EARLY MANHOOD IN THE MIDDLE WEST 129 



Sabbath day I will charge you but half price 

 one dollar." For some time I had been carrying 

 one of those foolish but precious little one-dollar 

 gold pieces " good for the eyes," we used to call 

 them and I gave him that cherished coin, re- 

 marking : " You have been so liberal I will pay 

 you in real money, not in promises." Ten meals 

 and horse-feed for a day and two-thirds, for one 

 dollar in gold, which was equivalent to two dollars 

 in currency, was certainly liberal. Only yesterday 

 in this year of 1910 a carpenter worked six hours 

 for me and charged for a full day, for which I 

 paid him $5 in gold. From this one might almost 

 conclude that I made a mistake when I exchanged 

 the saw and the hammer for the cap and gown. 



At the time I settled near Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 

 the condition of the farmers was most unfortunate ; 

 although in the midst of plenty they were really 

 very poor. Little hamlets were strung over 

 those fertile prairies along the railway like tiny 

 beads on a string. The village was usually on 

 one side of the track and corn cribs without num- 

 ber on the other side. You might suppose that I 

 would glory in those ample graneries filled to over- 

 flowing with the golden harvest, the result of mak- 

 ing a thousand bushels of corn grow where only 



