offered to split the difference, and I took him up before he had time
to draw another breath.

He paid me three hundred and fifty dollars, and I transferred my trunks
of goods and other baggage to the cart. When I did so the old gentleman
and several others began to laugh, and said they guessed I'd have to
hire a teamster, as I would find considerable difference between
horses and oxen. I told them of my early boyhood experience in breaking
steers, and to prove the truth of my assertion, took up the ox-whip and
"gee-d" them around on the streets several times before starting out.

I remitted to Mr. Keefer, took my seat in the cart and continued north,
reaching a small village just at sundown, where I made my usual parade,
ringing the bell and crying out for everybody to come on Main street and
witness the great performing feats of trained oxen. I think everybody
must have responded; at any rate I actually made the best two hours'
sale I had ever made in the auction business.

The next day I had a pair of blankets made for my team, and had them
lettered, "Free Exhibition of Trained Oxen on the Streets this Evening."

On arriving at the next town I hired two small boys each to ride an ox,
and ring a bell and halloo at the top of their voices, while I stood up
between the trunks in the cart, also yelling and ringing a bell.

We succeeded in getting every one in town out and made a grand sale.

When about to close for the evening, I was asked to give an exhibition
of my oxen. I replied that the oxen were there on exhibition, and no
charge would be made to those who wished to look at them.

I was asked what they were trained to do.

I replied that among other things they were trained to stand without
being hitched!

The fact had been fairly demonstrated that a yoke of trained oxen and
cart paid better than a five-hundred-dollar team of horses with a
carriage; but as winter was coming on, I saw the necessity of getting
rid of them as soon as possible, and found a lumber-man who made me an
offer which I accepted.

Then I began traveling by rail, and hiring a livery team in each town.

A few weeks later I returned to Ohio. On my way there I had to change
cars at Jonesville, Michigan; and when I boarded the train on the Main
Line I noticed, sitting in the second seat from the front door, my old
friend the Clairvoyant Doctor. He looked as natural as the day I bade
him good-bye at Pontiac, and was wearing the same old s