Missourri can print glowing literature by the ton about its advantages as a city, but the chances are it will have no effect on two Billings lads. Arvel Darcy and Stuart Beeman. They are down on the city for life. Consider the circumstances before you blame them.
Here they were, Arvel, 11 years old, and Stuart, 12, well able to take care of themselves, on the way to their heart’s desire, a fishing trip in the blue Pacific, traveling without troubling any of the Northern Pacific trainmen accustomed to collecting fares. As any traveler might do. they stepped from their box car during their wait, here to inquire the name of the city.
What happened? Why, as Arvel says, “The fellow we asked hooked us and put us in jail.”
And now the sheriff has rudely broken up their dream and sent them home. Who wouldn’t be angry at such a town?
A missing report card started the boys on their journey. Beeman had lost his and Thursday his teacher had sent him home to get it. He did not want to go back to school without the card and went over to see his friend. Arvel. The financial accumulations of the two at that time amounted to $8.35 and it seemed to them that there was no need to wait longer before setting out for the dreamed of Pacific. “What they lacked in experience in hobo life they felt was made up for by long instructive talks they had had with a tramp a short time previous.
An empty box car on a westbound freight clinched the question for them. In they crawled, and as their instructor had told them, hooked the door behind them so that no inquisitive “shack” could look into the contents of the car. Once a brakie caught them, but he did not throw them off.
Two quilts and a blanket made them comfy during the nights they were on the road. Living was cheap—they spent only a dollar and a half for food during the trip. Bread and jelly, of course, were the features of their menus.
Beeman has an uncle in Astoria, Ore., and intended to drop in on him for a little visit when Sheriff Green decreed otherwise. Darcy had not been going to school and said that his parents did not care where he went or what he did. He said he had already been in jail once.