Page:A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf.djvu/68

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
A Thousand-Mile Walk

ers have been killed or driven away during the war."

Arriving at the last house, my knock at the door was answered by a bright, good-natured, good-looking little woman, who in reply to my request for a night's lodging and food, said, "Oh, I guess so. I think you can stay. Come in and I’ll call my husband." "But I must first warn you," I said, "that I have nothing smaller to offer you than a five-dollar bill for my entertainment. I don’t want you to think that I am trying to impose on your hospitality."

She then called her husband, a blacksmith, who was at work at his forge. He came out, hammer in hand, bare-breasted, sweaty, begrimed, and covered with shaggy black hair. In reply to his wife's statement, that this young man wished to stop over night, he quickly replied, "That’s all right; tell him to go into the house." He was turning to go back to his shop, when his wife added, "But he says he has n’t any change to pay. He has nothing smaller than a five-dollar bill." Hesitating only a mo-

22