THE ARTFUL TRAMP.
* Mornin’, miss. Is yer mother in ?’ asked a tramp of the track-walking type to a lady who responded to his knock at the kitchen door. • I am the lady of the house, sir,’ said the plain faced woman he had addressed, and who was about forty years old, and had a wart on her nose. ‘ W-w-what,’said the tramp. ’You don’t mean to tell me yer old enough to be married ?’ ‘ Why, to be sure,’ said the woman, ‘ and I’ve got children old enough to marry.’ ‘Well, well, well! I’ve seen a heap o’ women in my time,’ said he, ‘ but I never seen one as youthful lookin’ as you air who was the head of a family. I kin hardly believe my own eyes. An yer the woman o’ the house air ye ?’ ‘ Yes, sir,’ said she brushing her tangled hair out of her eyes and smoothing the wrinkles out of her apron." ‘ I’d never have guessed you was married,’ said he. ‘ An’ ye have charge o’ the cookin’ and bakin’, and so on? Well, that beats me,' said he. ‘ Just to think that a woman I’d take to be only a mere girl is at the head of a fine house like this, an’ does her own cookin’. I s’pose you know then if there was anything left over from breakfast, don't ye-’ ‘ Yes, sir, there was,’ she replied. ‘ Well, it seems as though I’m askin’ a favour of a young person not old enough to be in authority, but could you gimme a bit to eat ?’ he inquired. A half hour later when he appeared on the street with a square meal safely stowed away beneath his vest, there was a smile on his face that reached from the torn rim of ,his hat clear down to his soiled shirt collar.
Mrs Slimson : ‘Why, Willie, whatever are you doing?’ Willie : ‘ Oh, never mind, ma. I’m just chopping the heels off pa’s slippers, ’cause they hurt.’
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZGRAP18931118.2.51.4
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 46, 18 November 1893, Page 432
Word Count
330THE ARTFUL TRAMP. New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 46, 18 November 1893, Page 432
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Acknowledgements
This material was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries. You can find high resolution images on Kura Heritage Collections Online.