So after employing competent help to take charge of our office, we were ready to start out. Soon after our decision to travel I traded a diamond ring for a horse, harness and buggy, and not being able to buy a mate to the animal in Chicago at a satisfactory price, we shipped our stock of goods and horse and buggy to Grand Haven, Michigan, by boat. I also bought a double harness in Chicago and shipped with the rig, and we crossed on the same boat. On our arrival there I began searching for another horse, and succeeded in finding one to suit me, which I bought in less than ten minutes after the owner showed him to me. I then had a pole fitted to my carriage, and by noon of that day we were under full sail for Northern Michigan. [Illustration: DECIDING A HORSE TRADE.--PAGE 606.] The first excitement I furnished my wife on that trip occurred about an hour after our departure from Grand Haven, and, was in the shape of a horse trade. We were traveling through a thick, heavy wood, when we met a sewing-machine agent. I saw at once that he was driving an animal that exactly matched the one we brought from Chicago. I bantered him for a trade. He stopped, and after looking over the horse I had just bought, said he'd trade for seventy-five dollars. "I'll give you fifty dollars." He then offered to trade for sixty. I still offered fifty. "Make it five dollars more, and it's a trade," said he. "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll wrestle you, run a foot-race, or spit at a mark, to see whether I shall pay five dollars extra or not." He "sized me up" for a moment, and said he guessed he'd wrestle with me; and asked me to name my hold. I proposed "rough-and-tumble." We then laid off our coats and took hold, and in much less time than it takes to tell it my heels and hat were flying in the air, and a second later I found myself sprawling in the middle of the road on my back. After rising to his feet he was about to put his coat on, when I asked if he was going to give up. "Give up? Great Caesar! didn't I throw you fair and square?" "Yes, you did that time; but the best three in five is what wins where I came from." "All right, sir. Three in five goes, then." By this time we had gotten rested, and took hold again. I felt in my bones that my five dollars was a goner, but determined to do my best, and managed to make it pretty lively for him. Finally, however, he landed me again squarely on my back. While taking a rest he remarked that "side-hold" was his favorite way to wrestle. I told him that I also preferred "side-hold." The fact was, I preferred almost anything for a change. I couldn't see that I was likely to lose much, at any rate, and was glad to accept almost anything. A moment later my wife called time, and we took "side-hold."