MEMORIES OF THE 



tion and admonition of common sinners, himself apparently too 

 good to live in this wicked world, bought my whole crop at fifty 

 cents a bushel, and never paid me a cent. I felt badly over the 

 loss, as I had planned many ways in which to use a part of my 

 little fortune, intending to save the bulk. But it was a good 

 lesson, learned young, worth more to me than many bushels of 

 small potatoes, and I have never since been *' done up " by over- 

 confidence in the pious professions of pretenders, who try to 

 make their religion or alleged honesty a part of the trade. 



My next venture was trapping for minks. Their hides were 

 not then so valuable as to cause their extermination, and, by 

 working early and late, running up and down the creek to my 

 traps, I succeeded one fall in getting twenty-one. Most of them 

 were caught too early and they were not prime skins, but brought, 

 on an average, three shillings each. I was more fortunate in 

 my sale this time, the purchaser being one of the world's people, 

 a young man named Lane Baker, now a prominent clergyman, 

 who expected to pay in nothing but cash. When he took those 

 twenty-one black little hides off the stretching shingles and 

 counted me down seven dollars and eighty-seven cents in silver 

 of all denominations, I felt that I was pretty independent — at 

 least free from any immediate danger of poverty. 



It was a great sensation to be rich, and I enjoyed it as keenly 

 as an old miser. I counted the money over a dozen times, and 

 it never came out twice alike. Then, carefully depositing it in 

 the old pewter teapot on the top back shelf in the pantry, with 

 the half-pint of pennies I had accumulated from other sources, 

 I retired to dream of the great financial operations which I had 

 partly outlined for the future. I should go into the fur business — 

 that was settled. Astor was a fur trader as well as myself, but 

 he had only Indians to stack up against, while I might expect 



162 



