156 



THE COUNTRY BOY 



the floor. In a few minutes I fell again for- 

 ward and slammed my hands again. By this 



time that too had ceased 

 to be a joke, as the 

 ends of my fingers were 

 throbbing as if they 

 had hearts in them, and 

 they were getting 

 heavy to lug around, 

 when an elderly lady, 

 who had had some trou- 

 bles of her own that 

 afternoon, skated up to 

 me and told me she 

 thought perhaps we 

 went at it too fast; so 

 we were leaning 

 against the wall talking 

 over the scientific 

 points of it, when I 

 gave the audience a 

 rare treat. 



While leaning there 

 talking, all at once my 

 feet, that were close together, started and 

 rolled out toward the middle of the room. I 



