o the match, but Doty the Elder
one day dropped a hint that if that young Oliver owned a house to take
his wife to, he might consider the matter.

The news reached Oliver. He knew of a man who wanted to sell his house,
as he was going to move to a town called Fort Dearborn--now known as
Chicago--which had recently been incorporated and had nearly a thousand
inhabitants. The house was a well-built cottage--not very large, but big
enough for two. It was a slab house, with a mud chimney and a nice floor
of pounded blue clay. It had two rooms, a cupboard across the corner, a
loft to store things in, and forty wooden pegs to hang things on.

Oliver offered the man eighteen dollars for the mansion, cash down. The
offer was accepted, the money paid and the receipt was duly shown to
Joseph Doty, Esquire.

And so James and Susan were married, on May Thirtieth, Eighteen Hundred
Forty-four, and all Mishawaka gave them a "shower." To say that they
lived happily ever afterward would be trite, but also it would be true.

* * * * *

James Oliver was thirty-two years old before he really struck his pace.
He had worked at the cooper's trade, at molding and at farming.

His eighteen-dollar house at Mishawaka had transformed itself into one
worth a thousand, fully paid for. The God's half-acre had become a
quarter-section.

His wife had beauty and competence--two things which do not always go
together. She was industrious, economical, intelligent and ambitious.
She was a helpmeet in all that the word implies. The man whose heart is
at rest is the only one who can win. Jealousy gnaws. Doubt disrupts. But
love and faith mean sanity, strength, usefulness and length of days. The
man who succeeds is the one who is helped by a good woman.

Two children had come to them. These were Joseph D. and Josephine.
Napoleon was always a hero to James Oliver--his courage, initiative and
welling sense of power, more than his actual deeds, were the attraction.
The Empress Josephine was a better woman than Napoleon was a man,
contended Susan. Susan was right and James acknowledged it, so the girl
baby was named Josephine. The boy was named Joseph, in honor of his
grandfather Doty, who had passed away, but who, before his passing, had
come to see that Nature was nearer right than he had been.

Children should exercise great care in the selection of their parents.
Very, very few children are ever dowered with a love that