But when he made his first visit to Judge Rutherford, he did not find him installed in a palatial hotel and surrounded by pampered menials. He was sitting in a back room in a boarding-house—a room which contained a folding bedstead and a stove. He sat in a chair which was tilted on its hind legs, and his feet rested on the stove’s ornamental iron top. He had just finished reading a newspaper which lay on the floor beside him, and his hands were thrust into his pockets. He looked somewhat depressed in spirits.
When Tom was ushered into the room, the Judge looked round at him, uttered a shout of joy, and sprang to his feet.
“Tom,” he cried out, falling upon him and shaking his hand rather as if he would not object to shaking it off and retaining it as an agreeable object forever. “Tom! Old Tom! Jupiter, Tom! I don’t know how you got here or where you came from, but—Jupiter! I’m glad to see you.”
He went on shaking his hand as he dragged him across the room and pushed him into a dingy armchair by the window; and when he had got him there, he stood over him grasping his shoulder, shaking his hand still. Tom saw that his chin was actually twitching in a curious way which made his goatee move unsteadily.
“The legislation of your country hasn’t made you forget home folks, has it?” said Tom.
“Forget ’em!” exclaimed the Judge, throwing himself into a seat opposite and leaning forward excitedly with his hands on his knees. “I never remembered anything in my life as I remember them. They’re never out of my mind, night or day. I’ve got into a way of dreaming I’m back to Barnesville, talking to the boys at the post-office, or listening to Jenny playing ‘Home, Sweet Home’ or ‘The Maiden’s Prayer.’ I was a bit down yesterday and couldn’t eat, and in the night there I was in the little dining-room, putting away fried chicken and hot biscuits as fast as the nigger girl could bring the dishes on the table. Good Lord! how good they were! There’s nothing like them in Washington city,” he added, and he heaved a big sigh.
“Why, man,” said Tom, “you’re homesick!”
The Judge heaved another sigh, thrusting his hands deeper into his pockets and looking out of the window.
“Yes, by Jingo!” he said; “that’s what I am.”
He withdrew his gaze from the world outside the window and returned to Tom.