Travelers Five Along Life's Highway: Jimmy, Gideon Wiggan, the Clown, Wexley Snathers, Bap. SloanJohnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
General
Travelers Five Along Life's Highway: Jimmy, Gideon Wiggan, the Clown, Wexley Snathers, Bap. Sloan
Johnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
Short stories, American; West (U.S.) -- Fiction
"Dane arrived safely. God bless you. 'And the king
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,
inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'"
There was an awkward pause as they faced each other a moment, pondering
the queer message. Then as a conscious red began to burn up through the
tan of Jimmy's weather-beaten face, Batty understood.
"_You_ sent that boy home to his mother," he began, but Jimmy, bolting
out of the tent, shambled off, shamefaced, through the dusk.
For a long time Batty stood in the door looking out over the darkening
desert. The one star swinging above the horizon seemed to point the way
to a little home among snow-clad hills, where Christmas gladness had
reached its high-tide. Presently as the supper-bell rang, a voice came
floating up from the bamboo thicket. Cracked and thin it was, but high
and jubilant, as if the old man had forgotten that he had no tobacco for
the refreshment of his soul in this world, and no prospect of a mass for
its repose in the next.
"Wa-it for me at heav-un's gate,
Sweet Belle Mahone!"
"All right for you, old Jimmy," whispered Batty to himself. "In the game
St. Peter keeps the score for, you'll be counted the highest card that
_this_ camp holds."
The Second Traveler
Gid Wiggan
In the Wake of a Honeymoon
NO matter what kind of a procession paraded the streets of Gentryville,
one unique tailpiece always brought up the rear. As the music of the
band died away in the distance, and the pomp of the pageant dwindled
down to the last straggling end, necks about to be relieved of their
long tension invariably turned for one more look. It was then that old
Gid Wiggan drove by in his Wild-cat Liniment wagon, as unfailing as the
Z that ends the alphabet.
Lank and stoop-shouldered, with a long, thin beard that reached his lap,
and a high, bell-crowned hat pulled down to meet his flabby, protruding
ears, he of himself was enough to provoke a laugh; but added to this he
bore aloft on a pole the insignia that proclaimed his calling. It was a
stuffed wild-cat, shelf-worn and weather-beaten, glaring with primeval
fierceness with its one glass eye, and wearing a ridiculously meek
expression on the side that had been bereft.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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