before I was arrested for stealing my
own horse and buggy! My turnout was taken from me, and I found myself in
durance vile. I was not long in procuring bail, and I then set myself,
to work to find out what this meant. I was shown a handbill describing
my person, giving my name, giving a description of my horse, and
offering a reward of fifty dollars for my arrest. This was signed by
a certain Benson, of Kingston, Sullivan County, N.Y. I then remembered
that while I was traveling with my insane patient from Montgomery
through Sullivan County, I fell in with a Benson who was a very
plausible fellow, and who scraped acquaintance with me, and while I was
at Kingston he rode about with me on one or two occasions. One day he
told me that he knew a girl just out of the place who was subject to
fits, and wanted to know if I could do anything for her; that her father
was rich and would pay a good price to have her cured. I went to see the
girl and did at least enough to earn a fee of one hundred dollars,
which her father gladly paid me. Benson also introduced me to some other
people whom I found profitable patients. I thought he was a very good
friend to me, but he was a cool, calculating rascal. He meant to rob me
of my horse and buggy, and went deliberately to work about it. First, he
issued the handbill which caused my arrest in Troy, where he knew I was
going. Next, as appeared when he came up to Troy to prosecute the suit
against me, he forged a bill of sale. The case was tried and decided
in my favor. Benson appealed, and again it was decided that the horse
belonged to me. I then had him indicted for perjury and forgery, and he
was put under bonds of fourteen hundred dollars in each case to appear
for trial. Some how or other he never appeared, and whether he forfeited
his bonds, or otherwise slipped through the "meshes of the law," I never
learned, nor have I ever seen him since he attempted to swindle me.
But these proceedings kept me in Troy more than a month, and to pay
my lawyer and other expenses, I actually sold the horse and buggy the
scoundrel tried to steal from me.

Taking my boy to Sidney and putting him under the care of my half
sister, I went to Boston, where I met two friends of mine who were
about going to Meredith Bridge, N.H., to fish through the ice on Lake
Winnipiseogee. It was early in January, 1853, and good, clear, cold
weather. They represented the sport to be capital, and said that plenty
of supe