The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-09-27

seem to be such wonderful things aft
ef all. l began to suffer from ennui,
and it did seem for a while as if I
should never again see anything upon
which l could center my Wanting am
bition as l had upon that bulls eye
watch, which, alas! had lost its
charm for me-
Here Mr.. Reds shrewd, dark Scotch
Irish eyes twinkled with merry memo
ries. He is not a man given to ana
lytical discussions upon the subject OF
human nature, for he is a man of ac
ton, not dry student; but l, doubt
whether Henry James himself is as
good a psychologist Of real men and
women and above all of real boys, as
is this man whose name spells tin
plate.
Trades Watch For Pigs.
But fortunately 1 did not suffer
long from this reaction" he continued,
laughing. s"About this time l went
visiting with my father and mother to
to farm of some relatives living in the
other end of the county. These rela-
blooded Berkshires, and if there was
one thing which took my fancy as a
small boy it was pigs.
There were three tiny little fellows
I particularly admired and coveted,
and, seeing the way the land lay, my
/ cousin, to whom they belonged, offer
ed them to me, the three, in exchange
nd
charm. l jumped at the bargain, and
that afternoon, when we left for home
in the wagon, was minus my chro-
nometer and plus three infant porkers.
Now, it never occurred to me until we
were driving past the farm where the
girl lived who had woven ME the chain
that it might not have been either
strictly ethical or good form to part
with it in such an unsentimental man
ner. and above all for so unpoetical an
equivalent. But boy of eleven.
have since discovered, is a poor senti-
mentalist.
THE next morning my father tack
led me. Where do you expect to get
the food to feed those hogs on? he
| asked in a very unsympathetic tone.
Kind and indulgent as he was to his
family, father was nevertheless a man
with hard and fast ideas about teach
ing children early in life the value of
money, the sense of responsibility and,
above all else, the necessity of their be-
ing self-reliant. Then l made him a
proposition: l would give him one of
the little pigs if he would agree to fat
ten the remaining two for me. This
father thought was a square deal, and
we clinched the bargain.
And how those pigs grew! They
were a fine strain, and soon became
the talk of half the county. People
came miles to look at them, and l had
lot of fun watching them grow. They
were lots more fun than million
bulls-eye watches-until-un the man
with the gun came to our house. Such
a wonderful gun as that was; it's up
stairs in my gun room now. Indeed,
it was and is the nucleus of the collec-
ton have been making ever since.
Made of Damascus Steel with Ger
man silver inlay, it looked thousand
times more magnificent to my unso-
phistieated eyes than any of my tiger
or elephant guns for which l have paid
| twenty times rs much. The man, who
stayed all night with US. allowed me
to lift the precious weapon and to click
the hammer. He said ne would take
/ $40 for it as he needed the money, but
that it was worth much more. That
night I got up three times, lighted a
candle and went down to the sitting
room and looked at that gun. The
next morning my father, who had seen
the impression it made on ME, Offered
to buy the gun for me if l would give
him one OF my two remaining pigs, an
offer which snatched at That night