At six I quit work and headed for the railroad yards, expecting to pick up something to eat on the way.  But my hard luck was still with me.  I was refused food at house after house.  Then I got a “hand-out.”  My spirits soared, for it was the largest hand-out I had ever seen in a long and varied experience.  It was a parcel wrapped in newspapers and as big as a mature suit-case.  I hurried to a vacant lot and opened it.  First, I saw cake, then more cake, all kinds and makes of cake, and then some.  It was all cake.  No bread and butter with thick firm slices of meat between—­nothing but cake; and I who of all things abhorred cake most!  In another age and clime they sat down by the waters of Babylon and wept.  And in a vacant lot in Canada’s proud capital, I, too, sat down and wept ... over a mountain of cake.  As one looks upon the face of his dead son, so looked I upon that multitudinous pastry.  I suppose I was an ungrateful tramp, for I refused to partake of the bounteousness of the house that had had a party the night before.  Evidently the guests hadn’t liked cake either.

That cake marked the crisis in my fortunes.  Than it nothing could be worse; therefore things must begin to mend.  And they did.  At the very next house I was given a “set-down.”  Now a “set-down” is the height of bliss.  One is taken inside, very often is given a chance to wash, and is then “set-down” at a table.  Tramps love to throw their legs under a table.  The house was large and comfortable, in the midst of spacious grounds and fine trees, and sat well back from the street.  They had just finished eating, and I was taken right into the dining room—­in itself a most unusual happening, for the tramp who is lucky enough to win a set-down usually receives it in the kitchen.  A grizzled and gracious Englishman, his matronly wife, and a beautiful young Frenchwoman talked with me while I ate.

I wonder if that beautiful young Frenchwoman would remember, at this late day, the laugh I gave her when I uttered the barbaric phrase, “two-bits.”  You see, I was trying delicately to hit them for a “light piece.”  That was how the sum of money came to be mentioned.  “What?” she said.  “Two-bits,” said I. Her mouth was twitching as she again said, “What?” “Two-bits,” said I. Whereat she burst into laughter.  “Won’t you repeat it?” she said, when she had regained control of herself.  “Two-bits,” said I. And once more she rippled into uncontrollable silvery laughter.  “I beg your pardon,” said she; “but what ... what was it you said?” “Two-bits,” said I; “is there anything wrong about it?” “Not that I know of,” she gurgled between gasps; “but what does it mean?” I explained, but I do not remember now whether or not I got that two-bits out of her; but I have often wondered since as to which of us was the provincial.

When I arrived at the depot, I found, much to my disgust, a bunch of at least twenty tramps that were waiting to ride out the blind baggages of the overland.  Now two or three tramps on the blind baggage are all right.  They are inconspicuous.  But a score!  That meant trouble.  No train-crew would ever let all of us ride.