The new mayor gave him the sack of flour, and he shouldered it and carried it a mile or two, from Lower Austin to his home in Upper Austin, attended by a band of music and the whole population.

Arrived there, he said he did not need the flour, and asked what the people thought he had better do with it.

A voice said: "Sell it to the highest bidder, for the benefit of the Sanitary fund." The suggestion was greeted with a round of applause, and Gridley mounted a dry-goods box and assumed the role of auctioneer.

The bids went higher and higher, as the sympathies of the pioneers awoke and expanded, till at last the sack was knocked down to a mill man at two hundred and fifty dollars, and his check taken.

He was asked where he would have the flour delivered, and he said: "Nowhere--sell it again." Now the cheers went up royally, and the multitude were fairly in the spirit of the thing.