242 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



hardly out of sight when, in spite of the case-hardening my 

 nature had undergone, my heart swelled within me at the 

 thought of some of his kindly acts during our tramp life, and I 

 was sorry I had not been more lavish of my demonstrations 

 at parting. I never saw nor heard from " Scottie " afterward. 



I felt really lonesome and down-hearted that night when I 

 went to sleep in my dingy room in the barn. I was practically 

 alone on the sixteen hundred acre ranch. I longed for the 

 unappreciated company of Dick, with his wild yarns ; or his 

 accounts of his heart smashing exploits in his native land — 

 for Richard was something of a Don Juan. I sighed for the 

 quiet company of " Scottie," generally taciturn, but sometimes 

 rising to feats of droll humor. With the exception of Old Tom 

 I had no company now. No sound was heard save what he 

 made crunching his owner's wild oats, (his own he had sown 

 long since) or when, his scanty rations eaten, he gnawed the 

 manger. A steady old boy was Tom, though a little trickey 

 withal. When the barley approached the bottom of the hogs- 

 head we turned him out to grass, and, consequently, I had to 

 catch him every morning to haul water. At such times who 

 so trying as Tom? Hither and thither I ran. Now I had 

 him and now I hadn't ! I would pen him in a fence corner 

 and then he would be like the Hibernian flea. At last we 

 would come to a mutual understanding and get to work. Poor 

 Tom ! with all his faults I loved him still, particularly when 

 I wanted to catch him. If yet alive, may he get all he wants 

 of his favorite soaked barley ; if dead, may he be among the 

 green pastures of the equine Elysian Fields ! 



I said no noise disturbed me save Tom's jawing. Let me 

 hasten to unsay this. I was afflicted with rats in the worst 

 form, with no " Pied Piper of Hamelin " to come to me with 

 his aid, and whisk them away with the presto ! of his tuneful 

 reed. Not in units, twins nor triplets did they come only, 

 but in swarms like the locusts of old. They reserved all their 



