The Jack-Knife Man

mp had "ha, ha'd" and grinned through two more verses of the

such a delicate voice I got to rest it between songs or it's liable to get sick and die away for good.

hen, crawling into the bunk, settled himself comfortably, and went to sleep. W

!" said Peter

Uncle Peter," said Buddy, "he's

ere and help me," Peter commanded the tramp. "We got to

lly. "And you remember to ask me to sing you

ooge wanted to give it up as a bad job, Peter made him labor at the pole. By standing on the landward edge of the deck and joggling the boat as they pushed on the pole they succeeded in inching the shanty-boat toward deeper water, and at length she floated free and swung down the current. Where the lake narrowed and ended Peter ran the boat against the shore, letting her rest against a fallen tree. It was a precarious position, and one in which it would not be safe to leave the boat if the river ice ran again, but just

the pole, the shanty-boat moved slowly out of the current of the slough and into the quiet water where, as the river fell, it

t consumed the balance of the day. When the two men went insid

ease, he misestimated Buddy and Peter. Buddy alone could have kept him busy, but Peter let

admission to the "show" and a dollar a bottle for the "remedy." Out of a hidden past Booge had dropped into the position of general "roustabout" for the show, caring for the tent, doing a banjo "turn" when the "artist" went on his regular spree, and driving the wagon when the show moved from town to town. When the final catastrophe came, Booge sold his banjo and s

had a shack or a shanty-boat, vacant at this season, and he left the main road only to find nothing bu

hile most were no larger than whips some were as large as a man's wrist. Against the low bank the boat lay broadside and so close that the will

going to take this ax and clear away a path through the willows. And you want to cut them off close down to the roots," he warned Booge, "or you'll have to do it over again. You cut a path fr

ax and looked a

for years and years," he said good naturedly. "How-do, wood-split

et at them will

re about them old frien

od-ax before you get done with him," said

n his jack-knife long enough to scribble down the

book?" Bo

enjoying your visit," Peter said, "and how sorry I

ed once or twice Booge became painfully clean. He would come in f

at get five dollars' worth of baths at the Y

nt to knock me all the time, Peter. A horse crops grass one way, and a cow crops it another way, and the Lord is the maker of them all, as t

nscience," said Peter. "Mayb

labored in this here driftwood vineyard when you said to. I bet the prodigal son hated to get down to work after his pa's party, and yet he got to be quite a re

ad that in a bo

when I was a kid, and it sort of cured me of book readin'. There ain't hardly a comfortable word in it for

enly, "how'd you ever ha

a shanty-boatman?" asked Booge,

a kid, so my pa bought me a farm and put a man on it to run it for me, and I just fooled around and tried to get husky and stout and by the time I was old enough to run the farm Father busted, and then

y thing that don't get blamed for runnin' down hill? You and the river sort of run down together. W

y you had two of

t, a man can be happy in most any circumstances except where he don't give his wife the clothes she wants. My notion of hell is a place where a man

's pockets whilst he was asleep?" asked Peter.

ey to take," said Booge. "Light on money an

sive drinking mot

said. "Boo

mp. I wouldn't let you stay here if you was. Look at the harm booze don

hree square meals a day and a place to practise my voice in. But I suppose

o Buddy, and had not Peter resolved to be a different man himself on Buddy's account, he would have liked nothing better than to have Booge make his winter home in the shanty-boat, but he felt that Booge mu

and dickered for the sawing of the wood. It was a large contract, and Peter as a rule did not care to saw wood except in dire straits, but he had decided that if he was to be a man of worth he must be a man of work

tore of food, and that store dwindling daily. Buddy could not work, but Peter could, and Booge must. Then he explained about the pile of wood, a g

is like that man that got killed with a thunderbolt for careless conversation," he said cheerfully, "so I

would!" s

l have to go-up to that

ddy or leading him by the hand, walked across the snow-covered bottom to the farm the next morning, and while Booge

to hold her own against his imperious little will, and Booge might have developed into an excellent sawer of wood, but one mornin

dy's face covered with the red spots and the boy complaining, "o

. "You stay, Peter, and I'll go on up an

n his hand over the bo

to stay with you,

cle Peter," said

efore Peter took his h

ge," he said then. "You can sin

stay, Peter," said Booge reluctantly. "If he seems to hanke

ith his back against the wall and sang "Go Tell the Little Baby, the Baby, the Baby," through his