A WOMAN SUPERTRAMP.
" MY people was the most respectable that could be ; the sort that tells you the theatre is the devil's front parlour, and cards is his picture-books, and they'd sooner see their daughter in her grave than married to a soldier, and
everything accordin' ! I never gainsaid 'em, and all went well enough till a circus come to the town, and then I was mad to join it. Mother'n father said it 'ud be good-bye for ever if I did, but I was called to it, and you can't go against your fate.
The owners took me on willing enough, for I was small- made and active. They taught me to dance and sing and ride and jump through hoops, and we travelled from town to town and the life just suited me. When I got a bit older I married the man that had charge of the elephants. I never had a good temper, but I've always got along pretty fair with my husband, though we wouldn't never have had the flitch of bacon that I've heard tell of. We had two children, a boy and a girl, and after that sorrows came to us. Something went wrong with my leg, I couldn't dance, and I got to be worth very little. At last I had to leave the children in charge of my husband and go to a big hospital. Fourteen months they kept me, trying this and trying that, for they knew the leg was my living, and many's the doctor I've had standing round me. One day there was a black doctor, and he wanted to run his pin into my knee. No,' I says, • the white doctor can do as he thinks fit; he's an Irishman, and a gentleman, but no black doctor shall pin me.' He wouldn't take 'No' for an answer, but the very instant his pin touched me, I up with my sound leg and give him such a kick that, what with the floor being polished and what with him being a light weight, he slithered hail-way across the ward. And not one of the young learning gentlemen even dared smile. That night the white doctor came and told me that my leg must be taken straight off, but I shouldn't never see the black doctor again, and after the operation he always let me take the bandages off myself.
Well, as if that wasn't trouble enough, one of the elephants hit my husband on the head with his trunk, and there was he, threatening to go blind, and two little children on his hands. I told one of the lady visitors that come regular to the hospital, and she found some kind friends who put him to an eye infirmary and sent the two children to College. I had wrote to my friends before my leg was cut off, but they just tore the letter in two and sent it back to me. I'm not complainin'. As you make your bed you must lie on it.
The last day came, and with joy I left the hospital, for the sights and the sounds and the reggulations do get on your nerves. What a breath I drew when I got out of the lift and found myself outside the hospital gates! My husband was waiting for me. He was nearly blind, and he hadn't a penny ; but any port in a storm, and a husband's useful, even if 'tis only to put your hand on his shoulder to get along by. They'd given me a new leg, twenty-one pounds it cost, but it was that heavy, and that obstropolus, you never knew which way 'twould walk, and I soon parted with it for a pair of crutches.
What's to be done ? ' says my husband.—' I know what isn't to be done,' I says ; I'll never see the inside of a work- house. We mustn't lie still. We must up'n at it !'
I'd heard there was hop-picking to be had in Hereford, and I made up my mind that we'd walk there. I always managed to get near some town or village before dark, and then I sang till we had enough for a night's lodging. Of course, 'twas different from circus singing ; I done it in the drawly way that saves your voice. The doctors had all called mine a con- sumptive leg, and talked about fresh air ; so when it was fine I never spent my coppers on a lodging. We found a snug berth in the corner of a field, and every morning before six I'd go down to the brook and have a good wash and do my hair. No one ever saw me dirty or untidy. Then I'd gather some sticks and make a fire, and boil the water for our tea in my tin can, and fry a bit of bacon on the lid. We did enjoy our breakfast ; but, of course, it would not do for a 'tee to see you. I enjoyed the walks,—snch lovely country, and always fresh sights to see. When the nights were bad I never did things in a crawly sort of way. I used to go straight to a farmer and ask him to let us sleep in one of his outhouses, and
I'd say I'll be careful, Sir. I know the danger of fire. I'll take my husband's pipe away from him.' And one and all they'd say almost the very same words : You seems a resrectable little woman, and I'll trust you.' We got to Hereford, and the hop-picking was pleasant, but the company was very low. But there, if you don't like things, you must wait till you do. Tramping is right good in the summer, but with the snow and the wind and the rain, I thought the best plan would be to find our way back to our native town and get outdoor relief for a few months to keep a roof over our heads, though a room would cost 3s. 6d. and cheap at that, seeing we hadn't a stick of furniture. We'd no money for railway-fares, and two hundred and seventy miles I travelled on these crutches. After we got to the town I changed my mind about asking for relief. I thought we'd be more independent without it. You see, people that knows the ways chooses their room according to the relieving officer, because there's officers and officers. Some of 'em will come and see you once in three months, and then they'll bark at you like a dog, and if you ar'n't very strong you don't feel able to stand it. And there's others will come in and talk to you like a father and say My poor souls, any one can see how badly you are inflicted. Now, don't 'ee think 'twould be for your comfort to go up to the House P Now, do 'ee be advised for your good.' And there was one that said to a friend of mine: 'Never a penny out-relief shall you have as long as you've got that chest of drawers.' 'And I'll die before I sell it!' she said; but they had her up to the House in the end.
I don't. never go to church. My crutches make such a show. When I wants to be done good to, I reads my Bible. My husband is an acute one. He tells yarns from Genesis to Revelation. He says the earth is millions of years old, and that it was all on fire once, and then it went whizzing round and round in the air, and that cooled it down a bit and formed the crusts on it, and then our forbears congregated in caves and was monkeys ; but we didn't give the man who telled us all those lies a grave in Westminster Abbey. I telled my husband how I had telled you I had a pain in my liver and pinted to my stomach, and he said so serious : What did the lady think of your being so ignorant ? ' Did you ever hear Billy Coon the Evangelist? He says God likes to hear the jackdaw as well as the nightingale. It do amuse me to stand at the street corner on Sunday and hear the preachers! When I sit by the roadside trying to sell the iron-holders and pincushions that I make, I always have a bottle with me, and many a one says : 'Her drinks.' Yes, I do drink, and when I see a good-natured-looking girl pass by I ask her to fill it for me at the fountain, and I drink to the memory of Drake who brought the first good water-supply to my native town. First he beat his enemies abroad, and then he tried to make his friends clean and comferable at home. There'll never be a statue pat up to me and you, but may he and his likes never be forgot, and may their descendants want for
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