Tramps 
Guildford, and wants to know if we got anywhere 
he can turn ’em in.’ 
*“*T dunno as we have,’ I said. However, 
just at that moment Will came in. ‘Oh, well,’ 
he says, ‘if he can’t go no further with ’em, I 
don’t mind takin’ ’em along, to oblige Bachelor.’ 
So off he went with ’em. Poor old Will! he 
did have a job, too. They was dead beat, poor 
things; and it took him two hours to go that 
three miles.”’ 
‘“‘ But what about the man?’”’ IJ asked. 
“That’s what I was going to tell you. He 
was a poor old feller—couldn’t get no further. 
You could see he was tired out. His knees 
seemed ready to give way under him. He’d 
just come out of the workhouse that morning, he 
said. He’d got new boots on. He told me, ‘I 
got new boots on, and they have give it to me. 
I thought I could ha’ done it; but I en’t the 
man I thought I was. Can ye give mea lay-down 
for the night?’ ‘No, dang it!’ I says, ‘I’ve 
had too much trouble a’ready with lay-downs. 
You must go somewhere else.’ ‘I can’t git no 
further,’ he says; ‘if you can’t give me a lay- 
down, when I gits out into the road I shall 
drop.’ 
“That beat me altogether. If he went out 
into the road and fell down there, I should have 
to pick ’n up and bring ’n indoors perhaps, and 
41 
