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"Tell us when you were a boy,
papa!" said Walter, our youngest
boy,
whose advent eight summers ago
with the anniversary of Independence
of
our Glorious Republic we celebrate
every recurring fourth day of July
with Chinese firecrackers and sky-
rockets; "Yes, my boy, like every
boy's
father, your father was himself once a
boy, and although it may
seem to you a
long time ago, to him it seems but a
very little while
since he was your
Grandfather's boy and his name Sammy.
Everybody called
him "Sammy" in those
days, some even after he had quite
grown up. I
don't think he liked the
name, altogether and thought no doubt
it
stinted his growth to manhood, but
ther you must know ha was the more
reconciled
to it as he was paid for it."
"Paid for his name" said Wilbur,
our oldest boy, who bears the name of
his grandfather Hon. Wilbur Curtis, and
who then was just getting Into
his teens.
"Do you mean to say that Sammy was paid
for his name?" asked
Wilbur.
"Certainly" said papa. "His grand-
father, Samuel Bushnell, was quite an
extensive farmer in the town of Sheffield
and kept many sheep., When
Sammy was seven
years old (the present age of our Walter
Deming Goodale
Jr his grandfather gave
him a ducklelegged ewe sheep and buck lamb
for
his name. You may be certain it was
a proud day for Sammy when he drove that
sheep with his little ducklegged lamb
to his home in South Egremont from
Grand -
fathers.
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