402 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



There are but few of them living today, and I have 

 always felt sure that but for the accident of my capture 

 and discharge I would have died early in the war. But 

 I came home in November, 1861, and good home food, a 

 good bed, and the frosty Iowa air soon fully restored me 

 to health and by early spring no trace of malaria re- 

 mained. 



BEADING LAW 



When I came home after my discharge from the Third 

 Iowa, I commenced actively to read law. I saw Samuel A. 

 Rice, then the leading lawyer at Oskaloosa, and attorney- 

 general of the state. He furnished me books and I read at 

 home through the winter. He examined me thoroughly 

 as to my preparation for the law and I explained to him 

 the difficulty encountered in my education. He had 

 worked as a pilot on the Ohio to earn money to obtain 

 his education and sympathized with my difficulties. He 

 asked me if I had read ancient and modern history and 

 when he found that I had read nearly everything accessi- 

 ble on the subject but Hume's England, he advised me 

 to read Hume before I commenced on Blackstone, as the 

 understanding of the law would become easier if I knew 

 the history out of which it was evolved. 



I read at home all winter and when father brought 

 James home in February, 1862, he found me quite hard 

 at work. I remember that he told me he believed I would 

 make a good lawyer. That was our last talk the day 

 before his death. 



In the spring I grubbed out ten acres of jack oaks for 

 father as my farewell contribution to making the farm 

 and then went to Oskaloosa and continued my reading 

 law in Rice, Myers & Rice 's office. 



The sounds of war filled our ears and the study of the 



