rove it; the only drawback being that the river was one glare of ice, and his oxen had lost many of their shoes. He had saved part of the shoes, borrow

determined to carry the shoes with him, and hire Drew to sharpen and nail them on. He put on the sled half a cor

is breakfast, and he set out. He carried in a basket doughnuts, baked beans, cold boiled pork, Indian bread, and butter, and a jug of coffee, also hay for the oxen. His plan was to stop for the night at Hanson's, who put up teams, paying fifty

ding, in response to the greeting of Richardson, he took an axe, into which he had stuck the steel, from the fire, flung it savagely on the anvil, crying to Tom, "Strike!" and after the heat put it in the fire again, taking not the

e and another one to make for

g

rist ground. It would be a great accommodation to me if you could. I had hard work to get

you, and that's the l

myself. If you don't, I am sure I don't know what I shall do. I had hard work to get the catt

mmodate you folks up there, and took my pay in white beans and all sorts of trash, when I left cash jobs at home and lost 'em; and here you come smelling round, and palavering, as though butter wouldn't melt in your mouth; watch and sneak round, and steal the trade, and then go back, cut off

ws had subsided, and the iron was ret

s. You would do the same were you in our place. If you complain so bitterly of coming to our place twice a year, what do you think it must be for us to come to you all the time? You must remember, also, that at those times you charged a corresponding price, that was cheerfully paid. I can't well see how you could lose any work by going, as there is no other smith anywhere round, and you must

worm out of me you may put in

ou full opportunity to free your mind, and express your opinion of me, any more talk of that

ugh a patient and good-natured man, William Ric

as Richardson left the shop he w

son, where a

ld take part of his pay in bark. I was going to buy some iron and steel at the store; but I shall have to

arah's, and get my dinner; it won't take me so long as to go home; and before Drew gets back I'll fit the shoes and make the nails, and this evening we will put

iron? Shan't I run to

o small jobs out of shop time. An

slaw's father invited him to stop to dinner. As he

; and I'll tell you what I've been thinking of

m; for I'm paying for my l

that won't cost you one quarter what it would to buy new at the store, and be just as good, and better, for your use, as it wil

in the grist-mill, and built

m. The drills are all steel, and the best of steel, too; and I've no doubt you could buy 'em

steel, being much worn, the remainder iron, shaped like the stalk of a seed onion, with a bulb of iron in the middle, three inches in diameter. He also bought a light stone-hammer. This was likewise a great acquisition, as it would serve the purpose of a sledge. Clem could now strike with it for a short time, and would, in a few months, be able to handle it easily; for he was large of his age, and m

procured, and the oxen were cast on the barn floor. Richardson held a candle, stuck into a potato, while Hanson assisted Tom. The

hog enough for one small place, but, sitting down before the fire with Rich

north-west, a bright sun, the ice smooth and hard, and the cattle, sharpshod, were able to travel. Thoroughly rested, and eager to get home, they seemed to regard the load no more than though it had

ticipated. He feasted his eyes upon the iron and steel-the great bar, the nail rods-he had bought at the store, or rather the thin bar he had purchased to be split into nail r

bunch of iron in the middle of that churn-drill. He couldn't keep his eyes of

me long before his wife expected him. The children had come half starved-as children alway

when he comes, and you'll want to tie up the cattle, and get the[Pg 60]

spread butter on the loaf, and then cut off and distribute huge slices to the hungry expectants. She had cut

teepness of the grade, piled on to the sled, the two girls holding on to their father's legs, who, standing on the hinder end of the sled, and holding by one hand to a stake, with the other waved his hat to his wife, shouting, "O, Sue, the best of luck! 'Lashings' of ir

rank in the words of her husband, who, taking her in his arms, seated her upon a bag of meal, and, while the cattle went on,

l you what it is, Sue, it's bet

for the riches may be lost; but the former are an enduring possession, and when unde

y nature reserved and thoughtful. But now his tongue ran like a mill-clapper

teel; and what a great bunch of iron in the middle-Swedish iron, too; and three picks, and drills, and wedges-all steel; and that crane-see what a great junk of iron that is!-didn't cost me much of anything,[Pg 62] either; and that big bar, to make

a whopper!" Just see if it don't come out so before we have done with the Richardsons. That amount of gold might, and probably would, have ruined them; but on every grain of that rusty metal

g the stone-hammer, "what is

e great bars of iron with-at any rate,

here"-swinging it over his head, and bringing it down