He said that there was no flour in the house, no food, that the children cried because they were so hungry, that he had brought a load of wood to town to try to trade for something. No one wanted to trade; the merchants needed money and not fire wood, and no one else would buy it. He only wanted a few dollars, and he could not borrow at the banks, or get credit at the stores. "I think I get a gun, and end it all," he said. "But that will not stop the hunger cries of the children," said his philosophic friend. "Yes, but I cannot stand it to hear them, and that will end my hearing them, and maybe someone can feed them," was the answer.

"Listen," said the friend, "you take that wood up to my house and unload it. You go home and buck up, and do your best to take care of that wife, and your children," and he handed him three silver dollars. The German took courage, and weathered the gale, somehow, and lived and prospered in the land.

But the friend, what of him? Those three dollars were the last three dollars that he had in the world. What was he to do ? He managed it some way, just as many another managed it, and to this day, they can look back and say : "I do not see how it was done, or where it came from, or what kept the wolf away. Elijah was fed by the ravens, and I guess the ravens must have looked after us."