ion. All were smoking either disreputable pipes or rolled

cigarets. Blear-eyed and foxy-eyed, bearded and stub-

bled cheeked, young and old, were the men the youth

looked upon. All were more or less dishevelled and

filthy; but they were human. They were not dogs, or

bulls, or croaking frogs. The boy's heart went out to

them. Something that was almost a sob rose in his

throat, and then he turned the corner of the building

and stood in the doorway, the light from the fire playing

upon his lithe young figure clothed in its torn and ill-

fitting suit and upon his oval face and his laughing

brown eyes. For several seconds he stood there looking

at the men around the fire. None of them had noticed

him.

"Tramps!" thought the youth. "Regular tramps." He

wondered that they had not seen him, and then, clear-

ing his throat, he said: "Hello, tramps!"

Six heads snapped up or around. Six pairs of eyes,

blear or foxy, were riveted upon the boyish figure of

the housebreaker. "Wotinel!" ejaculated a frowzy gentle-

man in a frock coat and golf cap. "Wheredju blow

from?" inquired another. "'Hello, tramps'!" mimicked a

third.

The youth came slowly toward the fire. "I saw your

fire," he said, "and I thought I'd stop. I'm a tramp, too,

you know."

"Oh," sighed the elderly person in the frock coat.

"He's a tramp, he is. An' does he think gents like us has

any time for tramps? An' where might he be trampin',

sonny, without his maw?"

The youth flushed. "Oh say!" he cried; "you needn't

kid me just because I'm new at it. You all had to start

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