156 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



(S. W. J. TO A. A. J. AND A. W. J.) 



February 1861. 



Dear Father and Mother, Not infrequently I think and 

 say I must write home, but not being one of the sort that can 

 always do everything and having about as much to do as I 

 can well get along with, I don't write very often. ... I feel 

 very much as one might imagine that ancient military man, 

 Capt. Sisera did when the tender-hearted Jewess drove a 

 75-penny nail in his head. 



I am now lecturing 5 days per week on Ag. Chemistry, 

 which keeps me pretty busy. . . . 



Pony is a great Institution. I have ridden him pretty 

 steadily when the weather has admitted, and sometimes when 

 it didn't. I find his jolting, which I am now accustomed to, 

 is an excellent back-bone stiffener and brain-clarifier. The 

 animal himself is so full of notions, mostly good, that it is a 

 perpetual feast to take him out. I often ride with a friend, 

 a young clergyman who is good company and mounts a good 

 horse, and we can get over the ground quite rapidly when we 

 attempt it. ... We have several macadamized or oyster-shell 

 roads that are always hard even in the wettest weather. The 

 long-expected endowment has come at last, and with it I have 

 half the day to myself, and thus have time for exercise. . . . 

 But I am at the end of the sheet, and have only room to 

 inquire about your health and send the love of 



Lizzie and Samuel. 



The autumn of 1862 brought a variety of conflicting 

 emotions into the large family circle, which up to this 

 time had remained unbroken. An Indian uprising in 

 Minnesota caused anxiety on behalf of the loved ones 

 there. In a letter of September 22, Mr. Abner A. 

 Johnson wrote: 



The twins had a letter from Sarah yester-morn, giving some 

 account of the Indian war panic, the arrival of Jason from 



