THE GRANGE 87 



would be fully occupied in restraining my uncer- 

 tain steed and preserving my balance. The next 

 day I was in a condition of stiffness quite impos- 

 sible to describe, but a few days later it wore off, 

 and I was notified by my friend that my applica- 

 tion for admission to the Grange had been favor- 

 ably received and acted upon, and that I was to 

 present myself for initiation at a certain date. I 

 would be violating the secrecy enjoined on me by 

 the rules of the organization to say anything about 

 the initiation. It is sufficient to say that I passed 

 it and lived. 



I felt greatly honored a short time afterwards, 

 and after attending one or two meetings, at being 

 notified to deliver an address before the meeting 

 of the Pomona Grange, which was to be held in 

 our town in about a week after my invitation to 

 speak. To say that I jumped at the chance would 

 be expressing it feebly. Invitations to speak in 

 public were quite rare in my life, and the only 

 speeches that I had made were arguments before 

 juries, judges, or referees, in matters pertaining 

 to my profession, and these, I might say in pass- 

 ing, were not sufficiently numerous to mark me 

 among successful advocates; and so for a week 

 I neglected my family, my farm, and my office, 

 while composing an address of marked excellence, 

 and calculated to make my position as a member 

 of the Grange solid. 



