Fresh Spring

"It was Springtime. Sundown found me miles away on a country road, walking westward. Yes, I was going in the right direction. There was the sun going down away off in front of me. Darkness was coming on, but it did not strike me as unusual that I had no supper or no room for the night.

I came to a bridge and stopped when I heard voices below. I looked over the side and a voice came up: "Come on down kid. Don't be leary, we're only a couple of harmless bindlestiffs."

I picked my way down to the level place beside the creek where they were. One of them was unrolling a bindle of blankets, the other was washing a large tin can in the creek. "Throw out your feet, kid, and fetch some wood, we'll have a fire and a can of Java anyway."

Dodge City, KS

"I walked uptown and into a lunch counter. The waiter was idle and talkative.

"Travelling?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Which way?"

"Denver."

"Beating it?"

"Yes."

"Listen here, it'll take you three to four days to get to Denver that way. You'll ruin your clothes and might get thrown off a train and handed a thirty day sentence at Colorado Springs. Big chain gang there. They're cleaning up the streets. If you can dig together five dollars I'll give you a card to a porter on the Overland tonight. Give him the five and he'll do the rest."

"Thanks I'll try it."

Jack Black