THE TRAMP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6072, 8 January 1898, Page 1

THE TRAMP.

(Australasian.) Ho sat by the roadside and gazed vaguely along the road by which he had come. His boots were in holes, his trousers and shirt ragged, the old blue blanket in his swag was threadbare. A lump of tobacco lay in his cheek, and he turned it over meditatively, then shook his head. "No work, ain't wanted 'ere, get out, don't like the looks of yer !" he muttered. "They all say it, one way an' another." He always talked to himsolf, sometimes out loud, at others only in a murmur; occasionally he laughed, but there was nothing mirthful in it. " Don't like th«j looks o' me. I never did set up fer a beauty, but I don't see what looks 'aye to dowithmilkin'. Cross eyes don't sour the milk." His face was pitted with small-pox scars,, he squinted, his teeth had nearly all disappeared, and his straggling hair and whiskers were dull, lifeless red. " I 'aye the rheumatics, and me shoulder's pretty bad with that old strain. Nobody wants me on the place, damn 'em." He laughed, and a couple of children shrank into the nearest paddock, and ran away as fast as their legs would carry fchem, but he had not noticed them. " What was we born for, kicked when we was little nippers, knocked on the 'cad by a rope's end at sea, runnin' away an' lookin' for work, lookin' for work, lookin' for work. Beggin' a meal . An' there's 'undreds like me on the roads, dead or alive, 'oo cares. ' Workin' or beggin' to live, an' livin' an' beggin t' work." The hot wind raised little whirls of dust on the road. Below, in the valley, the iron roofs of Gundrook**glistened white in the sun. A few yards^away stood the big iron gates at the entrance of a drive. The tramp had been through them and been roughly ordered oufc. There was no work there for a disreputable creature, Such as he was, they had told him. A fox terrier had barked at him, bitten athis heels, and he had turned and kicked the little beast, sending it away howling dismally. The master of the place had appeared then, and sworn at him ; and used as he was to such epithets, several of them rankled still, and set his dull pidse throbbing a. little faster.. He was only forty-five, but ■he was an old man. Hard living, occasional wild sprees, want of food, and shelter, continual rhomiiatism, had ruined him mentally and physically. ■His pockets were empty!, he had no_ owned even a copper for weeks ; food and tobacco he had begged on the road. He was glad the -warm weather had come; cold he dreaded more keenly than anything, for then joints and muscles seemed to be on fire. Sometimes it became almost impossible to walk, and he would lie hidden in some bam or shod, aching and shivering, muttering and cursing to himself. " I've been ringer on Carngallook three years runnin' ; I'll milk with any man, an' before I was all tied in knots with rheumatics there wasn't a horse in Australia I'd bin afraid to cross, an' now ." He shook his head. The iron gates were flung open, and through them dashed a handsome pair of horses and a dogcart, driven by the master of the place, and beside him sat a girl. The tramp had been leaning en his elbow ; he rose to look at them as * they passed. The horses took fright at the queer figure, shied, reared, the vehicle was upset, and its occupants thrown out. A groom, who had been shutting the gates, hurried to the rescue. The girl was frightened but unhurt, the man had a slight cut on his face ; the horses had come to a standstill, and the vehicle was uninjured. Tbe tramp rose to his feet, dazed and apologetic. He was certainly a miserable, villainous-looking object. "I'll have you arrested," yelled the man, as the girl tied a handkerchief over the cut. "It wasn't my fault, sir. I " " Not your fault, you blackguard. Why, you're rolling drunk; you can hardly stand." , . "I'm stiff with rheumatics, sir. I'm sorry to have frightened the lady." "You'll have plenty of time to nurse your sorrow in the lockup." The girl glanced at him, then turned away in disgust. "What an awful creature," she said, and her words reached the tramp. Two other men had appeared to assist with the horses. " Jones," the master of the place turned to one of them, " take this fellow into the township and put him under arrest on a charge of being drunk, disorderly, and frightening horses, thereby endangering our lives." The tramp seated himself by the roadside. He did not much care whether he were in gaol or nofc. He had been there before, and ifc was better than the roads. He had expressed his sorrow at what had happened. He knew he was not to blame, but he had no expectation of being able to prove it. He was glad the man's face was bleeding ; but he just gazed vaguely down fche road after Jones, and turned the quid of tobacco over in his check. "You low vagabond. I'll get you three months with hard labour if I can." "Ah !" The tramp did not even glance at him. "I'd give .£SO if I 'ad it fer tho pleasure of trimmin' up the other side o' yer ugly face; bufc I'm all broke up with want o' food an' rheumatics, an' I'd as soon be in gaol as out, fer I'm starvin ', an' it's slow work starvin' is — slow work, an* the ole gentleman 'imself must 'aye invented rheumatics, the -^ — " But the man turned away impatiently. " The confounded blackguard is drunk. Come, the horses are ready. The men will see he does .not clear out before Jones comes ba_xM*^th th*6 policeman." "ThereV H somethin'_. I *Vrong. I wantwork, so I'm,., put itLpgaol. But what matter ; there's blankets an' tucker there. But there's somethin' -.wrong with the world when its down--_t a feller fer bein' ugly and rheumaticky." Nearly forty years have elapsed since the Queen witnessed a horse-race. Her Majesty was present with the Prince Consort on fche occasion of the running for the Ascot Stakes, in 1859, and after the event sent for the winning jockey, a lad named Bell, and presented him with &£lO note, which, it is understood, has never been sashed, but- is still -preserved by the Bell family. W. Stbangb and Co.'s registered orantt "•Excelsior" clothing for boys, youths Md Hen— is cheapest and best. I