"No more scented soap!" cried the Governor. "No more breakfast-in-bed!
Here's where we get down to brass tacks and let our whiskers flourish!"
He threw a rough suit of clothes on a chair and bade Archie get into it
as quickly as possible. "Jam the other suit into your bag and Wiggins
will ship it with mine to a point we may or may not touch. We shall
leave this thriving city as farm hands eager to step softly upon the
yielding clod. We go by trolley a little way, and if you have never
surveyed the verduous Ohio Valley from a careening trolley car you have
a joy coming to you. A democratic conveyance; plenty of chances to plant
your feet in baskets of fresh-laid eggs or golden butter! But don't
assume that we shall ride all the way; it's afoot for us, Archie! We
shall be tramps seeking honest labor but awfully choosey about the jobs
we take!"
An ill-fitting suit, with a blue flannel shirt and tattered cap
completely transformed him. He surveyed himself with satisfaction in a
cracked mirror while urging Archie to greater haste.
"We'd cut a pretty figure on Fifth Avenue now!" he exclaimed, delighted
to see Archie apparelled in a suit rather less pleasing to the eye than
his own. "We'll roughen up considerably in our travels and by the time
we reach Eliphalet Congdon's broad acres he'll never recognize us as
gentlemen he's met before."
"You don't expect to see the old man, do you?" demanded Archie with a
sinking of the heart. "I thought we were going to find that little girl
and hurry with her to Isabel's camp? This tramping stuff will merely
cause us to lose time."
"We're not going to lose any time. I'm as anxious to be on with the
business as you are; but we're not going to make a mess of it. I've got
some ideas I don't dare tell you about; you might get panicky and run!
Steady, Archie, and trust the Governor."
Trusting the Governor had been much easier while they were traveling in
fast motors or in parlor cars. The trolley with its frequent stops, the
proneness of the plain folk to lunch upon bananas and peanuts and cast
the skins and shells thereof upon the floor pained Archie greatly.
The first night they slept in a barn, without leave, begged a breakfast
and walked until Archie cried for mercy.
"What's a blistered foot more or less!" cried the Governor, producing
an ointment which he forthwith applied with tenderest solicitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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