put on the tallest pile of mashed potatoes you ever
saw. She would make a hollow in the top and fill it with butter. I
would see the butter melt and run down the sides, and I would say,
"Hurry, mother, it is going to spill!" O, how I wanted to spill it! I
could hardly hold out faithful.

And then Elder Berry would sit down at the table, at the end nearest
the fried chicken. The "company" would sit down. I used to wonder why
we never could have a big dinner but what a lot of "company" had to
come and gobble it up. They would fill the table and father would sit
down in the last seat. There was no place for me to sit. Father would
say, "You go into the next room, my boy, and wait. There's no room for
you at the table."

The hungriest one of that assemblage would have to go in the next room
and hear the big dinner. Did you ever hear a big dinner when you felt
like the Mammoth Cave? I used to think as I would sit in the next room
that heaven would be a place where everybody would eat at the first
table.

I would watch them thru the key-hole. It was going so fast. There was
only one piece of chicken left. It was the neck. O, Lord, spare the
neck! And I would hear them say, "Elder Berry, may we help you to
another piece of the chicken?"

And Elder Berry would take the neck!

Many a time after that, Elder Berry would come into the room where I
was starving. He would say, "Brother Parlette, is this your boy?" He
would come over to the remains of Brother Parlette's boy. He would
often put his hand in benediction upon my head.

My head was not the place that needed the benediction.

He would say, "My boy, I want you to have a good time now." Now! When
all the chicken was gone and he had taken the neck! "My boy, you are
seeing the best days of your life right now as a child."

The dear old liar! I was seeing the worst days of my life. If there is
anybody shortchanged--if there is anybody who doesn't have a good time,
it's a child. Life has been getting better ever since, and today is the
best day of all. Go on south!

It's Better on South

Seeing your best days as a child? No! You are seeing your worst days.
Of course, you can be happy as a child. A boy can be happy with fuzz on
his upper lip, but he'll be happier when his lip feels more like mine
like a piece of sandpaper. There are chapters of happiness undreamed of
in his philosophy.

A child can be full of happiness and only hold a pint. But afterwhile
th