he had to say. I then said:

"Here, help saddle and bridle my horse, quick!"

He did so, and helped me to mount, and with a long stick which he picked
up, struck my horse across the hip and yelled:

"Now you're all right!" as I passed out on a full gallop. Just as I was
leaving the barn I heard a voice cry out:

"Stop that man! Stop that man!"

"Go it, you son-of-a-gun!" my new friend yelled; and I did "go it."

I steered my course toward Swanton, arriving there that night, with just
twenty-five cents in my pocket.

I had an old friend living there who was a painter by trade, besides
numerous acquaintances. It will be remembered that it was at this same
town I had resigned my position as Telegraph operator a few years
before.

I very soon called on my old landlord, who gave me a hearty welcome.
After putting my horse out, I settled down for the night.

The next morning I called on my friend, who had just finished a job of
painting, but could not collect his bill at once, and being a little
short himself, was unable to assist me.

I asked if he had a good credit there, and he replied that he could buy
anything he wanted on time.

I then asked if he could hire a horse and buggy on those terms, and he
said he could.

"Well then, you come to a drug store with me and we will buy some patent
medicine, or something that we can sell to the farmers, and we will
travel through the country with your hired rig, leading my horse behind,
and peddle from house to house on our way to Adrian, Mich., where I can
possibly sell my horse, and you can then return home."

He then suggested that it would be a good scheme to take a pot of copal
varnish and brush along, and take jobs of the farmers to varnish pieces
of furniture, charging a certain price for each piece.

"Well," said I, "why not sell them the varnish, and let them do the work
themselves?"

"But they can buy all the varnish they want right here where we buy it."

"That's true," I answered, "but they can't buy _our_ kind at _any_ drug
store."

He laughed, and said he guessed I'd find people in that country up to
the times.

"Very well, then, so much the better, if they are, for they'll want
something new; and I don't think there has been any one along selling
them ounce bottles of copal varnish for fifty cents!"

No, he said he hadn't heard of any one doing so, and didn't think it
could be done.

I insisted it could be done.

We then called on the drug