ng goods from the
manufacturers--My return to Chicago--Now I do hus'le--Immense success.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Employing traveling salesmen--Depression in trade--Heavily in debt--How
I preserved my credit--I take to the road again--Traveling by
team--Deciding a horse-trade--My book-keeper proposes an assignment--I
reject the proposition--Collecting old debts by stratagem.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Another horse trade--A heavy loss--Playing detective--My visit home--A
retrospect--Calling in my agents--A new scheme--It's a winner--Mr.
Keefer and my mother visit Chicago--His verdict, "It does beat the
devil."

CHAPTER I.

I was born near Ottawa, Illinois, January 6th, 1852, of Scotch-Irish
descent. My great-great-grandfather Johnston was a Presbyterian
clergyman, who graduated from the University of Edinburg, Scotland. My
mother's name was Finch. The family originally came from New England and
were typical Yankees as far as I have been able to trace them. My
father, whose full name I bear, died six months previous to my birth.
When two years of age my mother was married to a Mr. Keefer, of Ohio, a
miller by trade and farmer by occupation. Had my own father lived he
could not possibly have been more generous, affectionate, kind-hearted
and indulgent than this step-father.

And until the day of his death, which occurred on the 10th of July,
1887, he was always the same. This tribute is due him from one who
reveres his memory.

He had a family of children by his former wife, the youngest being a
year or two older than myself. Two daughters were born of this marriage.

A mixed family like the Keefer household naturally occasioned more or
less contention. More especially as the neighborhood contained those who
took it upon themselves to regulate their neighbors' domestic affairs in
preference to their own.

Consequently, in a few years, Mr. Keefer was severely criticised for not
compelling me to do more work on the farm, and for the interest he took
in schooling me.

As for myself, had I been hanged or imprisoned as often as those
neighbors prophesied I would be, I would have suffered death and loss of
freedom many times.

The farm life was distasteful to me from my earliest recollection. I
cannot remember ever having done an hour's work in this capacity except
under protest.

From this fact I naturally gained the reputation for miles around, of
being the laziest boy in the country, with no possible or probable