d Alma, his wife, Robert
Wilkinson, and Almira, his wife, Eliza Botsford and Sarah Bull.

To reach the settlement, it was necessary to follow the military road
towards Fond du Lac for some distance, and then cross the marsh. At
times, the stream in the middle was swollen, and the traveler was
compelled to leave his horse and cross on foot. This was especially true
when the ice was not sufficiently strong to bear up the horse, and such
was the condition in which I found it on this occasion. So, leaving my
horse, I hastened to cross the marsh, but when I had reached the middle
of the stream, the treacherous ice gave way, and I plunged into the
water up to my armpits. I clambered out, but as the day was intensely
cold, I was soon a walking pillar of ice. I was now on the school house
side of the stream, and there seemed to be no alternative but to go on.
I would gladly have found a shelter and a fire elsewhere, but it was out
of the question. So, putting on a bold face, I hastened forward, and
found the people in waiting for the minister. As I entered the school
house, with the ice rattling at every movement, my appearance was
ridiculous in the extreme. But not more so than that of the audience.
The faces of that crowd would certainly have been the delight of a
painter. Some of them were agape with surprise and amazement; others
were agonized with sympathy for the poor minister; and others still were
full of mirth, and would have laughed outright if they had not been in a
religious meeting. As to myself, the whole matter took a mirthful turn.
I had been in church before, when by some queer or grotesque conjunction
of affairs, the whole audience lost self control. I had witnessed
mistakes, blunders and accidents that would make even solemnity herself
laugh, and remained serenely grave. But to see myself in the presence
of that polite audience, standing at that stove, and turning from side
to side, to thaw the icicles from the skirts of my coat, was too much
for me. I confess it was utterly impossible to keep my face in harmony
with the character of the pending services.

At Fox Lake, the next point visited, an appointment had been established
by my father during the previous year. The services were now held on
Sabbath afternoon in the tavern. The log house, thus used for the double
purpose of a chapel and a tavern, was built with two parts, and might
have been called a double house. The one end was occupied as a
sitting-ro