occur
again. Pa lays everything to me. He is the most changeable man I ever
saw. He told me to do everything Uncle Ezra wanted me to do, and then,
when I helped Uncle Ezra to play a joke on Pa, he was mad. Say, I don't
think this world is run right, do you? I haven't got much time to talk
to you to-day, cause Uncle Ezra and me are going fishing but don't it
strike you that it is queer that parents trounce boys for doing just
what they did themselves. Now, I have got a friend whose father is
a lawyer. That lawyer would warm his boy if he should tell a lie, or
associate with anybody that was bad, and yet the lawyer will defend a
man he knows is guilty of stealing, and get him clear and take the money
he got from the thief, who stole it, to buy the same boy a new coat to
wear to church, and he will defend a man who committed murder, and make
an argument to the jury that will bring tears to their eyes, and they
will clear the murderer. Queer, ain't it? And say, how is it that we
send missionaries to Burmah, to convert them from heathenism, and the
same vessel that takes the missionaries there carries from Boston a
cargo of tin gods to sell to the heathen? Why wouldn't it be better to
send the missionaries to Boston? I think the more a boy learns the more
he gets mixed." "Well, how's your theater? Have any of the great actors
supported you lately?" said the grocery man, to change the subject.

"No, we are all off on vacations. Booth and Barrett, and lots of the
stars, are gone to Europe, and the rest work down to less high-toned
places. Some of the theater girls are waiters at summer resorts, and
lots are visiting relatives on farms. I tell you, it makes a difference
whether the relatives are visiting you or you are visiting them. Actors
and actresses feels awfully when an old granger comes to the town
where they are playing, and wants to see them. They are ashamed of his
homespun clothes, and cowhide boots, and they want to meet him in an
alley somewhere, or in the basement of the theater, so the other actors
will not laugh at their rough relatives, but when the season is over,
an actor who can remember a relative out on a farm, is tickled to death,
and the granger is all right enough there, and the actor does not think
of the rough, nutmeg grater hands, and the blistered nose, as long as
the granger relative will put up fried pork and things, and 'support'
the actor. My Uncle Ezra is pretty rough and it makes me tired some