Nineteen

            Later on, while we still lived there I had pneumonia and got pretty bad. Mother had the ambulance come. One of the men put my arms over his shoulders and carried me downstairs on his back. I passed out part of the time. I came to a day later in the hospital. I was there four weeks. Mother had the Minister come in. I remember when I opened my eyes he was standing at the foot of the bed praying for me. Mother told me none of them thought I'd make it.

            The only other thing I remember about it is about three and a half weeks in the nurse got me out of bed. When I slid off the bed onto my feet my legs buckled under me and I went to the floor. I took about three or four days to get my strength back and they brought me home. They told me later that i had double pneumonia and no one expected me to live.

            I almost turned around and went back home. I guess I must of been home sick but the thought of seeing cowboys and the west was stronger so I kept going. The thought of what my Father and Mother might say and do helped to keep me gone too.

            We managed to catch a train from Chicago ok but it was a long ride to Kansas City, Kansas. The train stopped to take on water from a water tower along the tracks then one time to change engineers. Sometimes they only went so far then other engineers took it from there but when we got into Kansas City we got caught again and had to stay overnight in jail again. At least we had breakfast again.

            We decided this time not to let them catch us again so when we see them after that we just took off. We knew by now what they looked like and no more. Detectives just walked up to us and we got so we didn't mind asking to do a little work for something to eat. Sometimes we pulled weeds in gardens or doing a little hoeing or yard clean up. We seen and met so many fellows. There was hundreds of them so we soon fit right in with the rest.

            That next night we slept in an empty boxcar while riding but the following night we had to get another train so we decided to wait until morning. We went for some woods we could see to sleep. We cam across a path and followed it for about two hundred feet and run into about fifty fellows around eight or ten fires. They were all fixing something to eat 

            We just stopped and looked. They seen us and yelled to 'come on into our jungle and join up'. We said to each other, 'Jungle? What are they talking about?'

            We soon found we were in our first HoBo Jungle. We had nothing along to eat but a lot of them joined in and gave a little. We had more than enough. We seen all kinds of fruits and vegetables being cooked in pails, old kettles, frying pans, cans, and square gallon cans that was cut off. Some was being held over the fire, some set in the fire, some being hung on sticks over the fire, some had rocks in the fire to set containers on, a few had wires hung down from the tree limbs. It sure was something for us to see.

            There wasn't much sleep that night as there was a few that had something to make music and there was a few that played and sang most of the night. It sure was something to see for any one that never see it before. Where ever anyone was sitting, when they got ready to sleep they just lay down and went to sleep. It looked to us like they just died and fell over. In the morning we all had leftovers and black coffee and was on our way.