Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 159: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE HOBO. brakeman. Of all the foolish girls, get- ting stuck on a fellow like that because he flirts with you when his train goes by!” The woman’s high-pitched speech was interrupted by the sound of feet on the stoop outside. After a few minutes, dur- ing which was heard the splashing of water, the swish of a towel, and the mumble of masculine voices, two men appeared in the doorway. The first was old Frank Selby, his over- alls and shirt wet from lately spilled milk. He was Edna’s uncle. A ne’er-do-well ap- proaching old age without money or family of his own he had resorted to his sister, when her husband, of whom he had been even more afraid than he was of Mrs. Gilpin, had died. He helped about the farm for food, shelter, clothes and tobacco. He shuffled aside with a glance of hos- tility at the other figure entering the room. This was a young man, rather slim, dark and retiring. He was not nearly so good jooking as Walter, Edna observed, and he did not have that easy, dashing manner. Mrs. Gilpm gave him an appraising scru- tiny, greeting him with a sharp ‘“ Good morning,” though she spoke affably enough to him as the four ranged themselves about the table. He responded in a pleasant, re- spectful tone. His name was Harry Aller- man, he said, and he had been working around the country as a farm hand the last year or so since he left his home in Illinois when his mother died. He smiled as he talked, smiling from the woman to the daughter and old Frank, in spite of the grouchiness of the man, the severity of the mother, or the detachment of the girl. He praised the food, the cooking and vented mild wonder over the well kept farm and the sleek cattle and hogs. Mrs. Gilpin accepted the compliments with reserve, yet Edna could note an imperceptible softening in her mother’s attitude toward the new- comer as the meal progressed. “T’ll have steady work at good wages until snow flies, with perhaps a place through the winter for a good boy who is not afraid to hustle,” said the widow, her keen eyes on the young man. “That’s just what I am looking for,” he averred. 949 “Seems like a nice fellow,” cautiously re- marked Mrs. Gilpin to Edna as the kitchen door closed behind the two men. “If he turns out to be all right you had better pay some attention to him instead of flirt- ing with some good-for-nothing trainman. If you wasn’t so stiff and fussy you could have one of these well-to-do farmer boys, but nobody’s going to warm up to such an iceberg as you. You'll be a regular old maid the first thing you know, and it’s a pity, for you are good looking and smart. Now, this boy, I could tell, seemed to take a fancy to you and it wouldn’t hurt for you to be nice to him.” Edna heard but little of this. She was thinking of Walter and she hated to have to listen to her mother’s endless scolding about becoming an old maid. It was Mrs. Gilpin’s favorite plaint, for she grieved that her daughter did not attract the boys. To the woman’s old-fashioned notions nothing was so much of a disgrace to a girl as not to get a man. If a woman didn’t get married people would think there was something ter- ribly wrong with her. The mother continued to talk about the new hand to Edna, for as days passed he showed himself industrious, competent and careful as well as sociable and eager to please. He particularly impressed the farm woman by his gentle treatment of the stock. And as she either liked or did not like a person, she sang Harry’s praises without reserve. But Edna was too much perturbed at sudden failure to sight Walter on his train to pay much attention to Allerman. Then one morning soon after his coming to the farm, she chanced to observe the high- crowned hat he wore, the same kind of a hat as that belonging to the tramp the brakeman had kicked off the train. The hired man was that tramp! So he was just a common hobo, this per- son her mother deemed so fine! Well, may- be she wouldn’t hear so much about him when she told what he was. She opened her mouth to voice her dis- covery, then turned away with the words unsaid. Somehow she couldn’t be so mean. This was a nice boy in spite of her mother’s sudden fancy for him, and she didn’t want COMicloo <SiiGO in