| Show Watch For By LOLA STOUT It seemed an unusually large number of transients found their way to our little farm home in Central Perhaps it was because we were located on the main highway before the new road was and were within two blocks of the railroad 1 GRANDMA said we had which was supposed to be some mysterious mark put on a gate or tree by a which hi tramp sign language is a good You will be And it No one was ever turned from my grandmother's She could be one of my own Young and tall and bearded and clean pleasant and all of them were a source of curiosity and sometimes fear to my brother and USUALLY they would chop some wood or do some other easy chores for their Some were professional tramps had never heard of the of the others were down on their and trying to find work by moving This was before the days of organized When a family was ih they were in real trouble unless they had friends or relatives who could MOST of our guests moved on after a a few stayed a night or two to sleep in our One was He became a regular summer As the days slipped from spring into early we would begin to watch for I think Uncle Pat gave him the name and I never knew him by any I was a very small child when he first called at our and a teenager when he left for the last ONE DAY we would see his topless shaded by a huge canvas coming down the We could hardly contain our excitement and after the first year or would run to meet The buggy was pulled by his faithful Betty had a deformed tongue that hung from the side of her but she was a sturdy animal and probably logged more in her than a cross-country airlines THE Kaiser was a tinker and his buggy was hung with the tools of his soldered necessary service in those and sharpened scissors and to eke out his precarious He and Betty wintered in the When the weather they began the long trip north and going a little farther each until they reached us in Central THE Kaiser's first visit was He in our granary and ate his meals with while Betty rested and ate her Then he moved on to another But each the visits grew Finally he set up a tent in our orchard and stayed the he did his own but he was a frequent guest at our We weren't too keen about as the Kaiser a strong aversion to soap and water and Betty usually smelled better than he ONE YEAR he told took a bath down South a couple of months and caught a and I can't get rid of It was obvious that he didn't intend to be that reckless he did bow to washing his As the years he had permanent summer quarters in our His hair had turned from gleaming black to mixed and his shoulders had grown noticeably Each visit became longer and one year as summer faded to autumn and autumn to he stayed 1 guess we were the only family he WE NEVER found out much about He soldered his pots and and kept his He loved sit in the house in the evenings and visit with Grandpa and watch us kids at our but though he learned all about he remained an Of course the town kids were curious at and occasionally teased Al- ways he had no patience with perhaps because other kids in other places had I endured my share of teasing because of this strange man who had adopted But I learned to take it philosophically and after a while the kids grew weary of their THE STORY ended as it One day the Kaiser rode out of our lives and disappeared as quietly as he had He said he thought he would go back as the cold winters were too hard on We said the usual see you next But we never saw him Perhaps he and Betty were just too old and tired to make the long journey I always wherever they spent their last that they found who at least a Is |
