with him to our old home in old Clarksburg, (now Oden)
Daviers County, Indiana, where, the next day, we buried brother by
the side of our father, who had been buried nine years. This was the
second death in father's family. Brother was a good man, a scholar,
a soldier, and a teacher. He gave his life upon the altar of his
country at the early age of thirty-six.

War is a great evil, dreadful, fearful, terrible. O, for the time
when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more!"

Upon my return to Indiana, after an absence of nearly five years, I
was quite a different person, in many respects, from what I was when
I went away. I had grown in length to be six feet and two inches
tall and the hair of my head and the beard of my face was as black as
jet, the one standing on its ends, the other full and hanging six
inches or more in length. Besides had I not been born anew and was
now a new creature? Old things had passed away. Yet I went back to
my old place of teaching, Tophet. With preaching added to teaching,
there again I taught the urchins and preached to the sinners. And at
this writing 1911, there is a new name, a new people (a converted
people), a house of God and many worshippers of the Most High God.
Surely the world doth grow better.

At the Owl Prairie where I hoed corn when I was a little boy and
fished in the canal, I was called to take charge of a protracted
meeting, and at this meeting I had my first baptism. Heretofore I
had always insisted on someone of experience to doing this. The
baptism took place in the West Fork of the White River. Owl Prairie
is now the city of Elnoa with two railroads, and churches and
schools.

My next attendance at a protracted meeting was to help Thompson
Little. This meeting was held at old Clarksburg on the very site, in
a new church building, where I went to school when quite young and
where I appeared in my first effort as a public speaker. It was a
recitation and commenced the way:

"'Tis a lesson you should head,
If at first you don't succeed
Try, try again."

Well, at this meeting I preached and seven young people came forward
at one time and gave me their hands and made the good confession. It
was the greatest number that ever came forward at any one time upon
my invitation. These seven were all my old playmates and
schoolmates. It was a good meeting.

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