and they feel a strong yearning just to loaf, and knock around, and
pick up their meals when and where they can."

"Well, I can believe a part of that, Hugh, but the meal end is too
much for me to swallow. Whoever heard of a tramp who didn't respond
to a dinner-bell on a farm? Eating and sleeping are their long suits,
and they can beat the world at both. When it comes to going in
swimming now, they draw the line every time, for fear of taking cold,
I reckon. But I own up Brother Lu Isn't a bad looker, now that he's
reformed far enough to keep his face and hands clean, and wear
Mr. Hosmer's Sunday-go-to-meeting suit of clothes, which just fits
him by squeezing, and turning up the trouser-legs several inches at
the bottom."

"Yes, he isn't a bad-looking man, and if we didn't know how fierce
he seemed at the time we first ran across him in the patch of woods,
we'd hardly dream he'd ever been down and out. Matilda's cooking
seems to agree with him."

"Shucks! it agrees too well with him, and that's the trouble. Now, I
wonder if there could be any way to make him sicken on his bill of
fare. I'm going to think it over, and see if I can evolve a scheme
along those lines."

"You'll find it hard to do," suggested Hugh, "because he eats just
what Andrew does, I suppose; as for Matilda, I do believe she stints
her appetite so as to be able to give her sick charges their fill."

"She does look thinner than before, that's a fact!" exclaimed the
indignant Thad. "What a burning shame all this is, Hugh! Surely