The Tramp

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The hobo did not care for money. All he wanted was a chance to live happily, easily and without work. That was why, when he met a runaway convict, he did not surrender him to the authorities. Some years later the hobo again met the convict, seemingly prosperous. Not recognizing his former benefactor, he gruffly refused him alms; but the hobo did not bear him a grudge on that account. In the course of his journey, the hobo met a little girl, who gave him food. Then he repaid the favor by saving her from death under the wheels of an auto. He was injured himself, and it was natural that the farmer and the child should take him in, and nurse him back to health. The former convict was selling wildcat mining stock, and it was unfortunate for him that he sold some of it to this particular farmer. He was also unlucky because the swindle was exposed before the hobo left town. For the hobo knew him, and while the hobo was willing to aid a convict to escape from prison, he objected to allowing him to rob persons who had done him (the hobo) favors. The swindler got the farmer's money, but the hobo made him put it back. And to be sure it got back, the hobo acted as the messenger boy. He didn't give the farmer a chance to offer a reward, but departed in secret to avoid being thanked. Perhaps he should have stayed and tried to make a new man of himself, and the chance was there waiting for him. But he heard the "call of the road," and he preferred that to being a "respected citizen" or a "rising man."