"Dan says Penloe is like his mother in regard to tramps. Why, that woman
was all alone, and a tramp called at her house to get a job of work. He
said work was scarce and he had no money and needed some food; that he
was hungry. He told Dan some time afterwards that before she replied she
gave him a close look all over. He said her eye seemed to penetrate him,
and after scrutinizing him very closely, she said: 'Come in, friend, you
can stay here till you can find work.' She set before him plenty of
good, hearty food, put a napkin to his plate, and talked to him
interestingly about matters which seemed to make him feel that he was a
better man. What do you think Mrs. Lenair had him do, Mrs. Herne? Why,
he was shown into the bathroom, and given one of Penloe's night-gowns,
and after he had taken his bath she had him sleep in her spare bedroom.
'Why,' I said to Mrs. Lenair, 'how could you do such a thing? I would no
more have done it than I would have slept in a room with a rattlesnake.'
"She said, 'Mrs. Cullom, that man is my brother, and I treated him as
such, and that thought was so impressed on his mind that it touched his
better nature, and he could only think of me with the best and purest of
feelings. I know that it was impossible for that man to hurt me. I fear
no human being in this world.' The tramp stayed at her house for five
days, and at the end of that time he got a chance at harvesting on the
Thornton ranch. When he came to take leave of Mrs. Lenair, she said to
him: 'You have put in five good full days' work, and here is five
dollars for you'--handing him a five-dollar gold piece. He said: 'You
did not hire me to work, and for what little I have done you have paid
me a thousand times more than it is worth, in your conduct towards me.
You took me, a poor, miserable, worthless, homeless tramp into your
home, as if I had been your own brother, and you acted the true sister
towards me. Now I wish to play the brother's part by giving you my work.
It is the only thing I can do to show you how I appreciate your sisterly
kindness toward me. I can earn all the money I need now at the Thornton
ranch. I shall never forget you, because you are the only woman I ever
met that received me and treated me as a sister would her brother; and
if you ever need any work done on your place, and you have not the money
to pay for its being done, remember I am your brother, and will do it
gladly; more so than if you paid me two dollars a day.' She thanked him
and said he had better take the five dollars, and laid it down on the
table for him to take. He said he never would take it, and left it
there. His last words to her were, 'I am going to be a new man.'
"Dan was on an errand to her place while the tramp was there. He saw him
working in the orchard as if he was trying to do two days' work in one.
Dan said he couldn't hire a man to work as he was working.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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