dam and the falls, when the boys desperately rowed their boats out
of danger. Raft and contents went over the falls and the bonfire was
quenched in the devouring flood. As we saw it going to its doom, I
distinctly heard the word "dam" spoken, and I fear it was intended to
include a final "n." But that was the last attempt at a camp fire. When
I proposed one at the next season, the entire Round Table burst out with
a roaring laugh.

The success of Ottawa led to the opening of many other Assemblies all
over the State, and by degrees weakened this, the mother Chautauqua of
Kansas. It is still maintained, but in a small way, as one of the chain
Chautauquas.

In 1879, a Sunday School Congress which soon grew into an Assembly was
held at Ocean Grove, on the Atlantic Coast, almost the only place where
the camp meeting, the summer resort, and the Chautauqua idea have lived
together in mutual peace and prosperity. But even at Ocean Grove the
Assembly has been overshadowed, almost out of sight, by the camp meeting
and the summer boarding-house contingent. For several seasons I took
part in the work, and in 1881 conducted the Children's Class. On the
next to the last day I told all the children to meet me at our chapel,
naming the hour when the tide would be at its lowest, every child to
bring a pail and shovel, or a shingle, if his shovel had been lost. We
formed a goodly procession of three hundred, marching down the avenue,
myself at the head. At the beach I had selected a suitable area, and set
the children to constructing out of the damp sand a model two hundred
feet long of Palestine, the land of which we had been studying in the
daily class. It was a sight to see those young nation builders, making
the coastline, piling up the mountains, and digging out the Jordan
valley with its lakes. Some Biblically inclined gentlemen aided in the
supervision, and apparently a thousand people stood above and looked on.
When it was finished I walked up and down the model, asking the children
questions upon it, and was somewhat surprised to find how much they
knew. Some whose conduct in the class gave little promise were among the
promptest to exploit their knowledge. It was my purpose to leave the map
that it might be seen by the multitude until the tide should wash it
away. But the boys shouted, "Can't we stamp it down now?" and I rather
reluctantly consented. Palestine has been overrun, and trodden down, and
destroyed by armies of Ass