"DOWN AT THE STORE" 197 



of his thermometer at the least possible ex- 

 pense of veracity. 



So far things were not very exciting, 

 though on the whole rather more so, per- 

 haps, than studying a geography lesson (as 

 if it were anything to me which were the 

 principal towns in Indiana !) ; but now, not 

 unlikely, the conversation would shift to 

 hunting exploits. This was more to the 

 purpose. Wonderful game had been shot, 

 first and last, down there in the Old Colony ; 

 almost everything, it seemed to a listening 

 boy, except lions and elephants. If Mr. 

 Koosevelt had lived in those times, he need 

 not have gone to the Rocky Mountains in 

 search of adventure. 



I listened with both ears. There never 

 was a boy who did not like to hear of do- 

 ings with a gun. I remember still one of 

 my very early excitements in that line. I 

 was on my way home at noon when a flock 

 of geese flew directly over the street, honk- 

 ing loudly. At that moment a shoemaker 

 ran out of his little shop, gun in hand, and 

 aiming straight upward, let go a charge. 

 Nothing dropped, to my intense surprise 



