“Ooh!” chimed in one of the little ones, quite apropos of so great a flight of time. “I was born—now—three years ago.”

“Were you?” I said. “Then you scarcely know of Booster Day, do you?”

“No.”

“Ya do, too,” put in the ground boy. “Ya said awhile ago ya saw the parade last summer.”

“No, I never.”

“Ya did too.”

To prevent hostilities over this very important point, I said to another boy, drawn near, and who was standing by open-mouthed: “Where do you live?”

“In there,” he pointed, indicating my old study. “We keep boarders.”

“Then you can tell me maybe—did that house always have a porch?”

“No, sir. They put that one on two years ago.”