| 339 "Who talked it; their friends or enemies, and when was it talked?"
"Well; they were not their friends, of course; I never heard it while they lived here; after they went to Kirtland, Ohio, people were talking it."
Young lady, a daughter of Mr. Pierce:
"The sheets, the sheets, pa; what was it about the sheets? Ma said old Mr. Smith come here with the sheets-and she told him to leave. How was it?" (looking to other members of the house).
"The sheets; what kind of sheets?" (I began to think of ghosts and hobgoblins.)
"The sheets, or the leaves he was carrying around in an old sack, or something."
Our feelings were relieved somewhat when we learned, on further inquiry, that Mr. Smith had called upon them when the Book of Mormon was first published, with a few unbound volumes for sale, and was ordered out of the house by "ma;" nothing like ghosts being connected with the event.
"Squire, did you really think they were in the counterfeit money business?"
"No; I never thought they did that."
"Tell us about the cave you spoke of?"
"The cave is over there in the hill now-a large cave."
"In what hill? The hill they call 'Mormon Hill?'"
"No; it is about a mile from that; but what are you so particular about it for?"
"We want to go and see it-we want to see the thing itself. Now you have been there; give us the description, while we write it down, so that we can find it."
"No; I never saw it; besides it is all caved in now, so you could not see anything. There is no cave there now, it is all fallen in."
Mr. Pierce having referred us to Mr. Reed, Orlando Saunders, and Abel Chase, we took leave of him and his intelligent family, and called next at the residence of Mr. Orin Reed.
He was at his home, doing some work about the barn. He is a gentleman of about seventy years of age, hard of hearing, and of pleasant and intelligent countenance. Breaking the object of our call to him, he readily informed us that he knew nothing whatever in regard to the character of Joseph Smith, or his family. "Mr. Reed, were you not acquainted with the Smith family, or some of those early connected with them?"
"No, I was not. I lived in the town of Farmington when the Smiths lived here. I knew nothing about any of them; was not personally acquainted with them, and never heard any of them preach, nor never attended any of their meetings. I have seen Hyrum Smith. He bought a piece of land near here, and lived on it some time after the others left; but I don't know anything against him."
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