PADUTCH-LIFE-L Archives

From: "Vee L. Housman" <>
Subject: 104-The Tramp
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 17:56:05 -0500

THE TRAMP

Well, here I am in a strange land. On Monday a week ago I
left Rabbit Mountain to become a tramp. Polly didn't know that
was leaving, and about nine o'clock I crawled up into the woods
near our house and sat on the fence. I didn't feel like I could
abandon her unless I saw her just one more time. She soon came
out to empty a wash pan then went right back into the house. She
didn't see me, and I didn't call her. I got down from the fence,
found a walking stick, then set off up the mountain with a heavy
heart. As long as I could see the house I kept on looking back.
Finally, I passed over the top of the hill.

I sat down again and studied my dilemma. For forty years we
had lived together. We fought at times, and I was mostly the one at
fault. We both always had a lot of spunk. Both of us were always
ready to open our mouths even thought the smallest things would
get us so upset that we wouldn't speak to each other for days.

One time she brought home some visiting ministers with big
appetites. I had to saw wood for three days to earn enough money
from Sammy Sendapetzer to pay for a turkey to feed the hungry
preachers. Polly gave them the turkey legs, breast, livers, and heart
to eat while I had to sit there and suck on a wing. I wouldn't have
thought much about that incident if every now and then they
wouldn't have stopped eating to tell me where I stood with the
Lord. One of them told me that the devil would finally take me to
hell for sure. This made me so mad that I jumped up and told him
that he ought to get started on his way to hell right now, and that
I'd be following him there shortly. This insulted Polly, since the
fellow was a church minister. I told Polly that a preacher was a
learned man who should know better than to talk that way about a
man at whose table he sat and whose dishes he was eating turkey
from.

The outcome of all this is that we hadn't talked to each other
for two weeks. Instead of giving each other hell, as we should
have, we split the household into two branch establishments. And
so things got worse. I finally gave up the silence to Polly, and now,
so far as Polly is concerned, I'm always supposed to give up to
her--whether I'm right or wrong. I can't take it any longer, and now
we're going our separate ways. It took us forty years for us to
climb up the mountain together--now it'll only take forty minutes
for us both to abandon the mountain.

Since I've left Rabbit Mountain, as a traveler I've been
sleeping in barns, cutting wood, and hauling manure to earn my
meals. I haven't worked this hard in ten years as I've worked in the
last two weeks. Although hard, I suppose my experience as a
tramp will be interesting before I'm finished with it.

* * *

Note: This collection of Boonastiel stories was written by H. A.
Harter in the original Penna-Dutch dialect and were published in the
Keystone Gazette, Bellefonte, PA, between 1894 and 1904. They
were translated and transcribed by Bob James of Alaska and they
are being posted to this PADUTCH-LIFE mailing list with his
permission.

This thread:

• 104-The Tramp by "Vee L. Housman" <>