confidence of mid-age. The letter from which we have already
quoted has one or two more passages which may enlighten us as to
his rearing. Still writing in the third person, he says, 'John
had been taught from earliest childhood to fear God and keep His
commandments, and though quite sceptical he had always by turns
felt much doubt as to his future well being. He became to some
extent a convert to Christianity, and ever after a firm believer
in the divine authenticity of the Bible. With this book he
became very familiar, and possessed a most unusual memory of its
entire contents.' Here are hints as to his early pursuits:
'After getting to Ohio in 1805, he was for some time rather
afraid of the Indians and their rifles, but this soon wore off,
and he used to hang about them quite as much as was consistent
with good manners and learned a trifle of their talk. His father
learned to dress deer-skins, and at six years old John was
installed a young Buck-skin. He was, perhaps, rather observing,
as he ever after remembered the entire process of deer-skin
dressing, so that he could at any time dress his own leather,
such as squirrel, racoon, cat, wolf, and dog skins, and also
learned to make whiplashes, which brought him some change at
times, and was of considerable service in many ways. He did not
become much of a scholar. He would always choose to stay at home
and work hard rather than be sent to school, and during the warm
season might generally be seen barefooted and bareheaded, with
buck-skin breeches suspended often with one leather strap over
his shoulder, but sometimes with two. To be sent off through the
wilderness alone to very considerable distances was particularly
his delight; in this he was often indulged, so that by the time
he was twelve years old he was sent off more than a hundred miles
with companies of cattle. He followed up with tenacity whatever