Slowly the sun climbed, revealing a sparkling world of snow. There had been a hard frost during the night, and a cold wind blew fine, snowy dust from the trees. A tramp was asleep at the side of the road. He struggled for a moment with the snow that covered him. Then he sat up, surprised.
�What! I thought I was in bed,� he said to himself. �And all the while I was out on the road.�
He stretched his arms and legs, and shook the snow off himself. As he stood, the cold wind made him shiver. �I suppose I�m lucky to wake at all in this. I could have been frozen in my sleep.�
He started walking along the road with his back turned to the hills. Soon he overtook a boy standing on the road. The boy had no overcoat, and he looked unspeakably fragile against the snow.
�If you don�t walk too fast, I�ll come a bit of the way with you,� the boy said. �It�s a bit lonesome walking this time of the day.�
The tramp nodded.
�I turned eighteen last August,� said the boy. �I�ve been on the road six years.�
�I dropped by the roadside last night and slept where I fell,� said the tramp. �It�s a wonder I didn�t die.�
The boy looked at him sharply. �How do you know you didn�t?� replied the boy.
�I don�t understand,� admitted the tramp.
�You haven�t been a tramp as long as I have,� said the boy hoarsely. �People like us belong to the road. We can�t ever escape from it. Even if we die. I�ve been on the road for six years, and do you think I�m not dead?� the boy asked. �I was drowned bathing at Margate, and I was killed by a gypsy with a spike. He knocked my head right in. And twice I froze like you did last night. And I was hit by a car on this very road. And yet
I�m walking along here now because I can�t help it. Dead! I tell you we can�t get away if we want to.�
The boy broke off in a fit of coughing. The tramp paused while he recovered.
�You�d better borrow my coat for a bit, your cough�s pretty bad.�
�You don�t understand at all, do you?� the boy said fiercely. He
collapsed suddenly, and the tramp caught him in his arms. The tramp looked down the road. A car flashed in the distance and came smoothly through the snow.
�I�m a doctor,� said the driver as he pulled up. �What�s the trouble?� He listened to the boy�s strained breathing. �Pneumonia,� he declared. �I�ll give him a lift to the hospital. You, too, if you�d like.�
�I�d rather walk,� said the tramp.
The boy winked faintly as they lifted him into the car. �I�ll see you later,� he said, softly to the tramp.
All morning the tramp splashed through the thawing snow. Then he found a lonely barn in which to fall asleep. It was dark when he woke. He started trudging once again through the slushy roads.
He hadn�t gone far when a frail figure slipped out of the darkness to meet him.
�If you don�t walk too fast, I�ll come a bit of the way with you,� said a familiar voice. �It�s a bit lonesome walking this time of day.�
�But the pneumonia!� cried the tramp.
�I died this morning,� said the boy.
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