with a desire to make collections of things.

It began with postage stamps. I had a letter from a friend
of mine who had gone out to South Africa. The letter had
a three-cornered stamp on it, and I thought as soon as
I looked at it, "That's the thing! Stamp collecting! I'll
devote my life to it."

I bought an album with accommodation for the stamps of
all nations, and began collecting right off. For three
days the collection made wonderful progress. It contained:

One Cape of Good Hope stamp.

One one-cent stamp, United States of America.

One two-cent stamp, United States of America.

One five-cent stamp, United States of America.

One ten-cent stamp, United States of America.

After that the collection came to a dead stop. For a
while I used to talk about it rather airily and say I
had one or two rather valuable South African stamps. But
I presently grew tired even of lying about it.

Collecting coins is a thing that I attempt at intervals.
Every time I am given an old half-penny or a Mexican
quarter, I get an idea that if a fellow made a point of
holding on to rarities of that sort, he'd soon have quite
a valuable collection. The first time that I tried it I
was full of enthusiasm, and before long my collection
numbered quite a few articles of vertu. The items were
as follows:

No. 1. Ancient Roman coin. Time of Caligula. This one of
course was the gem of the whole lot; it was given me by
a friend, and that was what started me collecting.

No. 2. Small copper coin. Value one cent. United States
of America. Apparently modern.

No. 3. Small nickel coin. Circular. United States of
America. Value five cents.

No. 4. Small silver coin. Value ten cents. United States
of America.

No. 5. Silver coin. Circular. Value twenty-five cents.
United States of America. Very beautiful.

No. 6. Large silver coin. Circular. Inscription, "One
Dollar." United States of America. Very valuable.

No. 7. Ancient British copper coin. Probably time of
Caractacus. Very dim. Inscription, "Victoria Dei gratia
regina." Very valuable.

No. 8. Silver coin. Evidently French. Inscription, "Funf
Mark. Kaiser Wilhelm."

No. 9. Circular silver coin. Very much defaced. Part of
inscription, "E Pluribus Unum." Probably a Russian rouble,
but quite as likely to be a Japanese yen or a Shanghai
rooster.

That's as far as that collection got. It lasted through
most of the winter and I was getting quite proud of it,
but I took th