They here rummaged some drawers and
boxes, but discovered only a few papers, of no importance, and some
good coin, silver and gold. At length, looking under the bed, they saw
a large, common hair trunk, without hinges, hasp, or lock, and with
the top lying carelessly across the bottom portion. Upon attempting to
draw this trunk out from under the bed, they found that, with their
united strength (there were three of them, all powerful men), they
'could not stir it one inch.' Much astonished at this, one of them
crawled under the bed, and looking into the trunk, said:
'No wonder we couldn't move it- why it's full to the brim of old
bits of brass!'
Putting his feet, now, against the wall so as to get a good
purchase, and pushing with all his force, while his companions
pulled with an theirs, the trunk, with much difficulty, was slid out
from under the bed, and its contents examined. The supposed brass with
which it was filled was all in small, smooth pieces, varying from
the size of a pea to that of a dollar; but the pieces were irregular
in shape, although more or less flat-looking, upon the whole, 'very
much as lead looks when thrown upon the ground in a molten state,
and there suffered to grow cool.
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