1 6 Edward Lhdn^rston Yotanans. 



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leisure on his hands. He was the local organizer of 

 boys into bands bent on fun and mischief, so that his 

 popularity among his playmates was equaled only by 

 his unpopularity with their mothers. He formed a 

 company of boy soldiers, Edward among the number, 

 and much pomp and flourish attended their stated 

 drill. Joe was an imaginative and superstitious Afri- 

 can, whose chosen reading book at school was the New 

 Testament; and his juvenile hearers would listen with 

 bated breath when he read favourite chapters from 

 the book of Revelation. Joe was so daring, amusing, 

 and resourceful that his influence over Edward almost 

 amounted to fascination. Although mischievous, Joe 

 was in the main a good boy. Nobody followed his 

 leadership or gave him readier obedience in all schemes 

 and excursions than Edward, and no harm came of it. 

 Thus as a child did he manifest his trait of generous 

 admiration for superior gifts, for natural ability of any 

 kind — a trait which in mature years much extended 

 his usefulness by making him the loyal second and 

 supporter of men whom he justly deemed worthy of 

 leadership. No one can be a friend, a trusted lieuten- 

 ant and apostle, unless he is first a man — honest, hon- 

 ourable, capable of disinterested attachment. Such a 

 man in the making was the little fellow who saw and 

 acknowledged more talent and goodness in a negro 

 servant than in anv boy of white race he then knew. 

 His memory in after years often reverted to Joe, and 

 with sorrow, for there came a report that in early 

 manhood that humble friend had been sold into slav- 

 ery. 



Another trait of character — individuality and the 

 love of individuaHty — found a favouring nursery in 

 Greenfield. Just because it was a sparsely settled 



