The daily Alaskan., 1919-03-04
CHAPTER V.
Thn Great Stranner

road those days-hunters, peddlers and the like-and their coming filled me with a joy which mostly went away with them, I regret to say. None of these, however, appealed to my imagination as did old Kate. But there was one stranger greater than she-greater Indeed, than any other who came Into Rattleroad. He came rarely and would not be long detained. How curlously we looked at him, knowing hIs fame and pOwerl This great stranger was Money.
 I shall never forget the day that my uncle showed me dollar bill and little shiny, gold coin and three pieces of silver, nor can I forget how carefully he watched them while they lay in my hands and presently put them back into his wallet. That was long before the time of which l am writing. I remember hearing him say, one day of that year, when l asked him to take us to the Caravan of Wild Beasts which was coming to the village:
 "Pm sorry, but It's been hundred Sundays since I had dollar in my wallet for more than ten minutes"
 I have his old account book for the years of 1887 and 1888. Here are some of the entries:
 Balanced ac' nunts with J. Doro- thy and gave him my note for S2.l5 to be paid in salts January 1, 1858. Sold ten bushels of wheat to E. Miner at 90 cents, to he paid In goods.
 -Sold two sheep to Flavius Curtis EEd took hls note for SC, payable in boots on or before March the first"
 Only one entry in more than a hundred mention money, and this was the sum of eleven cents received in balance from neighbor.
 So it will be seen that spirit of mutual accommodation served to Eelp us over the rough going. MT. arimshaw, however, demanded his pay In cash and that find was main ly the habit of the money-lenders. We were poor but our poverty was not like that of these days In which am writing. It was proud and cleanly and well-fed. Our fathers had seen heroic service In the wars and we knew 1t.
 I was twelve years old when I be- gan to be the reader for our little family. Aunt Deel had long con- piained that she couldn't keep up with her knitting and read so much. We had not seen Mir. Wright for nearly two years, but he had sent US the novels of Sir Walter Scott and l had led them heart deep into the creed battles of Old Mortality.
 Then came the evil days of 1887, when the story of our lives began to quicken its pace and excite our inter- est In its coming chapters. It gave us enough to think of. God knows.
 Wild speculations in land and the American paper-mOney system had brought us into rough going The banks of the city of New York hRd suspended payment of their notes. They could no longer meet their en- agements. As usual, the burden fell heaviest on the poor. It was hard to get money even for black salts.
 Uncle Peabody had been silent and depressed for a month or more. He had signed a note for Rodney Barnes, cousin, long before and was afraid that he would have to pay 1t. I didn't know what a note was and I remem- Der that one night, when I lay think Ing about 1t, I decided that 1t must be something in the nature of horse collie. My uncle told me that note was a trouble which attacked the brain instead of the stomach.
 One autumn day in Canton UnCle Peabody traded three sheep and twen- ty bushels of wheat for cook stove and brought 1t home In the big wagon, Rodney Barnes came with him to help set up the stove. He was a big giant of man with the longest nose in the township. have often wondered how any one would solve the problem of kissing Mir. Barnes in the immediate region of his nose, the same being In the nature of a defense.
 That evening I was chiefly inter- ested In the stove. What a joy 1t was to me with it's damper and grid dies and high oven and the shiny edge on Its hearthI It Tlvaled, In Its nov city and charm, any tin peddler's cart that ever came to our door. John Axtell and his wife, who had seen 1t pass their house, hurried over for a look at it. Every hand was on the stove as we tenderly. carried 1t into the house, piece by piece, and set 1t up. Then they cut a hole in the up- per floor and the stone chimney and fitted the pipe. How keenly we watched the building of the fire. How quickly 1t roared and began to heat the rooml ..
 When the Axtells had gone away Aunt Deel said:
 "Its grand! It is sartin-but I'm 'fraid we can't afford it-ayes be !''
 "We can't afford to freeze any longer. I made up my mind that we couldn't go through another winter