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For two or three weeks this notion of father’s invaded ourhouse. We did not talk much but in our daily lives tried earnestly tomake smiles take the place of glum looks. Mother smiled at theboarders and I, catching the infection, smiled at our cat. Fatherbecame a little feverish in his anxiety to please. There was, nodoubt lurking somewhere in him, a touch of the spirit of the showman. He did not waste much of his ammunition on the railroad men he servedat night but seemed to be waiting for a young man or woman fromBidwell to come in to show what he could do. On the counter in therestaurant there was a wire basket kept always filled with eggs and itmust have been before his eyes when the idea of being entertaining wasborn in his brain. There was something pre-natal about the way eggs kept themselves connected with the development ofhis idea. At any rate an egg ruined his new impulse in life. Lateone night I was awakened by a roar of anger coming from father’sthroat. Both mother and I sat upright in our beds. With tremblinghands she lighted a lamp that stood on a table by her head. Downstairs the front door of our restaurant went shut with a bang andin a few minutes father tramped up the stairs. He held an egg in hishand and his hand trembled as though he were having a chill. Therewas a half insane light in his eyes. As he stood glaring at us I wassure he intended throwing the egg at either mother or me. Then helaid it gently on the table beside the lamp and dropped on his kneesbeside mother’s bed. He began to cry like a boy and I, carried away byhis grief, cried with him. The two of us filled the little upstairsroom with our wailing voices. It is ridiculous, but of the picture wemade I can remember only the fact that mother’s hand continuallystroked the bald path that ran across the top of his head. I haveforgotten what mother said to him and how she induced him to tell herof what had happened downstairs. His explanation also has gone out ofmy mind. I remember only my own grief and fright and the shiny pathover father’s head glowing in the lamp light as he knelt by the bed.

As to what happened downstairs. For some unexplainable reason Iknow the story as well as though I had been a witness to my father’sdiscomfiture. One in time gets to know many unexplainable things. Onthat evening young Joe Kane, son of a merchant of Bidwell, came toPickleville to meet his father, who was expected on the ten o’clockevening train from the South. The train was three hours late and Joecame into our place to sit loafing about and to wait for its arrival. The local freight train came in and the freight crew were fed. Joe wasleft alone in the restaurant with father.

From the moment he came into our place the Bidwell young manmust have been puzzled by my father’s actions. It was his notion thatfather was angry at him for hanging around. He noticed that therestaurant keeper was apparently disturbed by his presence and thoughtof going out. However, it began to rain and he did not fancy the longwalk to town and back. He bought a five-cent cigar and ordered a cupof coffee. He had a newspaper in his pocket and took it out and beganto read.”I’m waiting for the evening train. It’s late,” he saidapologetically.

For a long time father, whom Joe Kane had never seen before,remained silently gazing at his visitor. He was no doubt sufferingfrom an attack of stage fright. As so often happens in life he hadthought so much and so often of the situation that now confronted himthat he was somewhat nervous in its presence.

For one thing, he did not know what to do with his hands. Hethrust one of them nervously over the counter and shook hands with JoeKane.”How-de-do,” he said. Joe Kane put his newspaper down andstared at him. Father’s eye lighted on the basket of eggs that sat onthe counter and he began to talk.”Well,” he began hesitatingly,”well, you have heard of Christopher Columbus, eh?”He seemed to beangry.”That Christopher Columbus was a cheat,” he declaredemphatically.”He talked of making an egg stand on its end. Hetalked, he did, and then he went and broke the end of the egg.”