Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-02-04

you were young. Whenever a boy puts up a job on me, and I feel n.y. self getting mad, I recall some of my own exploits when I was lad, and that enables me to forget my troubles.
 T was looking through an ancient album last evening, and saw the pie lures of a lot of people who fell off the earth many years ago. They were venerable men aad women, in my schooldays, and I had played tricks on every one of them; not with mal- Ice aforethought, but just because a kid must have his fun.
 "There was a picture of old Aunt Betsy, who used to come to our house once in while, on visit, and as soon as she came she took charge of every thing. She knew how to do0 things better than anybody else, and she was always criticising my mothers meth ods. Whenever mother started to do anything, Aunt Betsy would take the job out of her hands, saying she would show the right way to do it.
 q had heard somewhere that If you put a drop or two of acetic acid in a gallon of cream, that cream will never make butter. I had great memory for such facts, and kept them on file where they would be useful. One morning mother said she would have to churn, and she got things ready. I knew that as soon as she started Aunt Betsy would want to show her how it should be done, so when I had chance, dropped some of the acid into the churn, which was one of those old upright affairs, with dasher that you worked up and down until the butter came.
 "Mother seated herself on a stool and began churning, and then Aunt Betsy came along, and said that while she was a modest and Inassuming womsI. she, did claim to know lit tie more about churning than anybody of her weight fn that part of the country. Let me do 1t. my dear said she, land I'll have butter in seven minutes by the clock So she took hold of the dasher and began skipping away with 1t. She worked and worked, and the sweat began rolling down her face, and every once in while she'd lift the lid of the churn to see what ailed the doggone cream, and then she'd pour in some cold water, and then some hot water, and the more she wrestled away, the less sign of butter was there.
 "She whanged away at that ding busted churn for two hours and couldn't get results, and she was so mad and disgusted over 1t she want ed to pack her trunk and go back home. Mother saw me rolling around in the yard all doubled up with un- holy mirth, and she realized at once, by deductive reasoning, that was responsible, and the licking got that evening took the edge off my sense of humor for three weeks.
 Another time, Uncle James was vis- iting us. He used to sit in rustic chair, under an apple tree and doze, after dinner. He had a bald head, and his hat always slid off after he had snored a few times. One day l 
 sneaked up behind him with feather and began tickling his head. He'd slap his dome of thought and cuss a little, and then doze again, when I would get busy with the feather. That went on for quite a while, and I was having the time of my life. never heard any language more highly col ored than Uncle James put up.
 "My mother heard him saying things, and came to the door and asked him what was the matter, and he said ding-donged lopsided fly was chewing his scalp off. He had chased 1t away three million times, but 1t al ways came back. I got another lick ing that night, and my mind was oc- cupied with serious things for, month"