son and said:

"I am somewhat of a stranger here--how long does it take a thunder storm
to arrive?"

"About two minutes!" responded a voice from the seats; and instantly
there came a rush to cover, leaving the history of the Bible to care for
itself. We were just in time, for a minute later it was blowing a
hurricane, bending the great trees and breaking their branches. I had
heard of Kansas cyclones, had been shown a "cyclone cellar," and only
the day before had taken dinner in a house of which one end had been
blown clean off by a cyclone. As we stood in a building which we had
named "Normal Hall," I asked a lady by the window, "Is this a cyclone?"
She glanced without and then calmly said: "No, this is a straight wind."

In ten minutes the tornado was over and we reassembled for the lesson.
Kansas people seemed to accept occurrences like this as all in the day's
work. One weather-story of Kansas reminds of another. On my first visit
to that State in 1882, the last year of the Assembly at Topeka, I was
standing in front of the hotel, thinking of the historic events in
Kansas,--where the Civil War actually began, though unrealized at the
time,--when I saw nearby a rather rough looking, bearded individual.
Thinking that he might be one of the pioneers, with a story to tell of
the early days, I stepped up and began in the conventional way by
remarking:

"I don't think it's going to rain."

He looked me over and responded:

"Wal, strangers from the East think they know when it's goin' to rain
and when it ain't; but us fellers who've lived in Kansas thirty years
never know whether it'll rain in five minutes or whether it won't rain
in three months."

The Ottawa Assembly was one of the best in the Chautauqua system. The
people of the city built for its use a large tabernacle and halls for
classes. Beside the park flows the River Marais du Cygne, "the Swamp of
the Swan," celebrated in one of Whittier's poems; and on a bank
overlooking the river was erected a Hall of Philosophy, copying the old
Hall at Chautauqua, except that its columns were lighter and ornamented,
improving its appearance. We followed the Chautauqua programs as far as
possible, having many of the same speakers on our platform and Professor
Sherwin to lead the music, succeeded later by Dr. H. R. Palmer. The
teacher-training work, then called the Normal Class, was maintained
thoroughly, with adult, intermediate, and children's classes,--all
wearing ba