look. I said nothing, but you bet I felt mean to be cooped up
there, not able to move, with all the folks laughing at me."

But, in spite of Hub's sad experience, he went off on the tramp again as
soon as he had enough to buy a pair of new boots with.

Tramps--that is, the bad ones among them--are very often insolent when
they find no one but women in the house. Once a man I knew was working
in Indiana, but having a bad headache he remained in one morning.
By-and-by a truculent-looking tramp came along. "Kin you give us suthin'
to eat, ma'am?" he growled. "Certainly," said the woman, who was always
kind to travellers. She set about making him a meal and put out some
bread and meat. The tramp, who certainly did not look hungry, eyed it
with disfavour. "Bah!" said he at last, with intense contempt; "I don't
want that stuff. D'ye think I'm starving? A'nt you got suthing
nice--say, some strawberry shortcake and cream?" The woman stared with
astonishment, as well she might. But the man with the headache heard Mr
Tramp's remarks. There was a shot-gun hanging in the room where he was;
so, slipping off the bed, he reached for the weapon, walked out quietly,
and, thrusting the muzzle of the gun under the tramp's ear, he roared in
a fierce voice "Get!" And, to use the vernacular, the tramp "got"
instantly.

The last story I will tell of tramps is perhaps the most audacious of
all. I met the chief actor in British Columbia. It appears that he and
another man went one Sunday to a very respectable farmhouse in Illinois
to beg for food. They knocked and there was no answer. They knocked
again, and still without avail. Then they opened the unlocked door and
went in. The dining-table was laid ready for a feast, as it seemed, for
it was adorned with an admirable cold collation, including a turkey,
several fowls, and a number of pies. The eyes of my acquaintance and
his partner sparkled. Here was a chance, for the family was at church.
They went out, got a sack, and hastily tumbled into it the turkey, the
fowls, some bread, and the most substantial pies. Just as it was getting
full one looked out of the window and saw a man coming up the path. They
were struck with terror of discovery, but on watching they soon saw that
this was a tramp like themselves. He came up and knocked at the door.
"Can you give me something to eat, sir?" he asked humbly. "I guess so,"
said my acquaintance, coolly; "that is, if you ain't one of the tramps
that w