H2 The Number Nine. 



he is allowing the numeral in question to 

 stand for a lesser number of birds, or 

 pounds of fish. In my boatman's inaccu- 

 rate memory the number nine rounds out 

 the bag to a satisfactory extent. 



Beyond my amusement at this man's 

 fibs, the subject caused no reflection until 

 one day when off for a walk I met a man 

 who had not succeeded in killing any snipe 

 on that day but who said that he had 

 killed nine on the previous evening. A 

 little farther on a man who was fishing for 

 bass said that he had caught only nine. 

 On asking him to let me see them he said 

 that they were in a scap net in the spring 

 where they would keep cool, and on lift- 

 ing out the net I found seven bass. The 

 fisherman then decided that his wife must 

 have come down and taken two of them 

 to the house for dinner without his know- 

 ing it. Before reaching home that day I 

 found a man who had killed nine ducks 

 before breakfast just across the way from 

 the boat-house. It then occurred to me 

 that I was on the verge of an observation, 

 and there came to mind at once a number 



