uthful Great-uncle Nathaniel
set off the next day to drive to Brunswick with a span of old white
horses hitched in a farm wagon without springs, carrying four rather
poor sheep, four bushels of barley, and fifteen pounds of wool, which
they hoped to exchange for five bushels of that precious corn. On top
of it all there were three large bagfuls of hay for the horses. The
boys also took an axe and an old flintlock gun, for much of the way
was then through forest.

It was a long day's drive for horses in poor condition, but they
reached Brunswick that night. There, however, they found the cargo of
corn so nearly sold out, or bartered away, that they were able to get
but three bushels to bring home.

The corn was reckoned at nine dollars, the four sheep at only six
dollars, and it had been difficult "dickering" the fifteen pounds of
wool and the two bushels of barley as worth three dollars more. The
extra two bushels of barley went for their keep overnight. Such was
produce exchange in 1816.

The next morning they started for home, lightly loaded with their
dearly bought corn. Their route lay along the Androscoggin River, and
they had got as far on their way as the present factory town of
Auburn, where the Little Androscoggin flows into the larger river of
the same name, when they had an adventure which resulted in very
materially increasing the weight of their load.

It was a raw, cloudy day, and had begun to "spit snow"; and as it drew
toward noon, they stopped beside the road at a place where a large
pine and several birches leaned out from the brink of the deep gorge
through which the Little Androscoggin flows to join the larger stream.
Here they fed their horses on the last of the three bagfuls of hay,
but had nothing to cook or eat in the way of food themselves. The
weather was chilly, and my young Great-uncle Nathaniel said to
Jonathan:

"If you will get some dry birchbark, I will flash the pan. We will
kindle a fire and warm up."

Jonathan brought the bark, and meanwhile Nathaniel drew the charge
from the old "Queen's arm," then ignited some powder in the pan with
the flintlock, and started a blaze going.

The blaze, however, had soon to be fed with dry fuel, and noticing a
dead firtop lying on the ground a few steps away, Jonathan took the
axe and ran to break it up; and the axe strokes among the dry stuff
made a considerable crackling.

Throwing down the axe at last, Jonathan gathered up a large armful