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"I thought of people who moved outside my limited sphere as 'the great

unwashed.' I pitied them, and I honestly believe now that in the bottom of my

heart I considered them of different clay than I, and with souls, if they possessed

such things, about on a par with the souls of sheep and cows.

"I couldn't have seen the man in you, Billy, then, any more than you could have

seen the man in me. I have learned much since then, though I still stick to a part

of my original articles of faith--I do believe that all men are not equal; and I know

that there are a great many more with whom I would not pal than there are those

with whom I would.

"Because one man speaks better English than another, or has read more and

remembers it, only makes him a better man in that particular respect. I think

none the less of you because you can't quote Browning or Shakespeare--the thing

that counts is that you can appreciate, as I do, Service and Kipling and Knibbs.

"Now maybe we are both wrong--maybe Knibbs and Kipling and Service didn't

write poetry, and some people will say as much; but whatever it is it gets you and

me in the same way, and so in this respect we are equals. Which being the case

let's see if we can't rustle some grub, and then find a nice soft spot whereon to

pound our respective ears."

Billy, deciding that he was too sleepy to work for food, invested half of the capital

that was to have furnished the swell feed the night before in what two bits would

purchase from a generous housewife on a near-by farm, and then, stretching

themselves beneath the shade of a tree sufficiently far from the road that they

might not attract unnecessary observation, they slept until after noon.

But their precaution failed to serve their purpose entirely. A little before noon two

filthy, bearded knights of the road clambered laboriously over the fence and

headed directly for the very tree under which Billy and Bridge lay sleeping. In the

minds of the two was the same thought that had induced Billy Byrne and the

poetic Bridge to seek this same secluded spot.

There was in the stiff shuffle of the men something rather familiar. We have seen

them before--just for a few minutes it is true; but under circumstances that

impressed some of their characteristics upon us. The very last we saw of them

they were shuffling away in the darkness along a railroad track, after promising

that eventually they would wreak dire vengeance upon Billy, who had just

trounced them.

Now as they came unexpectedly upon the two sleepers they did not immediately

recognize in them the objects of their recent hate. They just stood looking

177

The Mucker