THE COUNTRY BOY 67 



till after the big feast, composed chiefly of 

 eggs, roasted, boiled and parched by the open 

 fire on Easter day. 



Sometimes, if a boy makes a bad throw Eas- 

 ter, then nothing but broken eggs follow in 

 the free fight. But among the quieter boys 

 the worst effect is acute indigestion from a 

 mixture of over-done goose, guinea, turkey 

 and hen eggs. 



The last big Easter campaign I took part 

 in was in Silverton, and all of us boys in the 

 neighborhood were jealous of Joe Welch be- 

 cause we had a hunch that Joe had the great- 

 est number of eggs. He was the shrewdest 

 of us all, and what was more to the purpose, 

 he was close-mouthed, and there was noth- 

 ing in his silent laugh at the post-office corner 

 of evenings to tip us off as to just where his 

 eggs were hidden. He had made several big 

 steals from other boys, and it was surmised 

 that it was he who had acquired Warren 

 Libby's collection of turkey eggs. 



Late one afternoon, when I had been kept 

 in our house longer than usual by a lesson in 

 arithmetic by my father, and just as I was 

 starting downtown, I went to take a last 



