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In 1945, a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window that set his heart racing. But the pricefive dollarswas far beyond Reuben Earles means. Five dollars would buy almost a weeks groceries for his family. Reuben couldnt ask his father for the money. Everything Mark Earle made through fishing in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, Canada. Reubens mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed and clothe their five children. Nevertheless, he opened the shops weathered door and went inside. Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack shirt and washed-out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, But I dont have the money right now. Can you please hold it for me for some time? ll try, the shopkeeper smiled.Folks around here dont usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a while. Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the sunlight with the bay rippling in a freshening wind. There was purpose in his loping stride5. He would raise the five dollars and not tell anybody. Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea. He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site. People built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in Hessian sacks from a local factory. Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of building, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five cents a piece. | 
