about for a shady place to eat lunch.

She walked up the track to the water tank, and there, in the narrow
shadows cast by the uprights on which the tank stood, she found two
tramps. They sat up and stared at her, heavy with sleep. When she asked
them where they were going, they told her "to the coast." They rested by
day and traveled by night; walked the ties unless they could steal a
ride, they said; adding that "these Western roads were getting strict."
Their faces were blistered, their eyes blood-shot, and their shoes
looked fit only for the trash pile.

"I suppose you're hungry?" Mrs. Kronborg asked. "I suppose you both
drink?" she went on thoughtfully, not censoriously.

The huskier of the two hoboes, a bushy, bearded fellow, rolled his eyes
and said, "I wonder?" But the other, who was old and spare, with a sharp
nose and watery eyes, sighed. "Some has one affliction, some another,"
he said.

Mrs. Kronborg reflected. "Well," she said at last, "you can't get liquor
here, anyway. I am going to ask you to vacate, because I want to have a
little picnic under this tank for the freight crew that brought me
along. I wish I had lunch enough to provide you, but I ain't. The
station agent says he gets his provisions over there at the post office
store, and if you are hungry you can get some canned stuff there." She
opened her handbag and gave each of the tramps a half-dollar.

The old man wiped his eyes with his forefinger. "Thank 'ee, ma'am. A can
of tomatters will taste pretty good to me. I wasn't always walkin' ties;
I had a good job in Cleveland before--"

The hairy tramp turned on him fiercely. "Aw, shut up on that, grandpaw!
Ain't you got no gratitude? What do you want to hand the lady that fur?"

The old man hung his head and turned away. As he went off, his comrade
looked after him and said to Mrs. Kronborg: "It's true, what he says. He
had a job in the car shops; but he had bad luck." They both limped away
toward the store, and Mrs. Kronborg sighed. She was not afraid of
tramps. She always talked to them, and never turned one away. She hated
to think how many of them there were, crawling along the tracks over
that vast country.

Her reflections were cut short by Ray and Giddy and Thea, who came
bringing the lunch box and water bottles. Although there was not shadow
enough to accommodate all the party at once, the air under the tank was
distinctly cooler than the surrounding air, and the drip made a pleasant