aven't
got the money."

"What have you got to 'swap'?"

"I don't think I have anything," I answered.

"Haven't you got a horse, town lot or watch? I am in need of a good
watch and I would give some one an extra good trade for one."

I replied: "I have a watch, but I don't care to trade it off."

"Let me see it," said he. After looking it over, he said:

"It suits me first-rate. How will you trade?"

"I'll trade for one hundred dollars and Sandusky County."

"No," he said, "I'll give you fifty dollars in cash, and the County."

"I won't take that," I said, "but I'll tell you what I will do. I'll
take seventy-five dollars."

"I'll split the difference with you."

"All right, make out the papers."

He did so, and handed me over sixty-two dollars and fifty cents and the
patent, (which I still own), for my watch.

An hour afterwards I met the Kentuckian who excitedly informed me that
the watch was not gold. I frankly admitted that I knew it was not, and
that I didn't remember of ever saying it was. He had paid my friend five
dollars of the ten he had promised, and his reason for not paying the
balance was because he had been obliged to pay cash difference to make
the trade.

He looked crest-fallen and discouraged and took the first train out of
town, "a sadder and a wiser man."

With my sixty odd dollars and a sample pair of pruning shears, I left
for Michigan, to take orders, and if possible, to sell some portion or
all of my six counties. In that invention I owned Branch, Hillsdale and
Leneway Counties in Michigan, and Steuben, La Grange and St. Joseph in
Indiana.

I arrived at Bronson, Michigan, from which point I started out taking
orders. My success was immense, but I was somewhat handicapped for the
reason that none of the farmers wanted the shears delivered to them
before the coming spring.

At last I found a customer for the Michigan counties, and traded them
for a handsome bay horse which I bought a saddle for, and rode through
to Ohio. On arriving home I explained my success in taking orders.

My mother said I was a goose for not staying there and working up a nice
business, instead of fooling away the territory for a horse.

Mr. Keefer said he would rather have the horse than all the territory in
the United States.

I traded the horse to one of our neighbors for a flock of sheep and sold
them for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. I then started for La
Grange, Indiana, to dispose of my