WE HAD to work under some great disadvantages; two of the greatest was the want of money to do business with, and the want of tools to work with. The paper money was so uncertain, sometimes a bill which was good to-day was worth nothing to-morrow. It was not Government money; some of it was State money, but sometimes the State could not redeem its money. If you sold a man a horse you would get from twenty-five to forty dollars for him, and if you got it in paper you must go to where they had a “Detector”; a little paper that was issued every two weeks, showing what the different money was worth at the time the “Detector” was issued. You would often get bills representing at least one hundred dollars to get thirty dollars. This bill is worth twenty-five cents to the dollar, and this bill is on a bank which is a little better, it is worth forty cents, and so on; and we got very small prices at best. We had almost no market. Sometimes produce was hauled to St. Louis in wagons and fat hogs were driven to the same market. And the tools we had to farm with were mostly home made, and now farmers would not think of using such tools at all. We had nothing like a harrow or roller, the clods must be broke up with hoes, and the corn must be hoed two or three times; and the wheat and oats must be cut with reap hooks, and if a man would reap one acre per day he was doing well. But the people had what they was used to, and as they did not expect anything better they worked on pretty well contented. [Illustration] The Bear Chase. IT WAS probably in 1831, there was a little snow, and my Father was gone from home, and when nearly dark, the two big dogs smelled something down about the back of the field, and they would bark and growl and whine, and my Mother tried to get them to go, but they was afraid to go. When Father came home my Mother told him how the dogs had acted, and as soon as it was light enough to see, in the morning, my Father went down there and came back, and said there had been a large bear went between the fence and the bank of the creek. He got two of his neighbors to go with him, and they followed his track about a mile and found where he had went into a patch of thick hazels, and had broke down a lot of the bushes with his teeth to lay on to keep him out of the snow; but he ran out before they got up close, and all the dogs after him, and every little while he would stop to fight the dogs, and when the men would come up, he would run again, but finally, he was so large and fat he tired out, and the men got up pretty close, but they were afraid to shoot for fear they would hit the dogs; but after awhile one of them got a pretty good chance and shot him through behind the shoulders, and when the blood began to run and he began to sink, all the dogs piled on him, and the men ran up and beat them off and cut his throat. They did not weigh him, but they thought he would weigh near three hundred pounds. [Illustration] The Wolf Chase.