My dog
did not die unavenged.
I walked all day, following the track, and in the afternoon crossed
the long trestlework of the Jersey Central Railroad over Newark
Bay, with my face set toward Philadelphia. I had friends there,
distant relatives, and had at last made up my mind to go to them
and ask them to start me afresh. On the road which I had chosen for
myself I had come to the jumping-off place. Before night I found
company in other tramps who had been over the road before and
knew just what towns to go around and which to walk through boldly.
Rahway, if I remember rightly, was one of those to be severely
shunned. I discovered presently that I was on the great tramps'
highway, with the column moving south on its autumn hegira to warmer
climes. I cannot say I fancied the company. Tramps never had any
attraction for me, as a sociological problem or otherwise. I was
compelled, more than once, to be of and with them, but I shook
their company as quickly as I could. As for the "problem" they are
supposed to represent, I think the workhouse and the police are
quite competent to deal with that, provided it is not a Tammany
police.
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