A COMPOSITE FAMILY 259 



Center. He took a scared look out o' the win- 

 der, and slipped over toward the barn, jest as 

 the folks halted and began to get out baskets. 

 'We 've come fer eggs!' shouted the doctor, 

 hurryin' so 's to be first. ' Name yer own price 

 in cash ! * 



"This tells you how eggs was prized then, for 

 in those times things was mostly traded, and I re- 

 member one year the only cash went through my 

 hands was a three -cent bit and two paper quarters. 



"Naturally it all come out that Eph 'd said we 

 had eggs, and they was terrible put about, breakin' 

 three miles o' road for nothin'. The minister, he 

 preached on lyin' the next Sunday, and called for 

 the prayers o' the congregation for Ephraim, in 

 which the doctor, bein' a deacon, led, and left 

 nothin' unsaid. The result was such hectorin' all 

 round that in the spring, as soon as the roads was 

 good, the boy ran off with a feller that travelled 

 around sellin' maps and sech, who had been hang- 

 in' about the Center interviewin' the school com- 

 mittee. 



"Practical joke? Folks didn't understand him? 

 Had too much 'magination? Ye 're kindly disposed, 

 I see, just like his mother was. She allers allowed 

 his meanin's was misread. Maybe in a big town it 



