"Dan said: 'What kind of a chap is he, anyway? I kind of want to know,
as he is a neighbor of mine.'
"'Well,' the man said, 'I will tell you, and then you can judge for
yourself. I never heard him swear or knew of his telling a lie; he don't
drink or tell smutty yarns, or have anything to do with bad women. The
boss says he works well, and when he is not at work he never joins the
boys in their foolish talk. He is by himself a great deal, praying, I
reckon, but he is very sociable if any one will talk sense. Let me tell
you what he did which will show you what kind of a man he is. One cold,
chilly night in December, when we were all sleeping in the barn, each
man having his own blankets, the boys had just turned in when a tramp
came in and asked if he could sleep in the barn. One of the boys said,
'Yes.' The fellow lay down on the hay without any blankets, and as soon
as he was laid down his teeth began to chatter and he shook all over,
for he had a chill. Penloe instantly got up and lit a lantern, took his
blankets over to the tramp and said: 'Here, brother, you have got a
chill. Take my blankets and roll yourself up in them; you will be better
in the morning.' From where I lay I could just see the tramp's face, for
Penloe was holding the lantern so the light went on his face. The fellow
looked up at Penloe thunderstruck. I guess he never had a man speak to
him that way before. He said: 'Well, stranger, you are mighty kind.' So
Penloe helped him to roll the blankets round him, and then he went and
lay down on the hay himself without any covering. The boys did a heap of
thinking that night, but said nothing. The next morning Penloe asked the
tramp how he was, and he said he slept pretty well, but he looked real
miserable, as though he had not had a good square meal for a month and
was weak from chills. Penloe said to the tramp: 'You stay here till I
come back,' and he went to see the boss and told him there was a sick
tramp in the barn, and would he let him stay there and eat at the same
table with us till he got well and strong, and that the boss should take
the tramp's board out of his wages. The boss asked a few questions,
studied awhile, then said, all right, he didn't care. Penloe went back
to the tramp and told him he had seen the boss and he could stay there
till he got well and strong, and to eat his meals with them and it would
not cost him a cent. Tears came in the tramp's eyes, and he tried to
say, 'Thank you, stranger.'
"During the day one of the men told the boss what Penloe had done last
night; about giving his blankets up to a tramp and laying all night
himself without any covering. After supper the boss called Penloe and
told him there was a bed for him in the house, and he wanted him to
sleep in it as long as the tramp was here, and as for the tramp, he
would let the fellow stay here and board till he got a job in the
neighborhood. He would not charge a cent for his board to Penloe. He
himself had no work for the tramp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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