THE COUNTRY BOY 161 



wife. Aunt Lou, was about the best cook in 

 all that part of the country, and I suppose 

 lUncle Ben had gotten used to eating her cook- 

 ing and couldn't stand for anybody else's; in 

 fact, it was Uncle Ben's pride and pleasure on 

 state occasions to invite any dignitaries of the 

 day to eat of Aunt Lou's lunch, and if they 

 knew Uncle Ben's family at all well, they al- 

 ways accepted, as the meal was one you would 

 seldom forget. 



On this occasion Uncle Ben drove into the 

 barnyard, and from the wagon in the heat of 

 the sun he removed the gorgeous lunch that his 

 wife had been two weeks preparing and carried 

 it into our wagon shed. There it lay quietly 

 hid under the seat of our old buggy, which 

 stood there year after year, seldom being used 

 other than that the chickens roosted on the back 

 axle. I had been downtown early and had 

 hunted up my friend Bob Patton, the undis- 

 puted champion sprinter of the county. We 

 searched in vain for a foot race, but every 

 sprinter was shy, and I, as his manager, saw 

 that the day was going and we would get no 

 race, so I suggested that we take his saddle 

 horse and hitch to our old buggy and drive to 



