The times were awful hard and but little business done at anything.

It would almost frighten a man to see a five dollar bill, they were so very scarce.

My work was about two miles from where I lived.

My wife was confined about this time with her first babe.

I would rise every morning two hours before day-light and prepare my breakfast, and taking my dinner in a little pail, bid my good wife good-by for the day, and start for my work, not returning till night.