Not half enough corn ripened that year to furnish seed for the next.

I worked at my trade, and had the job of finishing the inside of a three-story house, having twenty-seven doors and a white oak matched floor to make, and did the whole for eighty-five dollars.

The same work could not now be done as I did it for less than five hundred dollars.

Such times as these were indeed hard for poor young men.

We did not have many carpets or costly furniture and servants; but as winter approached times seemed to grow harder and harder.