strange bug in every bottle I had in the house.

"After our marriage we moved to Lansing, and he became superintendent in
an electrical manufacturing company. He had a little shop of his own in
the basement at home, and during the long winter evenings of the first
year that we were there he built furniture for our little home. The chair
we are sitting in, Willis, is one of his first pieces. We were very happy
together there, and it wasn't long before you came. The summer before you
were born his company sent him West to install mine machinery. It was
then that he became interested in the great gold mines of Colorado.
Everybody seemed to be prospecting and staking gold claims. He thought he
saw his chance to get rich quickly, so he, too, began prospecting. He
very soon developed a great love for the mountains, and while you were a
baby he used to go to Colorado Springs for his vacations. His mind was
very active, and as he became more closely acquainted with the mines he
conceived an idea for a machine to roast gold ore by electricity. In the
winter evenings he would sit sketching its parts and dreaming over his
plans. Sometimes in his boyish enthusiasm he would assure me that he
would yet be a rich man."

"And what about his mine, mother; doesn't that come into the story pretty
soon?" "Yes, yes, but don't hurry me, son. It seems so very strange to be
sitting here telling you all about him, for it seems to have happened so
long, long ago.

"On one of his trips west he fell in with an old mountaineer named
Kieser, Tad Kieser. Tad became interested in his roasting machine, and
they decided to locate claims together. Tad was to put up the 'grub
stakes,' as they called it, for your father had no money except his
salary. All one fall, when he was not installing machinery, they explored