54: JETHRO WOOD; 



that he might lose it by default. During his 

 long entanglement in the law, he had con- 

 tracted many debts, and one of his opponents 

 had managed to purchase several of these ac- 

 counts. Just before the case was to be heard 

 for the last time, this worthy plow manufac- 

 turer, attended by a sheriff, and armed with a 

 warrant to arrest Wood for debt, appeared at 

 the front door of his house. Fortunately 

 Wood had had a few minutes warning, and 

 slipping out at the back door, he made his 

 way under cover of approaching darkness to 

 a house of a friendly neighbor. There he pro- 

 cured a horse and started for Albany, 150 

 miles distant, hearing every moment in fancy 

 the clattering of hoofs at his heels. 



"As if fortune could not be sufficiently ill- 

 natured, his horse proved vicious and unman- 

 ageable, and thrice in the tedious journey 

 threw the rider from his saddle upon the 

 frozen earth, so injuring him, that he was 

 barely able to go on. 



