sible with my toes turned in, and with the old carpet-bag in hand
was duly photographed.

While they were being printed I received another letter from my mother
congratulating us on our splendid success in making ourselves
comfortable during such a hard winter, and said we ought to be thankful
that the Lord had blessed us with so many comforts. But one thing in my
letter puzzled them all, and that was, what in the world I meant by
saying that my principal business was hauling coke. They couldn't
imagine that I had hired out as a teamster, and if I had, they couldn't
see how I could work for some one else and sell polish too. She said
when she read my letter Mr. Keefer declared that "that boy would keep
hustling and die with his boots on before he would ever hire out as a
teamster or any thing else." And he wanted her to find out at once what
on earth it meant. I answered in a few days, stating that I had spent
the greater portion of the winter hauling coke a distance of about a
mile in a wheel-barrow for our own use and that it took about a bushel a
minute to keep us comfortable. I enclosed my photograph, saying that I
had stopped on my way home from canvassing one afternoon and had it
taken just as I appeared on the street.

I also explained that at the last house where I had stopped they had
set the dog on me and he had torn a piece out of my linen ulster and I
hadn't noticed it till after the picture was taken.

I received an immediate reply to this letter acknowledging the receipt
of the photograph and making a few comments.

About the first thing she said was that her advice to me would be never
to let another winter catch me in Michigan, but to start South and try
to reach a locality where linen ulsters and straw hats were more adapted
to the climate.

She said she thought the mittens and ear mufflers were very becoming and
her first impulse was to send me a pair of Mr. Keefer's old rubber
boots, but on second thought had made up her mind that the tops would
hardly reach the bottom of my pants and had concluded that the shoes I
was wearing would be more becoming and much easier to walk in.

She concluded her remarks by saying she didn't see what objection I had
to burning wood or nice hard coal, instead of hauling coke so far in a
wheel-barrow; and asked how I liked "hus'ling" by this time. She also
said that I had carried the old carpet-bag so long that it bore a strong
resemblance to myself; and advised me