340 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



I met this man — my husband. I had lived there for several 

 years, teaching the only regular school they had in the 

 country. I had, after a fearful struggle, gained a sort of 

 resignation. 



" But once I heard some ribald fellows of that rude society 

 ridiculing a " crazy old cove," as they called him. They said 

 he did nothing but ' work ! work I work ! all day ; and that 

 nobody could understand what the poor old fool was doing 

 with his wheels and his stupid machines.* 



" I at once determined to know this man ! To be abused 

 by such fellows was enough to persuade me in his favor. I 

 went to see him. I found him as you have seen him — a 

 mighty intellect with a feeble physique ! We became friends 

 at once. My enthusiasm had only been ' driven in' — so to 

 say, and now came rushing back to the surface of expression. 

 I found him alone, and almost helpless. He had no one to 

 care for him, and could not care for himself — for, although 

 he possessed some means, he was too much abstracted to 

 notice minor details of comfort — so he lived in the most pain- 

 fully squallid manner. He did his own cooking, and made 

 his bed once a week — for he would not have a servant about 

 him, because he feared he might disturb his work — the 

 apparent chaos of which was his order! 



" I talked with this man, — for he talked then ! long and 

 eagerly. He told me much that satisfied me. He showed 

 me that the reform, for which so many true and devoted 

 spirits were really laboring, was a different thing from the 

 cant of the professional reformers. They prayed in public 

 places to be "seen of men;" they, who are in earnest, pray 

 in deeds, and not in words ; and neither do they let the right 

 hand know what the left hand doeth ! 



" He showed me that the popular schemes of reform were 

 all purely theoretical. That they could, and would accom- 

 plish nothing direct ! That all true reforms must begin in the 

 physical ! That men were moved only through material means. 



