THE QUAINT CAPE-CODDERS 291 



escape in his chase after the finny tribe, or in his other 

 laborious pursuit of cranberry raising. 



Old Colony Railroad stock is partly held by the na- 

 tives of Cape Cod who look upon it as the great rail- 

 road of the world. It once had a custom of giving to 

 its Cape stockholders a free ticket to Boston and re- 

 turn, on the occasion of the road's annual meeting in 

 that city. A man owning one share had the privilege 

 in common with his more wealthy neighbor; there- 

 fore, if a Cape-Codder had five shares he arranged to 

 have them entered singly for each member of his fam- 

 ily, so all of them might make the annual tour to the 

 " Hub." As time went on and the control of the road 

 changed, this free excursion was abolished, and many 

 and loud were the grumbles of discontent among the 

 people at its abolition. 



I have more than hinted that the average Cape- 

 Codder is not in that comfortable condition which the 

 world calls " well-fixed." In fact, he is very much the 

 other way chronically hard-up. His church-mouse 

 poverty has been the theme of many a quip, and the 

 following one will prove that while the soil of Cape 

 Cod may be too poor to grow a mullein stalk, it is rich 

 enough to raise a poet : 



" There was a young lady of Truro 

 Who sighed for a 'hogany bureau 

 But her pa said ' Great God ! 

 All the men in Cape Cod 

 Couldn't pay for a 'hogany bureau ! ' " 



