“But if they are necessary?”

“Thar’s a-plenty o’ folks hyeh in the mount’ns that yo’ c’n never make see how knowin’ their private affairs does the gov’nment any good.”

“But you don’t feel that way, Uncle Eli, surely?”

“Wa’al, I don’ know.  Settin’ here talkin’ about it, I know it’s all right, an’ I’m willin’ to tell all I know.  But I jes’ feel as sure as c’n be, that befo’ the census-taker gets through hyeh, I’m goin’ to be heated up clar through.”

“But why?” queried the lad again.  “The questions are plain enough, and there was practically no trouble at the last census.  I think it’s a fine thing, and every one ought to be glad to help.  And it’s so important, too!”

“Important!” protested the old man.  “Did yo’ ever see any one that ever sat down an’ read those tables an’ tables o’ figures?”

“Not for fun, perhaps,” the boy admitted.  “But it isn’t done for the sake of getting interesting reading matter; it’s because those figures really are necessary.  Why there’s hardly a thing that you can think of that the census isn’t at the back of.”

“I don’t see how that is.  They don’t ask about a man’s politics, I notice,” the mountaineer remarked.

“No,” answered Hamilton promptly, “but the number of members a State sends to Congress depends on the figures of the population that the census-takers gather, and the only claim that any legislator has to his seat is based on their information.”

“I suppose you’d say the same about schools, too.”

“Of course,” the boy answered.

“But I hear the Census Bureau this year wants all sorts of information about the crops an’ the number of pigs kept an’ all that sort o’ stuff.”

“Don’t you think the food of all the people of the United States is important enough, Uncle Eli?  And then the railroads, too,—­they depend on the figures about the crops and all sorts of other things which go as freight.”

“You seem to know a lot about it,” the mountaineer said, looking thoughtfully at the boy.

“I ought to,” Hamilton said, “because I’m going to be an assistant special agent in the Census of Manufactures right away.  I applied last October and took the exam a couple of weeks before coming here on this visit.”

“What makes yo’ so cocksure that you’ve passed the examination?” he was asked.

“I didn’t find it so hard,” Hamilton replied, “figures have always been easy for me, and when my brother was studying for that chartered accountant business I learned a lot from him.”

“Your dad, he was a great hand fo’ figures, so I s’pose yo’ come by it naturally enough.  An’ you’re jes’ sure you’ve passed?”

“I haven’t heard one way or the other,” said Hamilton, “but I’m pretty sure.”

“Wa’al, thar’s no use sayin’ anythin’ if you’re all sot, but it’s the business of the gov’nment, an’ I’d let them do it.”

“But I’m hoping to work right with the government all the time, Uncle Eli,” the boy explained “either with the Census Bureau or the Bureau of Statistics or some work like that.  And anyway, if it’s the government’s business, I’m an American and it’s my business.”