Ah, me! those
poor others. And somehow that tramp who has just left us seems to me to
belong to the latter class rather than to the former. But pardon me,
Father, what was it you were just saying? I was so interested in my
tramp that I failed to catch your words."
"I merely remarked," returned the younger priest, smiling, "that you
must see a great many of these nomadic individuals in this quaint little
town of yours. I have been here but a week and that is the sixth
villainous looking rascal who has presented himself and demanded
something to eat."
"Yes, a large number of tramps pass through here in the course of a
year, for we are on the direct road between the two largest cities of
the State. Many of them are, as you say, villainous looking, but I do
not think they are half as bad as they look. In fact, in some cases, I
have found them to be pretty good fellows once you had passed the rough
exterior and reached the real man underneath."
"You must have had some very interesting experiences with these tramps
of yours; have you not, Father?" asked the younger man curiously. "I
wish you would tell me some of them."
Father Anthony shifted his chair so as to command a better view of the
road. He watched in meditative silence until the tramp had become a mere
blot upon the whiteness of the dusty road and had finally disappeared
over the brow of a distant hill.
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