made money. We had a house about four miles from the village, I
living with my father, and as soon as found out that we were doing
well in business, I sent to Sidney for my wife and children. They
were to come by stage, and were due, after passing through
Bainbridge, at our house at four o'clock in the morning. We were up
early to meet the stage; but when it arrived, the driver told us
that my wife had stopped at the public house in Bainbridge.

Wondering what this could mean, I at once set out with my brother
and walked over to the village. It was daylight when we arrived, and
knocked loudly at the public house door. After considerable delay,
the clerk came to the door and let us in. He also asked as to "take
something," which we did. The clerk knew us well, and I inquired if
my wife was in the house; he said she was, told us what room she was
in, and we went up stairs and found her in bed with her children.
Waking her, I asked her why she did not come home, in the stage? She
replied that the clerk down stairs told her that the stage did not
go beyond the house, and that she expected to walk over, as soon as
it was daylight, or that possibly we might come for her.

I declare, I was so young and unsophisticated that I suspected
nothing, and blamed only the stupidity, as I supposed, of the clerk
in telling her that the stage did not go beyond Bainbridge. My wife
got up and dressed herself and the children, and then as it was
broad daylight, after endeavoring, ineffectually, to get a
conveyance, we started for home on foot, she leading the little boy,
and I carrying the youngest child. We were not far on our way when
she suddenly stopped, stooped down, and exclaimed:

"O! see what I have found in the road"-