"BROKE."

I became very anxious to sell my sheep in order to invest the money in
business of some kind, but could not find a buyer for more than
twenty-five head. This sale brought me seventy-five dollars in cash, and
I traded thirty-five head for a horse and wagon.

Thus equipped, I concluded to engage in buying and selling butter, eggs,
chickens and sheep pelts. Not quite satisfied that I would succeed
alone, I decided to take in one of our neighbor boys as a partner.

He furnished a horse to drive with mine, and we started out, each having
the utmost confidence in the other's ability, but very little confidence
in himself.

We made a two weeks' trip, and after selling out entirely and counting
our cash, found we had eighteen cents more than when we started. We had
each succeeded in ruining our only respectable suit of clothes, and our
team looked as if it had been through a six months' war campaign.

My partner said he didn't think there was any money in the business, so
we dissolved partnership.

I then decided to make the chicken business a specialty, believing that
the profits were large enough to pay well. Mr. Keefer loaned me a horse,
and after building a chicken-rack on my wagon, I started out on my new
mission.

There was no trouble in buying what I considered a sufficient number to
give it a fair trial, which netted me a total cost of thirty-five
dollars.

Sandusky City, twenty miles from home, was the point designed for
marketing them.

I made calculations on leaving home at one o'clock on the coming
Wednesday morning, in order to arrive there early on regular market day.

The night before I was to start, a young acquaintance and distant
relative came to visit me. He was delighted with the idea of
accompanying me to the city when I invited him to do so.

During the fore part of the night a very severe rain storm visited us.
I had left the loaded wagon standing in the yard.

Little suspecting the damage the storm had done me, we drove off in high
spirits, entering the suburbs of the city at day-break.

Then Rollin happened to raise the lid on top of the rack, and discovered
very little signs of life.

We made an immediate investigation and found we were hauling dead
chickens to market, there being but ten live ones among the lot, and
they were in a frightful condition. Their feathers were turned in all
directions, and their eyes rolling backwards as if in the agonies of
death. This trouble