Cinder Path Tales

THE HOLLOW HAMMER 33 natured chaffingwere over, he left themwith a parting joke,and disappeared through the door, going back to his waiting furnace. This was my first sight ofAngus MacLeod. I looked him up a few days later,got ac­ quainted easily, and in fact hit it off right well with him from the beginning. I was just enough older for him to look up tome a bit in other matters besideathletics, andon this last subject he gave me credit for pos­ sessing all the knowledge in the market, I learned that he had been in this country some four years, that he lived with an uncle, one of the pillars of a Scotch Presbyterian church, and that Angus was himself achurch­ man, devout and regular inhis habits. He had taken to athletics, with no other preparation than the school-boy sports of old Aberdeen, making a specialty ofthe "shot- put " and " hammer-throw." This last washis favorite sport, and by dint of regular practice inan open lot back of his house hewas able toshow about ninety feet as a best performance. He improved this at once under my instruction, working up to a regular hundred feet in a couple of weeks. This pleased him very much, and he took kindly to my suggestion that heenter some open competition, and see what he could do in a contest.