eel
compelled to act as his father's proxy. Finding discipline was still
lax, he proceeded with paternal solemnity to administer it himself.
His brother acknowledged that this was done with reluctant fidelity!
Truly the moral instincts of the family were worthy of their Puritan
ancestry.

Although naturally self-conscious and shy, his precociousness in
boyhood, bringing him into association, as it did, with much older
folk, bred a somewhat arrogant manner. The rule he exercised over
younger members of the family also made him somewhat domineering, a
fault which he diligently sought to correct in later life. At fifteen
he had become a miniature man of business and was driving cattle on
long journeys with all the confidence of mid-age. The letter from
which we have already quoted has one or two more passages which may
enlighten us as to his rearing. Still writing in the third person, he
says, 'John had been taught from earliest childhood to fear God and
keep His commandments, and though quite sceptical he had always by
turns felt much doubt as to his future well being. He became to some
extent a convert to Christianity, and ever after a firm believer in the
divine authenticity of the Bible. With this book he became very
familiar, and possessed a most unusual memory of its entire contents.'
Here are hints as to his early pursuits: 'After getting to Ohio in
1805, he was for some time rather afraid of the Indians and their
rifles, but this soon wore off, and he used to hang about them quite as
much as was consistent with good manners and learned a trifle of their
talk. His father learned to dress deer-skins, and at six years old
John was installed a young Buck-skin. He was, perhaps, rather
observing, as he ever after remembered the entire process of deer-skin
dressing, so that he could at any time dress his own leather, such as
squirrel, racoon, cat, wolf, and dog skins, and also learned to make
whiplashes, which brought him some change at times, and was of
considerable service in many ways. He did not become much of a
scholar. He would always choose to stay at home and work hard rather
than be sent to school, and during the warm season might generally be
seen barefooted and bareheaded, with buck-skin breeches suspended often
with one leather strap over his shoulder, but sometimes with two. To
be sent off through the wilderness alone to very considerable distances
was particularly his delight; in this he was oft