n freights ... I found a feeling of sincere companionship ... a
companionship that without ostentation and as a matter of course, shared
the last cent the last meal ... when every cent _was_ the last cent,
every meal the _last_ meal ... the rest depending on luck and
Providence....

* * * * *

Tramps often travel in pairs. I picked up a "buddy" ... a short,
thick-set man of young middle age, of Scandinavian descent ... so blond
that his eyebrows were white in contrast with his face, which was ruddy
with work in the sun. He, like me, was a "gaycat" or tramp who is not
above occasional work (as the word meant then--now it means a cheap,
no-account grafter). He had recently been working picking oranges ...
previous to that, he had been employed in a Washington lumber camp.

* * * * *

Together we drifted along the seacoast south to San Diego ... then back
again to Santa Barbara ... for no reason but just to drift. Then we
sauntered over to San Bernardino--"San Berdu," as the tramps call it....

* * * * *

It struck chilly, one night. So chilly that we went into the freightyard
to put up in an empty box-car till the sun of next day rose to warm the
world.

We found a car. There were many other men already there, which was good;
the animal heat of their bodies made the interior warmer.

The interior of the car sounded like a Scotch bagpipe a-drone ... what
with snoring, breaking of wind in various ways, groaning, and muttering
thickly in dreams ... the air was sickeningly thick and fetid. But to
open a side door meant to let in the cold.

Softly my buddy and I drew off our shoes, putting them under our heads
to serve as pillows, and also to keep them from being stolen. (Often a
tramp comes along with a deft enough touch to untie a man's shoes from
his feet without waking him. I've heard of its being done.) We wrapped
our feet in newspapers, then. Our coats we removed, to wrap them about
us ... one keeps warmer that way than by just wearing the coat....

* * * * *

The door on each side crashed back!

"Here's another nest full of 'em!"

"Come on out, boys!"

"What's the matter?" I queried.

"'stoo cold out here. We have a nice, warm calaboose waitin' fer ye!"

Grunting and grumbling, we dropped to the cinders, one after the other.
A posse of deputies and citizens, had, for some dark re