Having accumulated wealth both in lands and specie, Roger’s first thought, on the breaking out of war, was for the safety of his specie. Mounting his best saddle-horse he rode some thirty miles west from his home in Darlington to Levi Annis’s, his brother-in-law, in Scarborough, in order that this relative might become his banker, for in those days there were no banks, and people had to hide their money. Entering his brother-in-law’s log-house, he removed a large pine knot from one of the logs forming the house wall. He placed his gold and silver within the cavity, and the knot was again inserted and all made smooth. Levi Annis gave no sign, and no one that came to the inn ever suspected the presence of this hoard of wealth. But when the war was over, Roger Conant again visited Levi Annis in Scarborough. Three years had passed away since, in his presence, [Illustration: ROGER CONANT HIDING HIS TREASURE.] the treasure had been inserted in the wall. In his presence also the pine knot was now removed, and the bullion--about $16,000 in value--was drawn forth intact. Among the records that have come down to the author from Roger Conant, and along with fragmentary papers left by him, by Levi Annis, David Annis, and Moode Farewell, various scraps of songs of the time 1812 to 1815 are garnered. Perhaps the song of the greatest merit and widest celebrity was “The Noble Lads of Canada,” the beginning of which was: “Oh, now the time has come, my boys, to cross the Yankee line, We remember they were rebels once, and conquered old Burgoyne; We’ll subdue those mighty democrats, and pull their dwellings down, And we’ll have the States inhabited with subjects of the Crown.”