40 THE COUNTRY BOY 



of it being a great joke, like Grandfather and 

 myself thought it would be, instead we all 

 broke down and cried. Afterward I went all 

 over the place before dark, gathered all the 

 eggs and found three new nests, and that night 

 we popped corn and ate apples, and I told 

 them all about Silverton and how strange a 

 place it was. In a few days I went back to 

 town. Then I got better acquainted. 



I was big enough to help clerk in the store, 

 but wasn't what you would call a safe clerk. I 

 used to clerk while Father went to dinner. 

 JNIrs. Francis, a woman just out of Silverton, 

 used to be a regular customer of ours ; she came 

 one day and I sold her a j^ard of gartering; 

 after that, for a long time she didn't trade with 

 us. Father met her on the street one day and 

 asked her why and she told him. She took 

 from her satchel a small piece of gartering, ex- 

 pecting to meet him she was prepared to ex- 

 plain. She said, "There's what your son sold 

 me for a yard." Father, a thoughtful person, 

 took the gartering, which didn't measure more 

 than ten inches. The two went to the store and 

 found it measured just a yard, if you stretched 

 it to its limit. ^Irs. Francis was given some 



