no The Winning of the West 



one shilling ; while corn was three shillings a bushel, 

 and salt twenty-four shillings, flour, thirty-six shil 

 lings a barrel, bacon sixpence and fresh pork and 

 buffalo beef threepence a pound. Boone procured 

 for his customers or for himself such articles as 

 linen, cloth, flannel, corduroy, chintz, calico, broad 

 cloth, and velvet at prices varying according to the 

 quality, from three to thirty shillings a yard; and 

 there was also evidently a ready market for "tea 

 ware," knives and forks, scissors, buttons, nails, and 

 all kinds of hardware. Furs and skins usually ap 

 pear on the debit sides of the various accounts, rang 

 ing in value from the skin of a beaver, worth eigh 

 teen shillings, or that of a bear worth ten, to those 

 of deer, wolves, coons, wildcats, and foxes, costing 

 two to four shillings apiece. Boone procured his 

 goods from merchants in Hagerstown and Wil- 

 liamsport, in Maryland, whither he and his sons 

 guided their own pack-trains, laden with peltries and 

 with kegs of ginseng, and accompanied by droves 

 of loose horses. He either followed some well- 

 beaten mountain trail or opened a new road through 

 the wilderness as seemed to him best at the mo 

 ment. 30 



Boone's creed in matters of morality and religion 

 was as simple and straightforward as his own char 

 acter. Late in life he wrote to one of his kinsfolk : 

 "All the religion I have is to love and fear God, 

 believe in Jesus Christ, do all the good to my neigh- 



30 Do. , passim. 



