When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:
"I guess I've earned that dollar?" I could not help laughing. "I guess you have," I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.
"So long," said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.
Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.
"I don't buy love," I warned her: "but how much do you generally get?" "From one dollar to five," she replied; "but tonight I want as much as I can get." "I'll give you five," I replied; "but you must tell me all I want to know."
"All right," she said eagerly, "I'll tell all I know: it's not much," she added bitterly; "I'm not twenty yet; but you'd have taken me for more, now wouldn't you?" "No," I replied, "you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl's room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she'd be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:
"I like you," she said, "though you're funny."
"Why funny?" I asked.
"It's a scream," she said, "to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I'm glad for I was tired tonight and anxious."
