"It's a mighty good thing I had that manufacturing work," he said half aloud, "or I'd find this pretty tricky. I should think it would be hard for any one not at all used to it."
By supper time--they kept to old-fashioned ways in the little hotel--Hamilton felt himself perfectly sure of his ground on the work, and he went to bed early, knowing he had a long ride and a hard day before him.
The following morning, an early breakfast over, Hamilton started on the journey to his enumeration district, stopping at the office for a moment's chat with his friend the supervisor, and receiving his good-luck wishes before he went. The mare was a delight, being well-paced, and the horseman from whom Hamilton had bought the animal had taken a great deal of pains to get him a saddle tree that fitted him, so that the boy enjoyed every minute of the ride. He reached the first point in his district about one o'clock, and after a hasty dinner started to work. The place was a tiny village, containing about forty houses.
The population work, as Hamilton had expected, proved to be comparatively simple, and the first house he visited was a fair sample of the greater number of those he tabulated all through the month. As a typical example it impressed itself upon his memory. He began next door to the house where he had eaten dinner. The natural privacy of a home was quite different from the public nature of a factory, and Hamilton felt a little strange as he walked up to the door and knocked.
"Good-morning," he said, as soon as the door was opened, "I'm the census-taker and I called for the paper that was sent for you to fill in."
"Yo' mean dat ar big sheet o' paper, jes' noth'n but quest'ns?" answered the young negro woman, who appeared at the door.
"That's it," the boy answered, "is it all filled out and ready?"
"Lawsy, no! Why, it would take me fo' eveh to do all that writin'. Ah'm no school-teacheh. An' besides, that's fo' fahmers. An' yo' have anotheh jes' like it!" she continued, noting the portfolio the boy carried. "Ah jes' know I can't eveh tell yo' all dose things."
"This is different," Hamilton pointed out. "Those other questions are about farms, just as you say, but these are all about your own family."