THE COUNTRY BOY 



23 



have any one to hunt eggs, and no one to go 

 with me to dig dandelion greens ; and we won't 

 see any boy riding the old red bull to the State 

 Fair again, will we, Grandma?" Then they 

 both broke down and cried. "But I'll come 

 up and gather the eggs for you, it's only five 

 miles," and I told her maybe we wouldn't go 

 until spring anyway, and things had become so 

 sad by this time that I thought I had better 

 go on to the next neighbor's; so I left them 

 with their heads on each other's shoulders, say- 

 ing something in low tones. 



In a few days father returned again from 

 Silverton and said he had promised that he 



would take the Grange 

 store in the spring. It 

 seemed as though 

 winter would never 

 pass; it actually lasted 

 years. We talked of 

 nothing else during the 

 evenings, and I 

 thought of nothing 

 else, dreamed of noth- 

 ing else during the nights. Finally as spring 

 opened we thought of Old John, a big, fat. 



