mself was elated with
the prospect of trading some of the products of their garden for a good
paying business, and in less than an hour I closed a deal, immediately
ordered a team and after loading up with potatoes, beets, turnips,
apples, cabbage, etc., and receiving ten dollars in cash drove home with
vegetables enough to last us several weeks.

I gave the gentleman a written agreement that he could have the
exclusive sale for the polish in the said County. After the trade was
made he asked me where he was going to get the polish, and wanted me to
give him the recipe for making it. This I refused to do but explained
that I could furnish it to him at a certain price per dozen. He then
wanted to know if I had any other agents traveling. I told him I had
not.

He then asked if I cared if he sold in other Counties. I answered him
that I did not.

"Well," he next asked, "what in Heaven's name have I been paying you
for, any how?"

"Experience," I answered.

He became excited, and said he didn't need experience.

I told him I thought he did, and that I considered the price very low
for the amount I had let him have.

After chaffing him a few moments and getting him exceedingly nervous, I
gave him the recipe with full instructions in the manner of making
sales. This pleased him, and he began preparations for canvassing
outside of town.

I then visited a wood-yard with a view to purchasing a load, but found
it would cost about as much for a cord of wood in Ann Arbor as it would
for a farm in Dakota. I then inquired of the proprietor how other poor
devils managed to keep warm in the town.

I was told that many of them used coke at ten cents per bushel, procured
at the gas works.

My landlady informed me that she could furnish us with a stove (in place
of the one we were using) that would burn coke. I consented to allow her
to make the exchange, and borrowing a wheel-barrow started for the gas
factory where I bought a bushel.

When I returned the new stove was ready and I began starting a fire. It
took about two hours time and the whole bushel of coke to start it, and
I was obliged to "hus'le" back after another load forthwith. We were
successful in getting a good fire started, but very soon discovered that
it required a full bushel of coke at a time in the fire-box to keep it
up, even during moderate weather.

We were quite well satisfied, however, for several days, or until the
extreme cold weather set in, wh