r named Looney Hogan
who happened to be travelling the same way.

Riding on trains without paying fare ain't always the easy thing it
sounds. It is like a trade that has got to be learned. They is different
ways of doing it. I have done every way frequent, except one. That I
give up after trying her two, three times. That is riding the rods
down underneath the cars, with a piece of board put acrost 'em to lay
yourself on.

I never want to go ANYWHERES agin bad enough to ride the rods.

Because sometimes you arrive where you are going to partly smeared over
the trucks and in no condition fur to be made welcome to our city, as
Doctor Kirby would say. Sometimes you don't arrive. Every oncet in a
while you read a little piece in a newspaper about a man being found
alongside the tracks, considerable cut up, or laying right acrost them,
mebby. He is held in the morgue a while and no one knows who he is, and
none of the train crew knows they has run over a man, and the engineer
says they wasn't none on the track. More'n likely that feller has been
riding the rods, along about the middle of the train. Mebby he let
himself go to sleep and jest rolled off. Mebby his piece of board
slipped and he fell when the train jolted. Or mebby he jest natcherally
made up his mind he rather let loose and get squashed then get any more
cinders into his eyes. Riding the blind baggage or the bumpers gives me
all the excitement I wants, or all the gambling chancet either; others
can have the rods fur all of me. And they IS some people ackshally says
they likes 'em best.

A good place, if it is winter time, is the feed rack over a cattle car,
fur the heat and steam from all them steers in there will keep you warm.
But don't crawl in no lumber car that is only loaded about half full,
and short lengths and bundles of laths and shingles in her; fur they
is likely to get to shifting and bumping. Baled hay is purty good
sometimes. Myself, not being like these bums that is too proud to
work, I have often helped the fireman shovel coal and paid fur my ride
that-a-way. But an empty, fur gineral purposes, will do about as well as
anything.

This feller Looney Hogan that was with me was a kind of a harmless
critter, and he didn't know jest where he was going, nor why. He was
mostly scared of things, and if you spoke to him quick he shivered first
and then grinned idiotic so you wouldn't kick him, and when he talked
he had a silly little giggle. He had