“How are you, Bill, you old son-of-a-gun?” or words to this effect, was the whole-hearted way that Mac welcomed back a wayward and prodigal pilgrim.
Arm in arm we walked along Main Street to Gus Urban’s meat market to inquire as to the price of livestock. Mr. Urban, in his usual jovial embonpoint manner, informed us that cows brought five cents a pound, but that bull was priceless. I disagreed with Gus, insisting that my recent journeys in quest of the pedigreed animal had left me “flat broke.”
Directly across the street, neatly encased in imitation granite blocks of concrete, is our only bank, the Security State of Robbinsdale—and it hasn’t gone “bump” for nigh onto four years. In the reorganization which followed the last crash, Joe Roche was selected as cashier and Joe has since successfully piloted this financial bulwark of our happy little village. Joe also manages the Robbinsdale baseball nine. After making a small “touch” at the bank it was home and the farm.
My welcome back was so pleasant that the words of that rural gem—“The Little Old Home Town”—went Whiz-Zing through my jaded mind.
There are fancier towns than our little town; There are towns that are bigger than this, And the people who live in a little old town Don’t know the excitement they miss; There are things that you see in the wealthier town That you can’t in a town that’s small, And yet, up and down, there is no other town Than your own little town after all. It may be true that the streets ain’t long, Nor wide and maybe not straight But the neighbors you know in your own little town, All welcome a fellow—it’s great. In the glittering streets of a glittering town, With its palace and pavement and thrall; In the midst of a throng you will frequently long For your own little town after all. If you live and you work in your own little town; In spite of the fact that it’s small, You’ll find it a fact that your own little town Is the best little town after all.
Bobby Nelson, our neighbor’s boy, is the worst kid in the world for betting, and the unusual feature of it is he usually wins. Bobby’s father took the matter up with the school marm to see if she couldn’t break him of the gambling habit, promising her a reward if successful.