rel and "sit on it" till we came along, if he wanted a
chance to get ahead. This he did almost literally. We ourselves took
his barrel to the nearest cash buyer, and ordered for him goods for
cash in St. John's to the full amount realized. The fur brought more
than his needs, and he was able to help out neighbours by reselling at
cash prices. This he did till the day of his death, when he left me,
as his executor, with a couple of hundred good dollars in cash to
divide among his children.

It was experiments like this which led me in later years to start the
small cooperative distributive stores, in spite of the knowledge of
the opposition and criticism it would involve. How can one preach the
gospel of love to a hungry people by sermons, or a gospel of healing
to underfed children by pills, while one feels that practical teaching
in home economics is what one would most wish if in their position?
The more broad-minded critics themselves privately acknowledged this
to me. One day a Northern furrier, an excellent and more intelligent
man than ordinary, came to me as a magistrate to insist that a trading
company keep its bargain by paying him in cash for a valuable fox
skin. They were trying to compel him to take flour and supplies from
them at prices far in excess of those at which he could purchase the
goods in St. John's, _via_ the mail steamer.

When asked to act as a justice of the peace for the Colony, I had
thought it my duty to accept the responsibility. Already it had led me
into a good deal of trouble. But that I should be forced to seize the
large store of a company, and threaten an auction of goods for
payment, without even a policeman to back me up, had never entered my
mind. It was, however, exactly what I now felt called upon to do. To
my intense surprise and satisfaction the trader immediately turned
round and said: "You are quite right. The money shall be paid at once.
The truck system is a mistaken policy, and loses us many customers."
It was Saturday night. We had decided to have a service for the
fishermen the next day, but had no place in which to gather.
Therefore, after we had settled the business I took my pluck in my
hands, and said:

"It's Sunday to-morrow. Would you lend us your big room for prayers in
the morning?"

"Why, certainly," he replied; and he was present himself and sang as
heartily as any man in the meeting. Nor did he lose a good customer on
account of his open-mindedness.