"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.