The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1899-05-04
CHAPTER ".

I thought, at first, to dismiss the
events of the two following chapters
with brief mention, as they do some
what depart from the course of the
narrative. But it has appeared better,
on second thoughts, to withhold moth
ing of the circumstances attending my
farewell to my northern home. And it
must not be said that the character
of Deacon Halleck is presented here as
a type of the men of that section.
Keenly do I remember the kindness,
the patience, the neighborly good will
and good works of the people in COM
munity where poverty was the rule
and hard toll was the common lot.
Because the deacon happened to be
connected in a curious way with the
final severance of my home ties and old
associations his picture is presented
here just as he was. I suppose that
his kind is not yet extinct. This is au-
TOPOGRAPHY; it should be complete.
The bounty of our generous southern
friend enabled me to have one precious
year at the academy, some years later,
and gave my father the means to re-
plenish his poor stock and poorer farm
implements. But when he told Mr..
Bostock that bad luck had followed
him, he spoke in prophecy as we'll as
history. My poor father! He deserved
better fate. Misfortune followed mis-
fortune: they came
MOT single spies,
But in battalions''
Each year the thin soil that overlaid
the rocks grew more grudging in it's
yield: murrain carried off the cattle;
hard work and anxiety Frustrated my
mother, and death mercifully released
her. This stroke fell in my eighteenth
year. For awhile my father bore up
under his accommodating load of misfor-
tune and sorrow; but when his creditor
commenced the foreclosure of the mort
gage, both hope and ambition left him.
He died the day after the place was
sold; and if ever man persisted of a
broken heart, it was he.
Twice, at his suggestion. at long in
tervals, had written to Mr.. Bostock
to repeat our thanks for his gift and
so to remind him of the poor New
Hampshire lad in whom he had prof
fered so warm an interest. Later de-
| velopments caused me to recall the
dates of this correspondence. My first
letter was written upon my sixteenth
birthday anniversary, January 1, 1858.
In the due and rather slow course of
the mails of that time an answer came,
postmarked at the address in Missis-
sippi which Mr.. Bostock had left with
us. was at that time completing nv
first quarter at the academy; was eager
and Jealous in my studies, and it must
be confessed that was rather taken
aback to discover that my correspond
ent was very poor speller But the
matter Of the epistle could not have
wished different. 1t was hearty, gen.
erous, sympathetic. He reiterated all
had heard from him as to myself,
five years before, and he babe me come
down to him as soon as my parents
would consent. My second letter was
written in 1857, upon the death of my
father, and advised my correspondent
that both of my parents were no more.
10 this no answer was ever returned.
/ thought strangely of his silence.
1t troubled me much, although at
tributed it to miscarriage of the mails.
After the lapse of few weeks, the de-
sire and intention to write again grew
strong. It so happened that the diff
culties and annoyances of the situa-
ton in which l was placed after the
death of my father caused me to defer
this design; so that, when started on
my southern journey in the summer Of
1858, the letter was still unwritten.
NY father died soon after became
twenty years of age. For a year after
la memorable year!-1 was domiciled
in the family of my guardian. Deacon
Halleck.