170 



THE COUNTRY BOY 



he believed me. But the less I can say about 



Uncle Ben the better. 



I might add, however, 

 that though he and Patton 

 Hve in the same neighbor- 

 hood, they have never been 

 seen sitting on the rail- 

 fence talking, as sometimes 

 neighbors do. The truth 

 is, they haven't spoken 

 since. The ablest debater 

 couldn't make Ben Daven- 

 port believe that we didn't 

 know the lunch was under 

 the buggy seat when we 

 drove out of town. 



Uncle Ben was a genius 

 in a way ; he was what you 

 would call a success. If 

 he owned a good pocket- 

 knife Avith a good rivet 

 that he could snap the 

 blade back and forth from 

 his finger to his thumb, 



then if he had an old knife that looked good 



but wasn't, to trade on, then he was happy. 



