Chapter 10    OTHER FUNNY STORIES
(The following stories were told to me by Dad and seemed to fit here in the history.
I think Ezra Merrill is the nephew he refers to often. Rex James)

Dad and Mom, when Robert was a baby, went up where Ezra was for a bear hunt. Before they left Grandma James said it wasn't worth going because she wouldn't cook or eat it if they brought it back. So when they came back they told her they didn't get a bear but a sheepherder had given them some mutton. After she cooked it and they ate dinner they told Grandma that she had just eaten meat that even a dog wouldn't eat (bear). Then they put a piece of cooked meat on the floor for her little dog. The dog just walked around it with his hair standing up and growling. He wouldn't touch the bear meat much to Grandma's surprise.

Ezra Merrill lived at Tohadaline (near Shiprock), New Mexico. He sent for a new pair of boots from Gallup. On one foot his second toe was longer than on the other foot thus his boots wouldn't fit. So he took the butcher knife, sharpened it and went to the chopping block. Here he laid the knife on the long toe and hit it to cut off his toe so it would fit the boots.