158 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



cheerful, businesslike, independent way with 

 them, neither bashful nor overbold, and it 

 was gratifying to see them so quick to im- 

 prove a new and not unamusing method of 

 turning a penny. Work that has to do with 

 a game is no more than half work, though 

 the game be played by somebody else ; and 

 some of the boys, it was to be remarked, 

 carried golf sticks of their own. Trust a 

 Yankee lad to combine business and pleas- 

 ure. One such I heard of, who was already 

 planning how to invest his prospective capi- 

 tal. 



" Mamma," he said, " can't I spend part 

 of my money for a fishing-rod ? " 



" But, my dear," said his mother, " you 

 know it was agreed that the first of it should 

 go for clothes." 



" Yes, mamma, but a boy can get along 

 without clothes ; and I 've never had any 

 fishing-rod but a peeled stick." 



It sounds like a fairy tale, but it is strictly 

 true, that a famous angler, just then disabled 

 from practicing his art, overheard or was 

 told of, I am not certain which this heart- 

 warming confession of faith, and at once 



