THE COUNTRY BOY 101 



about the same in looks varying according to 

 who had the colds. 



One day a beauty came to town to live with 

 some relatives of hers and she pined some time 

 before she was taken out. I had been out with 

 a threshing crew and we moved on Saturday 

 to a field near Silverton. The grain wasn't 

 quite ripe enough, so we laid off until Monday, 

 — an awful thing to do in that country, giving 

 us all a chance to go into town and get shaved 

 up and a clean shirt. When I got to town 

 there was a lot of talk on the streets of a dance 

 to be given that night at Egan's Hop House 

 out in the Waldo Hills. After my shave and 

 hair cut it seemed a shame to waste it; that I'd 

 better go to the dance. INIy financial condition 

 M asn't what you'd call very steady. It rose and 

 fell so that I couldn't hardly count on one girl 

 regularly. But I started in where the most 

 affection lay and met a rather sad refusal. 

 She said she would rather have gone with me, 

 but I hadn't asked her since early spring, so she 

 was engaged to go with Harvey Allen, the 

 leader of the Trombone Band. I went down 

 the line and got eleven "mittens," as we called 

 them. Then I even asked one young girl that 



