PETE SLEEPS WITH HIS BOOTS ON

AS was mentioned before in these sketches, we seldom went to town, and children shoes were bought without being fitted to the child foot. The grownup simply took some measurement, such as a string the lengtht of the foot, to measure new shoes by. At that time men and boys common foot gear was boots. While we were all small children, the usual trip to town was made in the fall for supplies for the winter. Among other things, shoes were bought. But, alas! Pete boots were just a wee might small. And since there was no way to return them, the lad wore them, hoping that they would stretch and grow more comfortable. But with the wet weather, those boots became hard and stiff and utterly refused to co-operate. Each night at bed time there was a mad stru~gle with a boot jack, and Maurice would pull at the boots. But the boots stubbornly resisted all efforts to remove them, until big brother Wallie (later my husband) got Pete into a chair, told him to hang on, and placing himself astride Pete legs yanked and pulled until the boots came off.

But one night Wallie had gone to a neighbor Bed time caine and no Wallie. Maurice tried to remove his brother boots. Their sister, Mrs. Lee, tried. They tugged and pulled, but to no avail. At last after long effort, Mrs. Lee tied rags around the offending boots, and Pete — the young farm boy of Klickitat then, but now president of the Metropolitan Printing Company and the book publishing firm of Binfords & Mort slept with his boots on!