Everybody, in saying good-bye, gave me a warm hand-clasp of friendship
(excepting Pfeiler), including Spalton, who assured me--
"Razorre, you'll be back again ... despite its faults, they all come
back to Eos."
"Yes," I responded, sweeping him off his feet by the unexpectedness of
my reply, "yes, in spite of all, Eos is a wonderful place ... it has
given me something ... in my heart ... in my soul ... which no other
place in the world could have given ... and at the time I needed it most
... a feeling for beauty, a fellowship--"
"Razorre," he cut in, moved, "we all have our faults,--God knows _you_
have--mutual forgiveness--" he murmured, pressing my hand warmly again;
his great, brown eyes humid with emotion ... whether he was acting, or
genuine ... or both ... I could not tell. I didn't care. I departed
with the warmth of his benediction over my going.
* * * * *
This time I did not freight it. I paid my fare to New York.
* * * * *
My father ... I must pay him a visit, before lifting my nose in the air
like a migrating bird. Where I would go or what I would do that spring
and summer, I hadn't the vaguest idea....
It seemed but the day before that I had left Haberford. The fat
policeman who leaned against the iron railing of the small park near the
station was there in the same place. The same young rowdies pushed each
other about, and spat, and swore, near the undertaker shop and the
telegraph office.
But as I walked past the Hartman express office--the private concern
which Hartman, the thin, wiry shock-haired Swede, had built up through
arduous struggle, beginning with one wagon--
Hartman saw me through the window, and beckoned vigorously for me to
step in....
"--just got home from another hobo-trip, Johnny?"
"You're almost right, Mr. Hartman."
"A pause....
"--been to see your father yet?"
"No, sir, I'm on the way there now ... just arrived this minute, on the
train from New York."
"I'm glad I caught sight of you, then, to prepare you." A longer pause
... mysteriously embarrassing, on his part.
"I have something to tell you about him ...--guess you're old enough to
stand plain talk ... sit down!"