How We Started. 27 



with the plow ; yes, wrestling is just the word. Besides the 

 wretched team for farm work, the ground was hard, in many 

 places, turning over in chunks sometimes as large as a pail and 

 sometimes larger, the soil having been tramped, when wet, by ani- 

 mals. Then there were roots and stones and stumps and briars, 

 etc. I never did get right down to swearing, but I am afraid I 

 came just as near to it as I dared to, and do not see how God can 

 help but forgive me when He considers all the circumstances. By 

 the way, I must tell you a little swearing story about that same 

 lot. I have told of getting a man with ox-team the fall before to 

 do some plowing. There was a tree that had blown over, lying 

 in -the way. He hitched his oxen onto it and whipped and shouted , 

 intending to draw it out of the way. But they did not stir it. I 

 was surprised, as they were very heavy cattle and had the name 

 of being able to pull anything. At last good old Father Roswell 

 turned to me and said : " If you will go to the house I will jerk 

 that tree out of here in a hurry." More surprised yet, I asked 

 him what on earth he meant. He answered: "I know you are 

 a moral man and do not like to hear anyone swear, and those 

 cattle will never budge that load without it." Well, I went 

 away after such a plain hint, and shortly after saw the cattle go 

 flying over the hill with the tree. I have been very sorry since 

 that I did not get an ax and cut the free in two and make two 

 non-swearing loads of it. 



I heard a farmer say once he sold his oxen because, although 

 he was a good Christian man, he could not drive them without 

 swearing. Well, I believe if he had had my horse team that I 

 learned to plow with he would have wanted to trade for oxen. If 

 I had had a little experience in holding a plow it would not have 

 been quite so bad. My wife used to come out and try and help 

 me by driving the horses. Once she, in sheer desperation at my 

 awkwardness, I presume, suggested that she believed she could 

 hold the plow. I took the reins and let her try at once, and, to 

 be honest, I do not think I tried to drive as well as I could. It 

 Wasn't long before the plow got away from her in just the neatest 

 manner possible. This is one of the pleasantest recollections of 

 those days. Why, I just rolled on the ground with laughter 

 (remember, I was but a boy then). 



After getting two horses we still used the same one-horse 

 wagon with a pole attached. It was pretty large for one horse, 

 but much too light to draw a full two-horse load on. It was 

 years before we were able to get a large, strong wagon. When we 

 did get it a neighbor remarked that we had to sell our timber to 

 pay for it, which was true, and it was a good business move, too. 

 Men who had known me as something of a business man in town 

 used to wonder why I worked to such disadvantage at first on the 

 farm, not knowing how terribly hard up we were. In 1881, after 

 paying the last dollar of our debts, I for the first time told some 



