dingly, no sooner had Willard set his little feet within
the enclosure of the barn-yard than the bull gave a roar of rage, and
catching the boy on the tips of his horns, which fortunately were
buttoned, sent him twenty feet up in the air, preparing to trample him
out of existence when he should come down. Luckily some of the men were
attracted to the scene, who secured his bullship and rescued the child.
Willard was not seriously hurt, and the instant he regained his feet, he
turned round, shook his tiny fist at the now retreating animal and
shouted out in a shrill treble, "When I get to be a big man I'll toss
you in the air!"

Having thus taken the bull by the horns in a literal as well as
figurative sense, the lad began gradually to develop into that terrible
embodiment of unrest--a boy. He exhibited no very marked peculiarities
up to this time to distinguish him from other youths; but just grew into
the conglomerate mass of good, bad and indifferent qualities which go to
make up the ordinary flesh-and-blood boy--brimful of mischief and
impatient of restraint.

CHAPTER III.

EARLY LIFE AND HABITS.

Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism of twenty-five years ago.--The "little
deacon."--First days at school.--Choosing a wife.--A youthful
gallant.--A close scholar but a wild lad.--A mother's
influence.--Ward Glazier a Grahamite.--Young Willard's practical
jokes.--Anecdote of Crystal Spring.--"That is something like
water."

It must not be supposed that young Willard's home was gloomy and
joyless, because it was presided over by a religious woman. The
Presbyterians of that day and that race were by no means a lugubrious
people. They did not necessarily view their lives as a mere vale of
tears, nor did they think the "night side of nature" the most sacred
one. The Rev. Mr. Morrison, one of their divines, tells us that "the
thoughtless, the grave, the old and the young, alike enjoyed every
species of wit," and though they were "thoughtful, serious men, yet they
never lost an occasion that might promise sport," and he very
pertinently asks, "what other race ever equaled them in getting up
corn-huskings, log-rollings and quiltings?--and what hosts of queer
stories are connected with them!" Fond of fun, there was a grotesque
humor about them, which in its way has, perhaps, never been equaled.

"It was the sternness of the Scotch Covenanter softened by a century's
residence abroad, amid persecution