e veranda steps, following with his
eyes the slouching figure that had just passed through the gate and was
tramping slowly along the county road. Then, with a sigh he returned to
his seat and, running his fingers through his hair, remarked half
absently:

"Poor fellow, he looked almost exhausted. I tried to persuade him to
remain here a little longer and rest for a spell. What a life theirs is!
Some of them, of course, really enjoy it, but others----. Ah, me! those
poor others. And somehow that tramp who has just left us seems to me to
belong to the latter class rather than to the former. But pardon me,
Father, what was it you were just saying? I was so interested in my
tramp that I failed to catch your words."

"I merely remarked," returned the younger priest, smiling, "that you
must see a great many of these nomadic individuals in this quaint little
town of yours. I have been here but a week and that is the sixth
villainous looking rascal who has presented himself and demanded
something to eat."

"Yes, a large number of tramps pass through here in the course of a
year, for we are on the direct road between the two largest cities of
the State. Many of them are, as you say, villainous looking, but I do
not think they are half as bad as they look. In fact, in some cases, I
have found them to be pretty good fellows once you had passed the rough
exterior and reached the real man underneath."

"You must have had some very interesting experiences with these tramps
of yours; have you not, Father?" asked the younger man curiously. "I
wish you would tell me some of them."

Father Anthony shifted his chair so as to command a better view of the
road. He watched in meditative silence until the tramp had become a mere
blot upon the whiteness of the dusty road and had finally disappeared
over the brow of a distant hill. Then he spoke in tones of reminiscence:

"It was on just such a May evening as this, clear and beautiful only
much cooler, that I sat in this very chair and watched the road as I am
doing now. But on that evening I watched anxiously, divided between
hopes and fears, for the figure that was so long in coming; I was
watching for Jim, the tramp. Jim had promised faithfully, but with some
men promises are made only to be broken. I began to fear that Jim was
one of these. Still I prayed fervently and continued to hope, though the
twilight deepened and brought no sign of my vagrant.

"My meeting with Jim had come