s full-rigged and
under full sail. But, to change the figure, and bring it more fully into
harmony with the department of nature, from which the brother had
evidently derived his name, I might say his pinions were always full
fledged and in full tension for a lofty flight. Unfortunately, however,
he could never fold his wings in time to make a graceful descent when he
desired to come down to the plane of ordinary mortals. In the descent he
would sometimes "swap ends" so many times, that it was a marvel that a
broken neck was not the result. But to his own mind these airy flights
were always sublime, and especially so when he struck the quotation,
which usually closed each missionary speech, that placed the herald of
the Gospel on the highest pinnacle of time, and made him "look back over
the vista of receding ages" and "forward over the hill-tops of coming
time," and "lift up his voice until it should echo from mountain top to
mountain top, from valley to valley, from river to river, from ocean to
ocean, from isle to isle, and from continent to continent, the whole
earth around." Of course the collection always followed this speech, and
if it proved to be pretty good, a few additional feathers went into the
pinions for the next flight.

On one of these occasions our orator became greatly elated with his
success, and rallied me upon the difference between the broad, velvety
wing of the miller and the long, sharp pointed wing of his species. The
opportunity was too good to be lost. I replied, "Well, my brother, I had
a thought last night, when I saw you towering to such dizzy heights in
your speech." "What was it?" he enquired, eagerly. "Oh!" I replied, "I
would hardly dare to tell you." "Yes, yes," said he, "let us have it." I
still hesitated, until the several brethren present joined him in his
persistent request. "Well," I answered, "if you insist upon it I will
state it. When I saw you making your lofty flights, I thought if you
could only have a few feathers plucked from the wings of your
imagination and placed in the tail of your judgment, you would make a
grand flyer." The next flight was made with greater caution.

The balance of the year at Waukesha was given to the ordinary demands of
the work. To the Church there had been large accessions and to the
Parsonage a welcome guest, in the person of our eldest daughter.

The Wisconsin Conference for 1849 was held at Platteville. I crossed the
State in a buggy and wa