e arch bridge now is. The island was heavily
timbered and the road ran across at an angle, coming out at a bridge on
First Street South. We got up onto the street just about the time the
men were coming out of the mills, sold our watermelons and went home
with $10.00 each, the proceeds of our first farming. It was a three days
trip and a very tiresome one for the boys as well as for the cattle.

A friend by the name of Shatto and I took up a claim but were hailed
out. When the storm ceased, I crawled out and looked around. My stove
was broken, everything was water soaked, except some provisions which I
had in a bucket which had a cover and my cattle had disappeared. I
considered matters for a few minutes and concluded that the only thing I
could do was to start for the hotel at Kenyon, some three miles away. I
was drenched. My boots, all wore boots in those days, were soaked with
water and very soon hurt my feet so I had to take them off. I made my
way into Kenyon and there saw the great destruction which had been done
by the hail. There was not a whole pane of glass in the little village
and the inhabitants were engaged in patching up their windows with
boards and blankets, as best they could. The crops were entirely
destroyed. Many people had suffered by being struck by hailstones, some
of which were as large as hens eggs.

I had in my pocket $1.50, and I told the landlord, Mr. Bullis, my
condition and that I wanted to stay all night.

When supper was ready I went to the table and much to my surprise met a
Hastings lawyer with whom I had some acquaintance, our Seagrave Smith.
Smith urged me to give up the idea of becoming a farmer and take up the
study of law. So it was this hail storm that made me a lawyer.

In the fall of 1858 I secured a school and was initiated as a country
school-master. The school house was a log building, about two and a half
miles up the river from Cannon Falls. The neighborhood was largely
Methodist and the pupils were all boys, about twenty-five in number.
There was not at that time in the district a single girl over six years
of age and under sixteen. Mr. Hurlbut had one boy Charles about fourteen
years of age. Very soon after my school commenced for a four months term
the Methodists concluded they would have a revival. They used the school
house every evening for that purpose and on Sunday it was occupied all
day. Nearly all of the pupils attended these meetings, began to profess
conver