What I did during the morning and early afternoon I do not recall now;
probably I merely wandered about the streets and took in such sights as
attracted me. Of this much, however, I feel certain: there was no great
_Wanderlust_ in my intentions. My work on the railroad interested me not
a little, and I had already begun to calculate the amount of savings I
should have at the end of the year. As the day wore on I remember
measuring how much time I should need to get back to supper and work,
and up to the middle of the afternoon it was my firm determination to
report for work early. Then--ah yes, then! I saw a horse and buggy
standing idle in one of the main thoroughfares. What it was that
prompted me to get into the buggy and drive blindly onward I cannot say,
even now. As I have remarked, my job was satisfactory, I was my own
"boss" in the daytime, the horse and buggy no more represented personal
wealth to me at the time than did one of the stores, and there was no
reasonable excuse for a wandering trip. But something, strict church
people might say the devil, prompted me to throw over the job, run the
risk of being sent to prison as a horse thief, and to ride away with
buggy and horse for parts unknown. There is no wish on my part to
palliate this crime in the least; I merely want to know why I committed
it. At the moment of driving away it no more occurred to me to turn the
outfit into gold than it did to turn back. On I went for a good hour,
regardless of direction and the police. Then the seriousness of my
offense gradually began to dawn on me. What should I do? At first I
contemplated leaving the horse with some farmer, thinking that its owner
would eventually locate it. But I threw over this plan. It was too late
to report for work, and the growing darkness brought on a mild attack of
_Wanderlust_. "Why not proceed as far as possible under the cover of
night," I reasoned, "and _then_ leave the rig somewhere in good hands?"
I had at last found a road going in the direction I desired at that time
to follow, if the car-reporting job was to be given up, and my mind was
pretty definitely settled on that score, although a week's wages were
due me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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