‘76 TOM’S EXPERIENCE 
‘work,'ever since he heard you were coming, fixing 
up a catechism for you about Dakota. Before you 
get through with half of them you'll wish yourself 
back on your Dakota farm.” 
“No, I won’t. Just let them come on, and if 
there’s anything that I know about Dakota that will 
be of any advantage to my old friends around here, 
‘Pll be only too glad to teli them.” 
‘‘ Better ‘ hire a hall,’ as the boys say, and tell 
them all at one time, and be done with it.” 
“No, I couldn’t do that—couldn’t talk to them 
in that way—and if I could it wouldn’t satisfy them. 
With many of them it is the most important business 
matter that could come before them—involving as 
it does the question of a home, and of their future 
‘success in life. What men want in such a matter is 
to sit down quietly and talk it all over with some 
one in whom they have confidence; who can give 
them the information they want, and then ask him 
all the questions they can think of. You see, Sam, 
I know how it is myself. A few years ago I would 
have given a good deal for just such an opportunity, 
and now if I can help people who are situated as I 
‘was then, it will give me real pleasure, and if my ex- 
perience during the last four years in Dakota will be 
of any value to them, they are welcome to it, and I 
‘promise not to get tired dealing it out to them.” 
‘“*'Tom’s Folly,’ and all?” he asked, laughingly. 
‘Yes, certainly, ‘Tom’s Folly’ and all. I shall 
conceal nothing, although it zs a little humiliating 
