Funny story from Carlos Baker’s 1969 biography of Hemingway. Piggott is a small town in Arkansas. The Pfeiffers are Hemingways in-laws. (Hemingway museum in that house off Cherry Street now.)
“He had just begun to walk around the town, wearing western clothes, full beard, long hair, and a sling to support his splinted arm, when an incident occurred which increased his former prejudice against Piggott. One day after grade school had reopened, he was limping through the schoolyard across Cherry Street. The children mistook him for a tramp. When they saw him heading for the Pfeiffer house, they became frenzied in their determination to protect the town’s leading citizens from this rough-looking outlander. Some two dozen boys and girls pursued him, yelling “Tramp! Tramp!” and pelting him with snowballs. He was pale and shaken when he reached the Pfeiffers’ front porch, and often mentioned it afterwards as a nightmare experience.”
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 