Going Back 



the shock of making this wretched 

 discovery. In fact, this enforced recti- 

 fication of supposedly well-established 

 physical lines so jarred his imagination 

 that he knew at once that his child's 

 house of cards was to be immediately 

 and everlastingly demolished, and it 

 was. 



Do you know that the old marsh 

 where the mallards and the muskrats 

 used to feed had disappeared entirely? 

 That corn and alfalfa are now growing 

 where once he used to skate? And 

 must he tell you that the river where 

 the "shinny" was played and the 

 great bon-fires built is now just a 

 plain, every-day shallow creek? In the 

 interest of the truth must he also con- 

 fess that what the boys called the 

 creek is little more than a dried-up 

 open ditch, the timber all cut away 

 from its once thickly-wooded banks! 

 And in "the old swimmin' hole" i'n 

 one of the bends where he knew he 

 had caught hundreds of bull heads 

 [79] 



