.. he might need your
help."
I thought cautiously. Evidently he knew nothing of my father's having
been sent home by his lodge. I affected to be perturbed....
"In that case--could you--advance me my fare to Haberford?"
I'd wangle a _few_ dollars out of him.
My grandfather's answer was a silent, granite smile.
"--just want to see what you can cajole out of the old man, eh? No,
Johnnie--I'll leave you to make your way back in the same way you've
made your way to Washington ... from all accounts railroad fare is the
least of your troubles."
My whole hatred of him, so carefully concealed while I thought there was
some hopes of putting through my educational scheme, now broke out--
"_You"_--I began, cursing....
"I knew that's the way you felt all along ... better run along now, or
I'll say I don't know you, and have you taken up for soliciting alms."
* * * * *
Before nightfall I was well on my way to Philadelphia. For a while I
resigned myself to the life of a tramp. I hooked up with another gang of
hoboes, in the outskirts of that city, and taught them the plan of the
ex-cook that we'd crowned king down in Texas....
I kept myself in reading matter by filching the complete works of
Sterne (in one volume) and the poetry of Milton--from an outside stand
of a second hand book store....
* * * * *
--left that gang, and started forth alone again.
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