harangues
of the most exciting nature. Previously I had thought they had politics
and religion mixed, but I now discovered that there was no mixture
about it.

On my return, I had a little adventure in crossing the river. The ferry
was at New Richmond. The boat was a small affair, propelled by poles
and oars. It was just wide enough for a wagon, and had railings on the
sides. A two-horse wagon went in before me. When we got some distance
out into the river, one of the horses jumped over the railing, and
caused the boat to careen so that it was filling rapidly. It was
astonishing how those river men, who, perhaps, had been reared on the
water, became excited. They seemed almost incapable of any intelligent
action, but yelled like so many savages. I decided at once upon my
course. I got into the wagon, calculating that the water would probably
not come to my head while standing up, should the boat go down. If it
should, then I determined to take my horse by the tail and let him tow
me ashore. But the owner of the team succeeded in cutting the harness,
thus freeing the horse and allowing the boat to right itself so that it
did not sink.

We moved from Eminence to Alexandria, and boarded with a gentleman by
the name of Brown. He had a nice family, a good house, and he was a
clever gentleman, and a "hardshell" Baptist of the first water.

Our school opened about the first of September, with seventy-eight
pupils, and it soon increased to 130. Not expecting so many, I had
secured no assistant but my wife; and the result was, we were both
over-worked. I had to hear several classes out of school hours,
especially in Latin and Greek. There were some young men in these
studies, clerks, merchants, etc., who were not otherwise in the school,
and these recitations were in the evening after school was dismissed.
This, with preaching every Lord's day, worked me very hard. The school
paid well, and for the first time since I gave up business for the
gospel of Christ, I made some money.

In a few months, as soon as I saw an open road to success, I bought a
nice little cottage and two acres of ground, from Bro. Giltner, at
$1,200. He had taken it for a school debt, and let us have it on
reasonable terms. It was nicely improved, and altogether a desirable
piece of property. Thus for the first time we had a home of our own.
This is a luxury that comparatively few preachers can enjoy. Moving
from place to place as, for example, Methodi