Evening star., 1927-11-07
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

and fish and engage in the various
manly occupations. / tell you, there IS
nothing in the world like hunting to
develop a boy. 1t brings him into close
contact with the earth, and helps
build up his muscle.
Il had a surprising lot of muscle
for a 6-year-old / was 6. all right. be-
cause l remember how my fine old
Aunt Jane came over to see my
parents on my birthday, and it was
bitter cold-well something of such
Fail day as today, although per
haps Just a trifle colder. 1t was cold
er in those days. We didn't have any
of this modern steam heat, either. We
got up in a cold room. and had to
break the ice in the basin before we
could wash our faces. and we were
lucky to have any bowl to wash in at
all These pampered children of this
day and age don't know what it means
to walk 10 miles to school every morn
ing and 10 miles back in the evening.
To-day child gets an electric train
for Christmas, and his father has
twice as much fun with it as the kid.
but in my day all / got was couple
of oranges and a piece of stick candy,
and I was just as happy over 1t as
the modern boy with his electric train.
II was years old when my father
presented me with that rifle, and told
me to go bring him home a rabbit.
| went out into the woods, all by my
self, boys weren't afraid to do such
things then, and the snow was up
to my knees. We don't have such
Winters any more. Why. / can re-
call a blizzard that walled us in for
weeks. as L remember. 1t must have
been in the February of Snow let
me see, it must have been the 18th
and 18th of February, 1887.
"A few wild pigeons flew over our
house the day before--no, that
couldn't have been so. because the last
big flight of the wild pigeons was
in IT, wasn't it? We had apple pie
for supper that night, and it was real
apple pie, not the junk you get now
adays when you ask for apple pie.
1T was precisely at 4:30 o'clock on
that cold January afternoon that
Aunt BesS-no, let me see, it was
not Aunt Bess, but Aunt Harriet.
There were two relations in our family
that all the children were very fond
of, Aunt Bess and Aunt Harriet. Aunt
Bess was the one who always had
cookies in the big blue crock on her
pantry shelf. Aunt Harriet had
gray crock with red lines around it,
and generally kept it filled with gin
gerbread in the shape Of soldiers and
so on.
"Aunt Bess would take us into her
pantry and point up to the gray jar
with the red lines on it-now let me
see, was it Aunt BeSS or Aunt Harriet
that had that crock, maybe it was old
Aunt Mary, same name as the one
Riley wrote about; she was much older
than the other aunts, and we didn't
See as much Of her, but all of us chill.
dren We're fond of her, probably be-
cause she made it a point to have
plenty of punkin pie when the boys
came over.
II believe I like punkin pie better
than any other kind, although very
few people know how to make it any
more. They don't cook the punk:n
long enough to bring out it's flavor,
then they try to make up for it by
putting in a lot of spices, / call it
spice pie, nowadays. Well, anyway.
what can you expect in this day and
age when people do nothing but ride
around in automobiles and go to the
movies? Why, a feller down the street
there came within an ace Of running
into me. 1 was coming across the
street, he made a right-hand turn,
right into me, didn't blow his horn or
nothing, just sneaked up to me, and
believe me. il I didn't still have good
legs I wouldn't be here talking to you
now! But to get back to Monty Hack
Saw"