| 341 my house nearly all the time when my father died; I always thought them honest; they were owing me some money when they left here; that is, the old man and Hyrum did, and Martin Harris. One of them came back in about a year and paid me."
"How were they as to habits of drinking and getting drunk?"
"Everybody drank a little in those days, and the Smiths with the rest; they never got drunk to my knowledge."
"What kind of a man was Martin Harris?"
"He was an honorable man. Martin Harris was one of the finest men of the town."
"How well did you know young Joseph Smith?"
"Oh I just as well as one could very well; he has worked for me many a time, and been about my place a great deal. He stopped with me many a time, when through here, after they went west to Kirtland; he was always a gentleman when about my place."
"What did you know about his finding that book, or the plates in the hill over here?"
"He always claimed that he saw the angel and received the book; but I don't know anything about it. Have seen it, but never read it as I know of; didn't care anything about it."
"Well; you seem to differ a little from a good many of the stories told about these people."
"I have told you just what I know about them, and you will have to go somewhere else for a different story."
Mr. Saunders giving us the directions to the house of Abel Chase, we next called upon him and ascertained the following:
Mr. Chase.-"I am sixty-seven years old. Knew the Smiths; the old man was a cooper. I was young and don't remember only general character. They were poorly educated, ignorant and superstitious; were kind of, shiftless, but would do a good day's work. They used to call Joe, 'Lobby Joe.' He got a singular looking stone, which was dug up out of my father's well; it belonged to my brother Willard, and he could never get it. His mother, old Mrs. Smith, got the stone from mother."
"How do you know Joe ever had it?"
"Oh, I don't know that; but my brother could never get it back."
"Your sister had a stone she could look through and see things, so they have told us; did you ever see that, Mr. Chase?"
"Yes; I have seen it; but that was not the one that old Mrs. Smith got."
"Well; could you see things through that?"
"I could not; it was a dark looking stone; it was a peculiar stone."
"Do you really think your sister could see things by looking through that stone, Mr. Chase?"
"Well, she claimed to; and I must say there was something strange about it."
"Where is your sister now?"
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