“I propose that we get out of Minneapolis as quickly as we can,” suggested the fellow whom they first met in the “Golden Rule Hotel” office, and his pal assented and they walked to the railroad station where they purchased tickets to the first station beyond St. Paul and within an hour they were aboard a train traveling to their new destination.

Upon their arrival at this station, a small hamlet, their first acquaintance told them that his road name was “Kansas Shorty” and his partner’s “Slippery”.  The lads were surprised that these men should not use their Christian names, but as they were accustomed to hearing all the section laborers and every harvester called by a “monicker” or “name-de-rail”, they kept their thoughts to themselves, and Joe, after listening to these instructions gleefully remarked:  “Gee, I wish that you would give each of us a hobo name the same as you have.”  After some discussion they nicknamed Joe, “Dakota Joe” and Jim, “Dakota Jim.”

They waited for some time to try to hobo some passing train, but as none of them stopped or slowed up sufficiently for them to risk swinging onto it, when the dinner hour drew near, Slippery visited a nearby country store and soon returned carrying canned foods and other material from which they could prepare a substantial “Mulligan”, which is made by stewing in a large tin can almost everything edible over a slow fire.  They collected some castaway tin cans and then went to a thicket by the side of a rippling brook, where they built a roaring fire and when the embers began to form they placed upon the glowing coals the tin can containing the “mulligan”.

Then all repaired to the side of the brook to scour the cans and make their own dinner toilets, and here, while the twins washed their faces, their pals noticed for the first time the singular white hair-growths upon the backs of their heads, their inheritance from their forefathers.  Joe explained to their wondering companions that these streaks of white hair were their birth-marks, but Slippery, afraid that these conspicuous freaks of nature would draw too much attention to their young comrades, collected some sprigs of sage, and after he had pounded the same to a pulp between some stones, rubbed it into the white hair upon the boy’s heads, with the result that within a few moments they were dyed to almost the same shade as the rest of their scalps.

By this time the “mulligan” was ready to serve and they dined upon the savory hobo-stew, and after they had filled their inner selves, according to hobo usage they stretched themselves in the shade of the trees to take their after-dinner rest.  Unused to the ways of the road, yet pleased with the fate that had brought them into the partnership of men who at least provided them with substantial meals, soon the satisfied snores that emanated from their throats proved to the others that the twins had landed in dreamland.