for
ward march until the next onslaught of fate,.
"I'm so glad I " jShirley said, her eyes lhining.v "X
knew all the time, someway, that you weren't even' that
extraordinary tramp you told me to think you. I used
' to wonder how you were getting on, and shudder nights
'" ..(when there was a hard storm," ;..;-'
You needn't have worried," he replied, smiling back t
" at her. "I would lie in a barn those nights and wonder
Jf you would give me Strawberries and cream when I
came- your way again." i- V
" Hardly," laughed Shirle, "-in September I
, The old brown fiddle was brought into use once again,
and this time its music was a bridge between hearts
young with joy and rich with hope. . :
" Promise me," the player said, when he had finished,
"that I may come this way again and play for yoa. I'll ,
get acquainted with the village preacher, so I can get
him to introduce us for Aunt Luella's sake," he smiled.
" Can you promise ? "
"l promise". said Shirley smiling, "and now good
night" She held out her hand to hmt and he took it for
brief second, and held it in his own; Then she started
homeward in the-dusk!' r'-f-t, :- -V ?;;- ..v..-..- ,:
- From far down the road a strain of music was wafted
, , back a joyful, happy tune, to which the words ol an
bld nursery rhyme had been 6ett. , ; ':'
,; . "Bobby Shaft'o's gone to sea,
v . Silver buckles on his knee ; . -i
. ; He'll come back and marry my '
' ' " Little Bobby Shafto." , ' ; J
:-;-v:;1-k:.v--v-;-- ; ; : '. v.
J.-- T- : ' -
- -, !
'. .,
, -
f-.
!
':
- ;
t
M rr ssAS Aa t'vst, rtsfTvrrs ! t.i u
pAaV WjTH Ml ftMHJ uww,"