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Show Four Acres of Thistles -K By CARL JENKINS (Copyright, ion. by Associated literary Presi.) "This seems to be about the record," rec-ord," said the man with iron-grey hair as he turned to the young man of twenty-two standing before him. "Twenty-two years old. Just squeezed squeez-ed through high school. Just squeezed through preparatory. Sent down from college for falling behind. Tried It again, and now expelled for rufflan-lsm. rufflan-lsm. Never did a day's work. Don't know beans. Neveril amount to shucks. Pet of his mother. Can Jump and box and row. If sent to buy live cent's worth of candy wouldn't know how to do it. What have you got to say?" "Nothing much, father, except as to the ruffianism," was the reply. "I'm not a ruffian, though I admit to being a general failure." "Would anybody but a ruffian help to kidnap a professor and then ride him around on a Jackass?" "That was Just a college prank, father." "Oh, it was! And greasing the stairs and sending the Janitor from top to bottom and breaking his ribs was another!" "But we made up a purse of $250 for him." "And blowing up the professor of mathematics with a dynamite mine as he crossed the campus that was another an-other nice little prank for a cent, wasn't it?" "He didn't go up over six feet." "It wasn't your fault that he didn't go sixty. Ames, you've reached the limit." "Yes?" "I own a stone quarry, as you know, and I want laborers. I'll give you two dollars a day, but you'll have to work ten hours a day to earn your wages, and hustle at that." "I think," replied the young man after a moment's silence, "I think it would do me good to travel and see the country." "But you can't play Pullman palace car tourist at my expense." "No, father. I shall turn tramp." "Do you good. Here's fifty dollars to pay for bed and board when you have to. Better be a tramp than a The Mad Beast Racing Up With Growls. nobody. You will at least learn the art of robbing hen-roosts and pulling turnips." That was three months before a county constable riding along a highway high-way a hundred miles from the Chester home caught sight of a tramp resting rest-ing under a bush in the afternoon and called to him: "Move on, you, or I'll have you In Jail!" "Oh, I don't know," was the indifferent indif-ferent reply. "But I do. 1 don't take sass from your sort I" The man with a nlckle star pinned conspicuously to the lapel of his coat drew rein, pulled out a pair of handcuffs hand-cuffs and advanced upon the tramp and reached out for him. Next moment mo-ment he was standing on his head, his feet being held up in the air. He did some kicking and was turned end-for-end. He made some bluster and was tosued into his buggy and the horse urged to hurry up and get seme-where. seme-where. Then the tramp wandered along. He was hungry, and he would have stopped at the big house he soon name to and had a chat with the cook, except that he saw a girl In r hammock ham-mock on the veranda. He wasn't exactly afraid that she would bite, but he had on a blue woolen shirt and a rough suit and hadn't shaved for four lays. Other tramps he had met on the road had dubbed him with the title of "Gentleman Jim." They hadn't charged him with carrying a tooth-, brush, but they had found out that he combed his hair at least once in two days, and no one had offered to "chum up" with him! Forty rods beyond the residence of Judge Horton, for this the big house was and It was his daughter Edith in the hammock, the tramp sat down again. There was no hurry. On his left was a four-acre lot grown up to thistles, and it was a bit of scenery for the wayfarer. His eyes had roamed over the field when they were brought back to the highway to rest on a big mastiff coming towards him on the Jump. "Mad dog!" whispered the tramp after watching for a moment. Head held high eyes a fiendish green slavering at the mouth. Those were the true signs. The tramp stood up and grasped the stout stick by which he carried his old satchel over his shoulder. The dog came straight at him, but at the last moment swerved aside and passed on. He was half-blind In his agony, and he may have taken the man for a shadow. "Gate open and girl in the ham- ' mock!" whispered the tramp. "Will he turn in? If he does she will scream, and what then? I musn't take chances!" The dog had forty rods to go by the road, and the man, by leaping the fence and making a short cut had. only about twenty-five. One Jump and he was over the fence, and then he struck a cinder-track gait. The dog stopped for a few seconds at the gate and then turned in. Just then the girl sat up in the hammock, and seeing both tramp and dog she screamed. The tramp let out another link, and he was at the foot of the steps when the mad beast came racing up with growls of agony or anger. With a full swing of his stick the tramp bowled the dog over, and three or four more blows finished him. "What what is It!" demanded the girl. "Just a mad dog, miss," was the reply re-ply as the dusty outing cap was lifted. "He's dead and there's nothing to fear." "But I want to know." "Just a mad dog." And the tramp had reached the gate when Judge Horton and his wife came driving up, and the Judge leaped out and seized the man by the collar and exclaimed: "Hold on, here! I want to know what's been going on!" "Don't let him get away, father!" cried Edith as she came running. "What's he done " "Why, he killed a big mad dog that was after me! I want to know his name and make him accept thanks." "Just a mad dog," replied the tramp with a deprecating smile. The Judge handed him a $20 bill, and when It was refused he cast around to give a reward in some other way. "Look here," he said after a bit, "there's four solid acres of thistles over there belonging to me. I want 'em cut down and rooted out. I'll give you $10 an acre to do it, and you can get board with-the farmer Just below." The next day the tramp went to work with scythe and spade, and it was a twenty-days' Job he had. Three or four times in that stretch Judge Horner visited the field and tried to draw the worker out, but he did not succeed very well. On two occasions Miss Edith called him to the roadside fence to praise and pump, but all the Information she got made a brief report re-port to her father! "Say, papa, you know I studied Greek?" "It was some foiderol like that, i believe." "And I can understand it quite well, and what do you think?" "I think you can't." "And yesterday when I was passing the thistle-Held I heard our tramp swearing in Greek!" "Did, eh? Then I must warn him that all swearing around here must be done-tn English." It was the tramp's last day on hla job when a strange auto rolled up to Judge Horton's mansion, and an hour later his honor and his visitor entered en-tered the Held and walked up to the weary and sunburned toiler. "Ames, I didn't think it was in you!" said the visitor as he held out nil hand. "Father!" "We've kept a little track of you, you see." And Miss Edith? Well a man has only to save a girl from a mad dog and hydrophobia, and then excite her curiosity and romance, and what's the result? Not over a year's courtship before marriage, and It Is emlnentlj proper at that, |