go With Feet to the Earth 



gave one of his " delightful and illustrious 

 evenings." As this was a poor place of 

 two or three hundred people, we asked 

 him why he did not go on to the next 

 town, four miles away, where he would 

 draw on a population of over a thou- 

 sand. "Oh, that's too big a place for us," 

 said he. 



If there are no shows, if the tavern does 

 not sell liquor on the sly (thereby making 

 itself legal and unpopular), the cross-roads 

 grocery is sure to be open until nine 

 o'clock every evening, and the discussions 

 and prophecies on politics and agriculture 

 that are made by lean men with slouch 

 hats and chin beards, who sit the while on 

 counters and cracker-barrels, are not to be 

 lightly regarded. And, though you are of 

 a kind and disposing nature, you can have 

 no idea what a deal of good you do to 

 those people in supplying them with some- 

 thing to talk about Their discussions of 

 your business, when you are out of ear- 

 shot, and their direct questions about 

 yourself, your home, your engagements, 

 and your name, they don't often ask that, 



