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THE VAGABOND

"One dozen station wagons, one-half dozen cars, one-quarter dozen trucks, one ambulance," Vag calculated in round numbers. They were all drawn up in three neat lines. and people were sitting in them expectantly. They all had bandages on their arms. More people with bandages on their arms ran in and out of Peabody School. Men with bandages on their arms walked slowly up and down the street. When Vag glanced at them, they quickly turned their heads the other way and hurried past. Everybody looked so embarrassed Vag thought it must be a raid. Since it was such a respectable neighborhood, he decided it must be an air raid. And so it was. The Cambridge ARP was having "incidents."

A woman wearing slacks ran out of a door and waved her arms. Four station wagons, three trucks and the one ambulance dashed out of the schoolyard and down the street. She went back in. In about five minutes she came out again, waved her arms, and more waiting vehicles drove off in the opposite direction. After a short time they all came back. These operations were repeated several times very smoothly until a big dog came along. The dog ran in front of the stray ambulance and began to bark. The woman in slacks called other women in slacks, but they couldn't get the dog out of the street since he was a big fierce dog. But none of the women fainted.

About half an hour later more or less, some of the men with bandages on their arms persuaded the dog to stop barking. And they helped him into a nearby shelter. After that, there were no further delays, except when the ambulance almost got stuck on the schoolyard fence and one of the cars stalled.

When all the cars had made several trips in and out of the schoolyard, and the woman in slack became accustomed to running in and out the door and the men with bandages had got used to walking up and down, and the big dog didn't come back any more, everyone began to enjoy his job. The drivers enjoyed letting their motors run and disregarding traffic lights. The faces of the men with the bandages on their arms lost their strained looks, after they had walked off their Sunday dinners. Nor did they look so sheepish when they had become accustomed to walking up and down in front of their neighbors' houses. And the women liked riding around in station wagons and looking very efficient and wearing slacks. They all looked like they would enjoy coming out to play "incidents" again sometime. Vag thought it would be fun to be an Air Raid Warden.

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