emains to be done before we are up with the demands of
the age in regard to the comfort of the pupils as well as the
facilities for the prosecution of their studies. We need more and
better school-houses, better furniture, and more attractive
surroundings. Well qualified and earnest teachers are not yet as thick
as blackberries in Kentucky. When as much attention is bestowed on
these as on jockeys, and on our boys as on our horses, we shall be both
richer and better.

CHAPTER III.

His Religious Experience. Tries to be a Methodist. Hopes to become a
Preacher. Boy Preaching. Attends a Sunday-school. "Chaws" Tobacco. Goes
to Love Feast. Mourners' Bench Experience. Is Puzzled and Disgusted.

My parents were Methodists, as were their ancestors on both sides. My
mother was uniformly religious, but not fussy about it. I have seen her
intensely happy, but never heard her shout. Her religion was a deep,
smooth, current without fluctuation. My father was religious more by
spells, but still he never went to extremes, and could never "get
religion" at the altar, in the Methodist fashion. This lifelong failure
of his discouraged him, causing him at times to become somewhat
skeptical and indifferent. But he died, rejoicing in the faith of
Christ as held by the Methodist Church.

When about ten years of age I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. A great revival was in progress at La Grange, and over one
hundred persons united with the church. I enjoyed the services, and
continued to do so for a number of years. Often in those early times I
rode to meeting at surrounding churches and private dwellings on
horseback behind my mother. I still remember, as vividly as if it were
but yesterday, the texts and treatment of many of the sermons I heard.
In later years I have frequently thought of the fallacies the preachers
imposed upon us, and, I charitably believe, upon themselves, in these
sermons, but which neither we nor they could detect for want of correct
scriptural knowledge. The thought that I should one day become a
preacher impressed me, and it clung to me for years. When afterwards I
grew wild and wicked, this impression possessed me, and many a time,
when my good wife would rebuke me for my wickedness, I would say,
"Never mind, dear; I'll be a preacher yet." I had a high regard for
preachers, and from early life was fond of their company; and since I
have become one myself, the society of good, faithful men of