of Charlestown with my own clothes on and five
dollars, given to me by the Warden, in my pocket, I was poor, truly, but
I was at liberty, and that for the day was enough.

CHAPTER III. THE SCHEIMER SENSATION.

THE SCHEIMER FAMILY--IN LOVE WITH SARAH--ATTEMPT TO ELOPE--HOW IT WAS
PREVENTED--THE SECOND ATTEMPT--A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION--THE ALARM--A
FRIGHTFUL BEATING--ESCAPE--FLOGGING THE DEVIL OUT OF SARAH--WINTER IN
NEW HAMPSHIRE--RETURN TO NEW JERSEY--"BOSTON YANKEE"--PLANS TO SECURE
SARAH.

I went at once to the Prisoners Home, where I was kindly received, and
I stayed there two days. The superintendent then paid my passage to
Pittsfield where I wished to go and meet my son. From Pittsfield I went
to Albany, then New York, and from there to Newtown N. J. Here I went
into practice, meeting with almost immediate success, and staid there
two months. It was my habit to go from town to town to attend to cases
of a certain class and to sell my vegetable preparations; and from
Newtown I went to Belvidere, stopping at intermediate towns on the way,
and from Belvidere I went to Harmony, a short distance below, to attend
a case of white swelling, which I cured.

Now just across the Delaware river, nine miles above Easton, Penn.,
lived a wealthy Dutch farmer, named Scheimer, who heard of the cure
I had effected in Harmony, and as he had a son, sixteen years of age,
afflicted in the same way, he sent for me to come and see him. I crossed
the river, saw the boy, and at Scheimer's request took up my residence
with him to attend to the case. He was to give me, with my board, five
hundred dollars if I cured the boy; but though the boy recovered under
my treatment, I never received my fee for reasons which will appear
anon. I secured some other practice in the neighborhood, and frequently
visited Easton, Belvidere, Harmony, Oxford, and other near by places, on
either side of the river.

The Scheimer family consisted of the "old folks" and four sons and four
daughters, the children grown up, for my patient, sixteen years old, was
the youngest. The youngest daughter, Sarah, eighteen years old, was an
accomplished and beautiful girl. Now it would seem as if with my
sad experience I ought by this time, to have turned my back on women
forever. But I think I was a monomaniac on the subject of matrimony.
My first wife had so misused me that it was always in my mind that
some reparation was due me, and that I was fairly entitled to