The elder Smith was digging a well for Clark Chase, two miles south of Palmyra. The Chase children were playing about the well, when one of the Smith boys shoveled out a clear white stone shaped like a human foot. It was quite transparent, something like a "peep stone" which the Chase children had used as a plaything. One of the girls said that when she peeped into the stone she saw things that had been lost. She was quite joyous over the treasure until young Joe, who was idling about the well, seized the agate and carried it away...Presently it was whispered that he had discovered a charm in which he could see wonders. With an air of mystery he would look at the stone shaded in his hat and see visions and any amount of lost property. Each day he had new revelations for his open mouthed followers. In a few weeks people were paying money for his oracles. Many a man was sent over the hills in search of lost cattle, on a fool's errand, of course, but Joe made money and the public apparently fancied humbugging, and that made him a great success.