WHAT THAD SAW
Some days passed.
As there would be no championship game the coming Saturday for Scranton
High the town settled back into its ordinary condition, so far as the
young people went. There were afternoons for practice, of course, when
the full team was expected to be on deck, and renew their acquaintance
with the many intricacies of the game as taught by Coach Saunders.
Still every other day the boys were at liberty to go and come as they
pleased. Some made it a religious duty, as well as pleasure, to show
up regularly at the ball grounds, where there were always enough
fellows handy to get up a scrub game, for baseball aspirants were as
thick as blackberries in August around Scranton that season. A great
revival of interest in outdoor sports had struck the town, and
promised to stick far into the fall and winter.
On one of these off-days---it was Friday, to be exact---Thad showed
up over at the home of his chum, evidently laboring under some unusual
stress of excitement. Hugh had walked home with him from school, and
being busy with certain things had stayed in his den for two hours or
more. Then in burst Thad, his face red with suppressed news.
"What's happened now?" demanded Hugh, realizing instantly that the
other was in a perfect "sweat" to communicate something he had learned.
"Have the Germans landed on the coast, or is little old New York being
bombarded from giant airplanes? There's something amiss, I can see
from your way of bursting in on me."
"Oh! you know what I've been bothering my head over lately, Hugh,"
snapped the panting Thad. "Of course it's that hobo!"
"Meaning Matilda's now quiet and respected brother Lu, eh?" the other
chuckled. "Well, what's he been doing now---cut stick, and lit out,
as we hoped would be the case, finding life in and around a sleepy
town like Scranton too dull and commonplace to please the fastidious
notions of such a wonderful world traveler?"
"What! that leech clear out, and free his poor sister from the load
he's gone and fastened on her? Well, it's just the contrary; he can't
be shaken off, try as you will. Why, Hugh, even my respected Ma and
two of her friends couldn't do the first thing toward getting Matilda
to say she'd chase him off."
"Oh! that's the way the land lies, is it, Thad? Then some of the good
ladies of Scranton have been over trying to convince Matilda that
blood isn't thicker than water, and that she is under no sort of
obligation to give her wanderer of a brother a shelter, either
temporary or permanent, under her little roof."
"I hurried so after the show was over, Hugh, that I'm out of breath;
but I'm getting the same back now, and can soon tell you all about it.
In one way, it was as good as a circus, though it did make me grit
my teeth to see how that miserable sinner acted. Oh! I just wished
for a chance to give him a good kick or two. Why, honest, Hugh, I
believe I could willingly assist in tarring and feathering a scamp
like Brother Lu, who can settle down on his poor relative, and expect
to be waited on and fed and treated like an invalid the rest of his
life, while all the time he's as strong as anything, and as sleek
as a well-fed rat!" Hugh laughed outright at the comparison.
"Go to it, then, Thad, and relieve my curiosity. You've got me so
worked up by now that I'll surely burst if you don't spin the whole
story in a hurry."
"Well, it's this way," began the other, as he fanned his heated face
with a paper be picked up from Hugh's table. "I happened to know
that Ma and a couple of the other ladies who have been so kind to
Matilda during the last year had decided it was a duty they owed her
to pay her a visit, take a look for themselves at this Brother Lu,
to decide if he was really an object of pity, or a big fraud; and
also advise Mrs. Hosmer that she ought to give him his walking papers
right away.
"Hugh, I decided not to say anything to you about it, because I knew
you had laid out something you wanted to do at home this afternoon;
but I was resolved to be around the Hosmer shack when the ladies
called about three today, and try to learn just how the friendly
scheme came out.
"They showed up fine and dandy on time. I was hidden behind some
bushes close by, and no sooner had they passed inside, Mr. Hosmer
coming to the door to welcome them, than I found it convenient to
creep up still closer. The window was open, and I could hear the
chatter of women's tongues as they chatted away. Mr. Hosmer came
out and went downtown on some errand; I suspect that, like the wise
man he is, he smelled a rat and wanted to leave a clear field to
Ma and Mrs. Lund and Miss Carpenter. Perhaps Mr. Hosmer isn't just
as much in favor of entertaining Brother Lu the rest of his natural
life as he may have been in the start, for he must know deep down in
his man's soul that the fellow is only working his sister for his
keep.
"Well, anyway, I could hear them talking for a little while, after
which who should come out of the house but our former hobo, Brother
Lu. Say, he's actually wearing Mr. Hosmer's best suit, would you
believe it, and he seems to like to pose as a sort of retired gentleman;
it must be nice after getting such a precarious living walking the
railway ties, and begging or stealing as he went, to drop down here
in a snug nest where he has the best bed, is sure of three meals a
day, wears his brother-in-law's only Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, and
I guess smokes Andrew's little stock of tobacco in the bargain."
Thad certainly did manage to put considerable emphasis and scorn into
his vivid description of the contemptible actions of the reformed
tramp. Hugh was laughing to himself over his chum's righteous
indignation; nor did he have any doubt but that, given the
opportunity, Thad would most heartily have assisted in a little
operation calculated to furnish the said Brother Lu with a nice warm
coat of down from a pillow, plastered on with a liberal coating
of sticky black tar.
"Of course, after he came on the scene, I lost all interest in the
folks inside the cottage, and kept watching his antics," continued
Thad, after giving vent to his feelings as he did. "I couldn't make
out anything that was said, anyway, but it was easy to tell from the
way the voices dropped after he came out that the ladies were getting
in their work, and trying to show Matilda she had no business to add
to her burdens.
"Brother Lu, he acted like a sneak from the Start. I could see that
he was taking it for a big joke, because he was grinning like
everything. I guess he knew what a grip he'd managed to get on his
sister, and felt sure not even a dozen ladies of Scranton could cause
her to throw him out.
"What did he do but slide around the wall of the house, get down on
his hands and knees, and creep right under that open window, where
he could hear every word that was said. What do you think of that
for meanness, the skunk; now, it never occurred to me to try that
dodge, you know."
"I could see him as plain as anything, Hugh. He'd listen a bit, and
then just as like as not hear something that tickled him a heap, for
he'd double up and seem to just shake with silent laughter. Oh! I
was just burning like fun, and boiling over, I was so mad to see how
he carried on; because I just knew Matilda was holding the fort
against all the batteries the three ladies could bring to bear, and
telling them that it was her sacred duty to take care of her poor,
poor brother in his last sickness, because the rough world had used
him so harshly.
"Well, in the end he crawled away in a big hurry, so I knew the three
ladies must be coming out. Sure enough they came in sight, and both
Mrs. Lund and Miss Carpenter were looking as though they felt highly
indignant because Matilda she chose to stick by her good-for-nothing
brother, even when they told her they could hardly be expected to go
to the trouble to furnish sewing just to help feed such a lazy-looking
man, and keep him in smoking tobacco. Ma, she seemed dreadfully hurt,
and I guess she hardly knew what to do, for she thinks a heap of
Matilda and Mr. Hosmer.
"They went away, and Matilda, she stood there and looked after them
sort of sad like. She knew she had offended three of her best friends,
and it cut her to the quick. Still, I could see from her face that
she didn't mean to turn on Brother Lu, and tell him he'd have to
clear out; for she gave her head a stubborn little flirt as she turned
and went indoors again.
"Hugh, this thing is really getting serious, seems to me. If those
ladies think it their duty to quit giving Matilda work the poor
things will starve, because all they've got to depend on now is what
she earns by her needle. Something ought to be done to rid her of
that wart that's fastened on her bounty; if she won't give him up of
her own will, then some of us ought to see to it that he's chased out
of the neighborhood."
"Hold on, Thad, go slow," warned the more cautious Hugh. "I feel
pretty much the same as you do about it, but we mustn't think of
trying any White Cap business around such a respectable town as
Scranton. There's still lots of time to investigate; and if the
worst comes we can appeal to the mayor to help. Perhaps the police
could look up the man's record, and make him clear out on the plea
that he's got a bad reputation. That would answer our purpose, and
at the same time keep within the law."
Thad looked wonderfully pleased.
"I didn't tell you something more I saw, Hugh," he now went on to say.
"When the three ladies came out, Brother Lu he managed to be there in
plain sight. He tried to be polite like, and was of course seized
with one of those fake fits of coughing right before them. Matilda
ran to his side, and put her arm around him looking defiantly at Ma
as if to say: 'There, don't you see how far gone he is, and how can
you ask me to be so inhuman and unsisterly as to tell him he must go
out again into the cold, cruel world that has treated him so badly?'
"The ladies looked after Brother Lu as he staggered away, as if
they hardly knew what to think. But it happened, Hugh, that I could
watch the man from where I was snuggled down, and would you believe
me, he had no sooner got behind the little building they use for a
woodshed than he started to dance a regular old hoe-down, snapping
his fingers, and looking particularly merry. I tell you I could
hardly hold in, I was so downright mad; I wanted to rush out and
denounce him for an old fraud of the first water. But on considering
how useless that would be, besides giving it away that I suspected.
him, and was spying on his actions, I managed to get a grip on
myself again.
"After things had sizzled out, Hugh, I came away, and ran nearly all
the distance between the Hosmer cottage and your house, I was that
eager to tell you how the land lay. And now, once for all, what can
we do to bounce that fraud, and free poor Matilda from the
three-big-meals-a-day brother who's fastened on her like a leech?"
Hugh nodded his head as though he had been thinking while his chum
continued to tell of his experiences. From his manner Thad jumped to
the conclusion that Hugh might have something interesting to say,
and in this he proved to be right.