r brother put
on a hang-dog look and sauntered out of the room and was afterwards
seen disappearing rapidly through the back yard.

"Well," said Billy, at last, with the air of one who was entirely
unbosoming himself, "I'll tell you how it was, dad. Down at Price's
store there's a long string of shoes out at the door. They use 'em as a
sign, don't you know?"

"Yes," said the father carelessly; "I've seen such signs. Go on."

"Well, I need shoes awfully, you know, an' I've been tellin' the mother
about it for a week or ten days, an' she said she was tellin' you. But
my feet gets awful cold late at nights and early in the mornin's. An' I
didn't want to bother you, knowin' that you hadn't any money to spare,
'cause the mother told me 'bout that too, an' cried about it. Well, it
blowed like ev'rythin' this afternoon as I was goin' towards Price's,
an' that string of shoes just whirled around like a kite-tail, an' at
last the bottom pair flew off into the street. An' I picked 'em up."

"Findin's is keepin's," said Mrs. Kimper.

"Give me them shoes, my boy," said the ex-convict.

"You're goin' to take 'em away from me? Have I got to have cold feet
some more?" said Billy, appealingly.

Sam thrust his hand into his trousers-pocket, took out a very thin wad
of green paper, looked at it, and finally said, "No, I s'pose not."
Nevertheless he and the shoes disappeared from the house.

In a short time Mr. Price, the owner of one of the village stores,
received a call from the ex-convict, who said,--

"Mr. Price, one o' my boys found a pair o' shoes in the street in front
o' your store this afternoon durin' the hard blow, an', as they just
fitted him, I came around to pay you for them. How much are they?"

Several men were standing about the stove in Price's store, the fire
having just started for the autumn and winter season, and, as they
heard Sam's remark, one of them uttered a long combination of word and
whistle that sounded very much like "Whew-w?" Sam turned quickly,
recognized the man as one whom he knew to be not over-honest, and
said,--

"When _you_ pay for ev'rythin' you get it'll be time to make fun of
somebody else. But, Mr. Price, what I asked you was, what's the price
o' them shoes?"

The storekeeper was so astonished at such a question from a member of
the Kimper family that, looking at shoes of the same quality which were
lying in a box behind the counter, he actually mistook the cost-mark
for the sell