SEVEN WIVES AND SEVEN PRISONS:

OR EXPERIENCES IN THE LIFE OF AMATRIMONIAL MANIAC. A TRUE STORY. 

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 1870. 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1. THE FIRST AND WORST WIFE. My Early History. The FirstMarriage. Leaving Home to Prospect. Sending for My Wife. HerMysterious Journey. Where I Found Her. Ten Dollars for Nothing. AFascinating Hotel Clerk. My Wife's Confession. From Bad to Worse. Final Separation. Trial for Forgery. A Private Marriage. SummarySeparation. 

CHAPTER II. MISERIES FROM MY SECOND MARRIAGE. Love-Making inMassachusetts. Arrest for Bigamy. Trial at Northampton. A StunningSentence. Sent to State Prison. Learning the Brush Business. Sharpening Picks. Prison Fare. In the Hospital. Kind Treatment. Successful Horse-Shoeing. The Warden my Friend. Efforts for myRelease. A Full Pardon. 

CHAPTER III. THE SCHEIMER SENSATION. The Scheimer Family. In LoveWith Sarah. Attempt to Elope. How it was Prevented. Second Attempt. A Midnight Expedition. The Alarm. A Frightful Beating. Escape, Flogging the Devil out of Sarah. Return to New Jersey. "BostonYankee. " Plans to Secure Sarah. 

CHAPTER IV. SUCCESS WITH SARAH. Mary Smith as a Confederate. ThePlot. Waiting in the Woods. The Spy Outwitted. Sarah Secured. ThePursuers Baffled. Night on the Road. Efforts to Get Married. "TheOld Offender. " Married at Last. A Constable after Sarah. He Gives itUp. An Ale Orgie. Return to "Boston Yankee's. " A Home in Goshen. 

CHAPTER V. HOW THE SCHEIMERS MADE ME SUFFER. Return to Scheimer's. Peace, and then Pandemonium. Frightful Family Row. Running forRefuge. The Gang Again. Arrest at Midnight. Struggle with myCaptors. In Jail Once More. Put in Irons. A Horrible Prison. Breaking Out. The Dungeon. Sarah's Baby. Curious Compromises. OldScheimer my Jailer. Signing a Bond. Free Again. Last Words fromSarah. 

CHAPTER VI. FREE LIFE AND FISHING. Taking Care of Crazy Men. Carrying off a Boy. Arrested for Stealing my Own Horse and Buggy. Fishing in Lake Winnepisiogee. An Odd Landlord. A Woman as Big as aHogshead. Reducing the Hogshead to a Barrel. Wonderful Verificationof a Dream. Successful Medical Practice. A Busy Winter in NewHampshire. Blandishments of Captain Brown. I go to Newark, NewJersey. 

CHAPTER VII. WEDDING A WIDOW AND THE CONSEQUENCES. I Marry a Widow. Six Weeks of Happiness. Confiding a Secret, and the Consequences. The Widow's Brother. Sudden Flight from Newark. In Hartford, Conn. My Wife's Sister Betrays Me. Trial for Bigamy. Sentenced to TenYears' Imprisonment. I Become a "Bobbin Boy. " A Good Friend. Governor Price Visits me in Prison. He Pardons Me. Ten Years'Sentence Fulfilled in Seven Months. 

CHAPTER VIII. ON THE KEEN SCENT. Good Resolutions. Enjoying Freedom. Going After a Crazy Man. The Old Tempter in a New Form. Mary Gordon. My New "Cousin. " Engaged Again. Visit to the Old Folks at Home. Another Marriage. Starting for Ohio. Change of Plans. DomesticQuarrels. Unpleasant Stories about Mary. Bound Over to Keep thePeace. Another Arrest for Bigamy. A Sudden Flight. Secreted ThreeWeeks in a Farm House. Recaptured at Concord. Escaped Once More. Traveling on the Underground Railroad. In Canada. 

CHAPTER IX. MARRYING TWO MILLINERS. Back in Vermont. FreshTemptations. Margaret Bradley. Wine and Women. A Mock Marriage inTroy. The False Certificate. Medicine and Millinery. Eliza Gurnsey. A Spree at Saratoga. Marrying Another Milliner. Again Arrested forBigamy. In Jail Eleven Months. A Tedious Trial. Found Guilty. Appealto Supreme Court. Trying to Break Out of Jail. A Governor's Promise. Second Trial. Sentenced to Three Years' Imprisonment. 

CHAPTER X. PRISON LIFE IN VERMONT. Entering Prison. The Scythe SnathBusiness. Blistered Hands. I Learn Nothing. Threaten to Kill theShop Keeper. Locksmithing. Open Rebellion. Six Weeks in the Dungeon. Escape of a Prisoner. In the Dungeon Again. The Mad Man Hall. HeAttempts to Murder the Deputy. I Save Morey's Life. Howling in theBlack Hole. Taking Off Hall's Irons. A Ghastly Spectacle. A PrisonFuneral. I am Let Alone. The Full Term of my Imprisonment. 

CHAPTER XI. ON THE TRAMP. The Day of my Deliverance. Out of Clothes. Sharing with a Beggar. A Good Friend. Tramping Through the Snow. Weary Walks. Trusting to Luck. Comfort at Concord. At MeredithBridge. The Blaisdells. Last of the "Blossom" Business. Making Moneyat Portsmouth. Revisiting Windsor. An Astonished Warden. MakingFriends of Enemies. Inspecting the Prison. Going to Port Jervis. 

CHAPTER XII. ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP SARAH SCHEIMER'S BOY. Starting to SeeSarah. The Long Separation. What I Learned About Her. Her DrunkenHusband. Change of Plan. A Suddenly-Formed Scheme. I Find Sarah'sSon. The First Interview. Resolve to Kidnap the Boy. Remonstrance ofmy Son Henry. The Attempt. A Desperate Struggle. The Rescue. Arrestof Henry. My Flight into Pennsylvania. Sending Assistance to my Son. Return to Port Jervis. Bailing Henry. His Return to Belvidere. He isBound Over to be Tried for Kidnapping. My folly. 

CHAPTER XIII. ANOTHER WIDOW. Waiting for the Verdict. My Son Sent toState Prison. What Sarah Would Have Done. Interview with my FirstWife. Help for Henry. The Biddeford Widow. Her Effort to Marry Me. Our Visit to Boston. A Warning. A Generous Gift. Henry Pardoned. Close of the Scheimer Account. Visit to Ontario County. My RichCousins. What Might Have Been. My Birthplace Revisited. 

CHAPTER XIV. MY SON TRIES TO MURDER ME. Settling Down in Maine. Henry's Health. Tour Through the South. Secession Times. December inNew Orleans. Up the Mississippi. Leaving Henry in Massachusetts. Back in Maine Again. Return to Boston, Profitable Horse-Trading. Plenty of Money. My First Wife's Children. How they Have BeenBrought Up. A Barefaced Robbery. Attempt to Blackmail Me. My SonTries to Rob and Kill Me. My Rescue Last of the Young Man. 

CHAPTER XV. A TRUE WIFE AND HOME AT LAST. Where Were All my Wives?Sense of Security. An Imprudent Acquaintance. Moving from Maine. MyProperty in Rensselaer County. How I Lived. Selling a Recipe. AboutBuying a Carpet. Nineteen Lawsuits. Sudden Departure for the West. AVagabond Life for Two Years. Life in California. Return to the East. Divorce from any First Wife. A Genuine Marriage. My Farm. Home atLast. 

SEVEN WIVES AND SEVEN PRISONS

CHAPTER I. 

THE FIRST AND WORST WIFE

My Early History--THE FIRST MARRIAGE--LEAVING HOME TO PROSPECT--SENDINGFOR MY WIFE--HER MYSTERIOUS JOURNEY--WHERE I FOUND HER--TEN DOLLARS FORNOTHING--A FASCINATING HOTEL CLERK--MY WIFE'S CONFESSION--FROM BAD TOWORSE--FINAL SEPARATION--TRIAL FOR FORGERY--A PRIVATE MARRIAGE--SUMMARYSEPARATION. 

SOME one has said that if any man would faithfully write hisautobiography, giving truly his own history and experiences, theills and joys, the haps and mishaps that had fallen to his lot, hecould not fail to make an interesting story; and Disraeli makesSidonia say that there is romance in every life. How much romance, as well as sad reality, there is in the life of a man who, amongother experiences, has married seven wives, and has been seven timesin prison--solely on account of the seven wives, may be learned fromthe pages that follow. 

I was born in the town of Chatham, Columbia County, New York, inSeptember, 1813. My father was a New Englander, who married threetimes, and I was the eldest son of his third wife, a woman of Dutchdescent, or, as she would have boosted if she had been rich, one ofthe old Knickerbockers of New York. My parents were simply honest, hard-working, worthy people, who earned a good livelihood, broughtup their children to work, behaved themselves, and were respected bytheir neighbors. They had a homestead and a small farm of thirtyacres, and on the place was a blacksmith shop in which my fatherworked daily, shoeing horses and cattle for farmers and others whocame to the shop from miles around. 

There were three young boys of us at home, and we had a chance to goto school in the winter, while during the summer we worked on thelittle farm and did the "chores" about the house and barn. But bythe time I was twelve years old I began to blow and strike in theblacksmith shop, and when I was sixteen years old I could shoehorses well, and considered myself master of the trade. At the ageof eighteen, I went into business with my father, and as I was nowentitled to a share of the profits, I married the daughter of awell-to-do neighboring farmer, and we began our new life in part ofmy father's house, setting up for ourselves, and doing our ownhouse-keeping. 

I ought to have known then that marrying thus early in life, andespecially marrying the woman I did, was about the most foolishthing I could do. I found it out afterwards, and was frequently andpainfully reminded of it through many long years. But all seemedbright enough at the start. My wife was a good-looking woman of justmy own age; her family was most respectable; two of her brotherssubsequently became ministers of the gospel; and all the childrenhad been carefully brought up. I was thought to have made a goodmatch; but a few years developed that had wedded a most unworthywoman. 

Seventeen months after our marriage, our oldest child, Henry, wasborn. Meanwhile we had gone to Sidney, Delaware County, where myfather opened a shop. I still continued in business with him, andduring our stay at Sidney, my daughter, Elizabeth, was born. FromSidney, my father wanted to go to Bainbridge, Chenango, County, N. Y. , and I went with him, leaving my wife and the children at Sidney, while we prospected. As usual my father started a blacksmith-shop;but I bought a hundred acres of timber land, went to lumbering, andmade money. We had a house about four miles from the village, Iliving with my father, and as soon as found out that we were doingwell in business, I sent to Sidney for my wife and children. Theywere to come by stage, and were due, after passing throughBainbridge, at our house at four o'clock in the morning. We were upearly to meet the stage; but when it arrived, the driver told usthat my wife had stopped at the public house in Bainbridge. 

Wondering what this could mean, I at once set out with my brotherand walked over to the village. It was daylight when we arrived, andknocked loudly at the public house door. After considerable delay, the clerk came to the door and let us in. He also asked as to "takesomething, " which we did. The clerk knew us well, and I inquired ifmy wife was in the house; he said she was, told us what room she wasin, 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? Shereplied that the clerk down stairs told her that the stage did notgo beyond the house, and that she expected to walk over, as soon asit was daylight, or that possibly we might come for her. 

I declare, I was so young and unsophisticated that I suspectednothing, and blamed only the stupidity, as I supposed, of the clerkin telling her that the stage did not go beyond Bainbridge. My wifegot up and dressed herself and the children, and then as it wasbroad daylight, after endeavoring, ineffectually, to get aconveyance, we started for home on foot, she leading the little boy, and I carrying the youngest child. We were not far on our way whenshe suddenly stopped, stooped down, and exclaimed:

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

And she showed me a ten dollar bill. I was quite surprised, andverdantly enough, advised looking around for more money, which mywife, brother and I industriously did for some minutes. It was fullfour weeks before I found out where that ten dollar bill came from. Meanwhile, my wife was received and was living in her new home, being treated with great kindness by all of us. It was evident, however, that she had something on her mind which troubled her, andone morning, about a month after her arrival, I found her in tears. I asked her what was the matter? She said that she had beendeceiving me; that she did not pick up the ten dollar bill in theroad; but that it was given to her by the clerk in the public housein Bainbridge; only, however, for this: he had grossly insulted her;she had resented it, and he had given her the money, partly as areparation, and partly to prevent her from speaking of the insult tome or to others. 

But by this time my hitherto blinded eyes were opened, and I chargedher with being false to me. She protested she had not been; butfinally confessed that she had been too intimate with the clerk atthe hotel. I began a suit at law against the clerk; but finally, onaccount of my wife's family and for the sake of my children, Istopped proceedings, the clerk paying the costs of the suit as faras it had gone, and giving me what I should probably have got fromhim in the way of damages. My wife too, was apparently so penitent, and I was so much infatuated with her, that I forgave her, and evenconsented to continue to live with her. But I removed to Greenville, Greene County, N. Y. , where I went into the black-smithing business, and was very successful. We lived here long enough to add twochildren to our little family; but as time went on, the woman becamebad again, and displayed the worst depravity. I could no longer livewith her, and we finally mutually agreed upon a life-longseparation--she insisting upon keeping the children, and going toRochester where she subsequently developed the full extent of hercharacter. 

This, as nearly as I remember, was in the year 1838, and with thiscame a new trouble upon me. Just before the separation, I receivedfrom my brother's wife a note for one hundred dollars, and sold it. It proved to be a forgery. I was temporarily in Troy, N. Y. , whenthe discovery was made, and as I made no secret of my whereabouts atany time, I was followed to Troy, was there arrested, and afterlying in jail at Albany one night, was taken next morning toCoxsackie, Greene County, and front thence to Catskill. After oneday in jail there, I was brought before a justice and examined onthe charge of uttering a forged note. There was a most excitingtrial of four days duration. I had two good lawyers who did theirbest to show that I did not know the note to be forged when I soldit, but the justice seemed determined to bind me over for trial, andhe did so, putting me under five hundred dollars' bonds. Myhalf-sister at Sidney was sent for, came to Catskill, and becamebail for me. I was released, and my lawyers advised me to leave, which I did at once, and went to Pittsfield, and from there toWorthington, Mass. , where I had another half-sister, who was marriedto Mr. Josiah Bartlett, and was well off. 

Here I settled down, for all that I knew to the contrary, for life. For some years past, I had devoted my leisure hours from the forgeto the honest endeavor to make up for the deficiencies in myyouthful education, and had acquired, among other things, a goodknowledge of medicine. I did not however, believe in any of the"schools" particularly those schools that make use of mineralmedicines in their practice. I favored purely vegetable remedies, and had been very successful in administering them. So I began lifeanew, in Worthington, as a Doctor, and aided by my half-sister andher friends, I soon secured a remunerative practice. 

I was beginning to be truly happy. I supposed that the finalseparation, mutually agreed upon between my wife and myself, was aseffectual as all the courts in the country could make it, and Ilooked upon myself as a free man. Accordingly, after I had been inWorthington some months I began to pay attentions to the daughter ofa flourishing farmer. She was a fine girl; she received my addressesfavorably, and we were finally privately married. This was thebeginning of my life-long troubles. In a few weeks her father foundout that I had been previously married, and was not, so far as heknew, either a divorced man or a widower. And so it happened, thatone day when I was at his house, and with his daughter, he suddenlycame home with a posse of people and a warrant for my arrest. I wastaken before a justice, and while we were waiting for proceedings tobegin, or, possibly for the justice to arrive, I took the excitedfather aside and said:

"You know I have a fine horse and buggy at the door. Get in with me, and ride down home. I will see your daughter and make everythingright with her, and if you will let me run away, I'll give her herthe horse and buggy. "

The offer was too tempting to be refused. The father had the warrantin his pocket, and he accepted my proposal. We rode to his house, and he went into the back-room by direction of his daughter whileshe and I talked in the hall. I explained matters as well as Icould; I promised to see her again, and that very soon. My horse andbuggy were at the door. Hastily bidding my new and young wife"good-bye, " I sprang into the buggy and drove rapidly away. Thefather rushed to the door and raised a great hue and cry, and whatwas more, raised the neighbors; I had not driven five miles beforeall Worthington was after me. But I had the start, the best horse, and I led in the race. I drove to Hancock, N. Y. , where my pursuerslost the trail; thence to Bennington, Vt. , next to Brattleboro, Vt. , and from there to Templeton, Mass. What befel me at Templeton, shallbe related in the next chapter. 

CHAPTER II. 

MISERIES FROM MY SECOND MARRIAGE. 

LOVE-MAKING IN MASSACHUSETTS--ARREST FOR BIGAMY--TRIAL ATNORTHAMPTON--A STUNNING SENTENCE--SENT TO STATE PRISON--LEARNING THEBRUSH BUSINESS--SHARPENING PICKS--PRISON FARE--IN THE HOSPITAL--KINDTREATMENT--SUCCESSFUL HORSE SHOEING--THE WARDEN MY FRIEND--EFFORTS FORMY RELEASE--A FULL PARDON. 

At Templeton I speedily made known my profession, and soon had avery good medical practice which one or two "remarkable cures"materially increased. I was doing well and making money. I boardedin a respectable farmer's family, and after living there about sixmonths there came another most unhappy occurrence. From the day, almost, when I began to board with this farmer there sprung up astrong attachment between myself and his youngest daughter whichsoon ripened into mutual love. She rode about with me when I went tosee my patients, who were getting to be numerous, and we were muchin each other's company. 

On one occasion she accompanied me to Worcester where I had somepatients. We went to a public house where she and her family werewell known, and when she was asked by the landlord how she happenedto come there with the doctor, her prompt answer was:

"Why, we are married; did'nt you know it?"

She refused even to go to the table without my attendance, and whenI was out visiting some patients, she waited for her meals till Icame back. We stayed there but two days and returned together toTempleton. 

A month afterward her brother was in Worcester, and stopped at thishouse. The landlord, after some conversation about general matters, said:

"So your sister is married to the Doctor?"

"I know nothing about it, " was the reply. 

This led to a full and altogether too free disclosure to theastonished brother about the particulars of our visit to the samehouse a month before, and his sister's representations that we weremarried. The brother immediately started for home, and repeated thestory, as it was told to him, to his father and the family. Withoutseeing his daughter, the father at once procured a warrant, and hadme arrested and brought before a justice on charge of seduction. The trial was brief; the daughter herself swore positively, thatthough she had been imprudent and indiscreet in going to Worcesterwith me, no improper communication had ever, there or elsewhere, taken place between us. 

Of course, there was nothing to do but to let me go and I wasdischarged. But out of this affair came the worst that had yetfallen to my lot in life. The story got into the papers, withparticulars and names of the parties, and in this way the people atWorthington, who had chased me as far as Hancock and had there lostall trace of me, found out where I was. If I had been aware of it, they might have looked elsewhere for me; but while I wasfelicitating myself upon my escape from the latest difficulty, downcame an officer from Worthington with a warrant for my arrest. Thisofficer, the sheriff, was connected with the family into which I hadmarried in Worthington, and with him came two or three morerelatives, all bound, as they boasted, to "put me through. " Theywere excessively irate against me and very much angered, especiallythat their race after me to Hancock had been fruitless. I had falleninto the worst possible hands. 

They took me to Northampton and brought me before a Justice, on acharge of bigamy: The sheriff who arrested me, and the relatives whoaccompanied him were willing to swear my life away, if they could, and the justice was ready enough to bind me over to take my trial incourt, which was not to be in session for full six months to come. Those long, weary six months I passed in the county jail. Then camemy trial. I had good counsel. There was not a particle of proof thatI was guilty of bigamy; no attempt was made on the part of theprosecution to produce my first wife, from whom I had separated, or, indeed, to show that there was such a woman in existence. But, evidence or no evidence, with all Worthington against me, convictionwas inevitable. The jury found me guilty. The judge promptlysentenced me to three years' imprisonment in the State Prison, atCharlestown, with hard labor, the first day to be passed in solitaryconfinement. 

This severe sentence fairly stunned me. I was taken back to jail, and the following day I was conveyed to Charlestown with heavy ironson my ankles and handcuffed. No murderer would have been moreheavily ironed. We started early in the morning, and by noon I wasduly delivered to the warden at Charlestown prison. I was taken intothe office, measured, asked my name, age, and other particulars, andthen if I had a trade. To this I at once answered, "no. " I wanted mytwenty-four hours' solitary confinement in which to reflect upon thekind of "hard labor, " prescribed in my sentence, I was willing tofollow for the next three years; and I also wanted information aboutthe branches of labor pursued in that prison. The next words of thewarden assured me that he was a kind and compassionate man. 

"Go, " he said to an officer, "and instantly take off those ironswhen you take him inside the prison. "

I was taken in and the irons were taken off. I was then undressed, my clothes were removed to another room, and I was redressed in theprison uniform. This was a grotesque uniform indeed. The suit wasred and blue, half and half, like a harlequin's, and to crown allcame a hat or cap, like a fool's cap, a foot and a half high andrunning up to a peak. Miserable as I was, I could scarcely helpsmiling at the utterly absurd appearance I knew I then presented. Ieven ventured to remark upon it; but was suddenly and sternlychecked with the command:

"Silence! There's no talking allowed here. "

Then began my twenty-four hours' solitary confinement, andtwenty-four wretched hours they were. I had only bread and water toeat and drink, and I need not say that my unhappy thoughts would notpermit me to sleep. At noon next day I was taken from my cell, andbrought again before the warden, Mr. Robinson, who kindly said:

"You have no trade, you say; what do you want to go to work at?"

"Anything light; I am not used to hard labor, " I replied. 

So the warden directed that I should be put at work in the brushshop, where all kinds of brushes were made. Mr. Eddy was the officerin charge of this shop, and Mr. Knowles, the contractor for thelabor employed in the brush business, was present. Both of thesegentlemen took pains to instruct me in the work I was to begin upon, and were very kind in their manner towards me. I went to work in abungling way and with a sad and heavy heart. At 12 o'clock we weremarched from the shop to our cells, each man taking from a trap inthe wall, as he went by, his pan containing his dinner, whichconsisted, that day, of boiled beef and potatoes. It was probablythe worst dinner I had ever eaten, but I had yet to learn whatprison fare was. From one o'clock to six I was in the shop again;then came Supper-mush and molasses that evening which was varied, asI learned afterwards, on different days by rye bread, or Indianbread and rye coffee. These things were also served for breakfast, and the dinners were varied on different days in the week. The farewas very coarse, always, but abundant and wholesome. After supperprisoners were expected to go to bed, as they were called out at sixo'clock in the morning. 

I stayed in the brush shop three or four months, but I made verylittle progress in learning the trade. I was willing enough to learnand did my best. From the day I entered the prison I made up my mindto behave as well as I could; to be docile and obedient, and tocomply with every rule and order. Consequently I had no trouble, andthe officers all treated me kindly. Warden Robinson was a model manfor his position. He believed that prisoners could be reformed moreeasily by mild than by harsh measures--at least they would be morecontented with their lot and would be subordinate. Every now andthen he would ask prisoners if they were well treated by theofficers; how they were getting on; if they had enough to eat, andso on. The officers seemed imbued with the warden's spirit; thechaplain of the prison, who conducted the Sunday, services and alsoheld a Sunday school, was one of the finest men in the world, andtook a personal interest in every prisoner. Altogether, it was amodel institution. But in spite of good treatment I was intenselymiserable; my mind was morbid; I was nearly, if not quite, insane;and one day during the dinner hour, I opened a vein in each arm inhopes that I should bleed to death. Bleed I did, till I faintedaway, and as I did not come out when the other prisoners did, theofficer came to my cell and discovered my condition. He at once sentfor the Doctor who came and stopped the hemorrhage, and then sent meto the hospital where I remained two weeks. 

After I came out of the hospitals the Warden talked to me about mysituation and feelings. He advised me to go into the blacksmithshop, of course not dreaming that I knew anything of the work; buthe said I would have more liberty there; that the men moved aboutfreely and could talk to each other; that the work mainly wassharpening picks and tools, and that I could at least blow andstrike. So I went into the blacksmith shop, and remained their sixweeks. But, debilitated as I was, the work was too hard for me, andso the warden put me in the yard to do what I could. I also sweptthe halls and assisted in the cook-room. One day when the wardenspoke to me, I told him that I knew something about taking care ofthe sick, and after some conversation, he transferred me to thehospital as a nurse. 

Here, if there is such a things as contentment in prison, I wascomparatively happy. I nursed the sick and administered medicinesunder direction of the doctor. I had too, with all easy position, more liberty than any other prisoner. I could go anywhere about thehalls and yard, and in a few weeks I was frequently sent on anerrand into the town. Everyone seemed to have the fullest confidencein me. The Warden talked to me whenever he saw me, and always hadsome kind word for me. One day I ventured to speak to him about hishorse, of which he was very proud, and indeed the horse was a veryfine one. 

Mr. Warden, said I "that's a noble horse of yours; but he interferesbadly, and that is only because he is badly shod. If you willtrust me, I can shoe him so as to prevent all that. "

"Can you?" exclaimed the Warden in great surprise; "Well, if youcan, I'll give you a good piece of bread and butter, or, anythingelse you want. "

"I don't want your bread and butter, " said I "but I will shoe yourhorse as he has never been shod before. "

"Well take the horse to the shop and see what you can do. "

Of course, I knew that by "bread and butter" the warden meant thatif I could shoe his favorite horse so as to prevent him frominterfering, he would gladly favor me as far as he could; and Iknew, too, that I could make as good a shoe as any horse need wear. I gladly led the horse to the shop where I had so signally failed inpick and tool sharpening, and was received with jeers by my oldcomrades who wanted to know what I was going to do to that horse. 

"O, simply shoe him, " I said. 

This greatly increased the mirth of my former shopmates; but theiramusement speedily changed to amazement as they saw me make mynails, turn the shoes and neatly put them on. In due time the horsewas shod, and I led him to the Warden for inspection; and before himand an officer who stood by him, I led the horse up and down to showthat he did not interfere. The Warden's delight was unbounded; henever saw such a set of shoes; he declared that they fitted as ifthey had grown to the horse's hoofs. I need not say that from thatday till the day I left the prison, I had everything I wanted fromthe Warden's own table; I fared as well as he did, and had favorsinnumerable. 

About once a month I shod that horse, little thinking that he was tocarry me over my three years' imprisonment in just half that time. Yet so it was. For talking now almost daily, in the hospital or inthe yard, with the Warden, he became interested in me, and in answerto his inquiries I told him the whole story of my persecution, as Iconsidered it, my trial and my unjust and severe sentence. When hehad heard all he said:

"You ought not to be here another day; you ought to go out. "

The good chaplain also interested himself in my case, and afterhearing the story, he and the Warden took a lawyer named Bemis, intotheir counsel, laid the whole matter before him and asked hisopinion. Mr. Bemis, after hearing all the circumstances, expressedthe belief that I might get a pardon. He entered into the matterwith his whole heart. He sent for my son Henry and my first wife, and they came and corroborated my statement about the mutualagreement for separation, and told how long we had been parted. Mr. Bemis and they then went to Governor Briggs, and told him the story, and that I had served out half of my severe sentence, and pressedfor a pardon. The Governor after due deliberation consented to theirrequest. They came back to Charlestown with the joyful intelligence. Warden Robinson advised my son, that considering my present mentaland physical condition, he had better break the intelligencegradually to me, and so Henry came to me and said, simply, that hethought he would soon have "good news" for me. The next day I wastold that my pardon was certain. The day following, at 12 o'clock, Iwalked out, after eighteen months' imprisonment, a free man. I wasin the streets of Charlestown with my own clothes on and fivedollars, given to me by the Warden, in my pocket, I was poor, truly, but I was at liberty, and that for the day was enough. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE SCHEIMER SENSATION. 

THE SCHEIMER FAMILY--IN LOVE WITH SARAH--ATTEMPT TO ELOPE--HOW IT WASPREVENTED--THE SECOND ATTEMPT--A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION--THE ALARM--AFRIGHTFUL BEATING--ESCAPE--FLOGGING THE DEVIL OUT OF SARAH--WINTER INNEW HAMPSHIRE--RETURN TO NEW JERSEY--"BOSTON YANKEE"--PLANS TO SECURESARAH. 

I went at once to the Prisoners Home, where I was kindly received, and I stayed there two days. The superintendent then paid my passageto Pittsfield where I wished to go and meet my son. From PittsfieldI went to Albany, then New York, and from there to Newtown N. J. Here I went into practice, meeting with almost immediate success, and staid there two months. It was my habit to go from town to townto attend to cases of a certain class and to sell my vegetablepreparations; and from Newtown I went to Belvidere, stopping atintermediate towns on the way, and from Belvidere I went to Harmony, a short distance below, to attend a case of white swelling, which Icured. 

Now just across the Delaware river, nine miles above Easton, Penn. , lived a wealthy Dutch farmer, named Scheimer, who heard ofthe cure I had effected in Harmony, and as he had a son, sixteenyears of age, afflicted in the same way, he sent for me to come andsee him. I crossed the river, saw the boy, and at Scheimer's requesttook up my residence with him to attend to the case. He was to giveme, with my board, five hundred dollars if I cured the boy; butthough the boy recovered under my treatment, I never received my feefor reasons which will appear anon. I secured some other practice inthe neighborhood, and frequently visited Easton, Belvidere, Harmony, Oxford, and other near by places, on either side of the river. 

The Scheimer family consisted of the "old folks" and four sons andfour daughters, the children grown up, for my patient, sixteen yearsold, was the youngest. The youngest daughter, Sarah, eighteen yearsold, was an accomplished and beautiful girl. Now it would seem as ifwith my sad experience I ought by this time, to have turned my backon women forever. But I think I was a monomaniac on the subject ofmatrimony. My first wife had so misused me that it was always in mymind that some reparation was due me, and that I was fairly entitledto a good helpmate. The ill-success of my efforts, hitherto, tosecure one, and my consequent sufferings were all lost uponme--experience, bitter experience, had taught me nothing. 

I had not been in the Scheimer family three months before I fell inlove with the daughter Sarah and she returned my passion. Shepromised to marry me, but said there was no use in saying anythingto her parents about it; they would never consent on account of thedisparity in our ages, for I was then forty years old; but she wouldmarry me nevertheless, if we had to run away together. Meanwhile, the old folks had seen enough of our intimacy to suspect that itmight lead to something yet closer, and one day Mr. Scheimer invitedme to leave his house and not to return. I asked for one lastinterview with Sarah, which was accorded, and we then arranged aplan by which she should meet me the next afternoon at four o'clockat the Jersey ferry, a mile below the house, when we proposed toquietly cross over to Belvidere and get married. I then took leaveof her and the family and went away. 

The next day, at the appointed time, I was at the ferry--Sarah, as Ilearned afterwards, left the house at a much earlier hour to "take awalk" and while she was, foolishly I think, making a circuitousroute to reach the ferry, her father, who suspected that sheintended to run away, went to the ferryman and told him hissuspicions, directing him if Sarah came there by no means to permither to cross the river. Consequently when Sarah met me at the ferry, the ferryman flatly refused to let either of us go over. He knew allabout it, he said, and it was "no go. " I had two hundred dollars inmy pocket and I offered him any reasonable sum, if he would only letus cross; but no, he knew the Scheimers better than he knew me, andtheir goodwill was worth more than mine. Here was a block to thegame, indeed. I had sent my baggage forward in the morning toBelvidere; Sarah had nothing but the clothes she wore, for she wasso carefully watched that she could carry or send nothing away; butshe was ready to go if the obstinate ferryman had not prevented us. 

While we were pressing the ferryman to favor us, down came one ofSarah's brothers with a dozen neighbors, and told her she mustreturn home or he would carry her back by force. I interfered andsaid she should not go. Whereupon one fellow took hold of me and Ipromptly knocked him down, and notified the crowd that the first wholaid hands on me, or who attempted to take her home violently, wouldget a dose from my pistol which I then exhibited:

"Sarah must go willingly or not at all, " said I. 

The production of my pistol, the only weapon in the crowd, broughtabout a new state of affairs, and the brother and others triedpersuasion; but Sarah stoutly insisted that she would not return. "Now hold on, " boys, said I, "I am going to say something to her. " Ithen took her aside and told her that there was no use in trying torun away then; that she had better go home quietly, and tell thefolks that she was sorry for what she had done, that she had brokenoff with me, and would have nothing more to do with me; that I wouldsurely see her to-morrow, and then we could make a new plan. So sheannounced her willingness to go quietly home with her brother andshe did so. I went to a public house half a mile below the ferry. That night the gang came down to this house with the intention ofdriving me away from the place, or, possibly, of doing somethingworse; but while they were howling outside, the landlord sent me tomy room and then went out and told the crowd I had gone away. 

The next morning I boldly walked up to Scheimer's house to get a fewbooks and other things I had left there, and I saw Sarah. I told herto be ready on the following Thursday night and I would have aladder against her window for her to escape by. She promised to beready. Meantime, though I had been in the house but a few minutes, some one who had seen me go in gathered the crowd of the day before, and the first thing I knew the house was besieged. Mrs. Scheimer hadgone up stairs for my things. I went out and faced the little mob. Iwas told to leave the place or they would kill me. One of Sarah'sbrothers ran into the house, brought out a musket and aimed it atme; but it missed fire. I drew my pistol the crowd keeping well awaythen, and told him that if he did not instantly bring that musket tome I would shoot him. He brought it, and I threw it over the fence, Sarah crying out from the window, "good! good!" The mob then turnedand abused and blackguarded her. Then the old lady came out, bringing a carpet bag containing my books and things, asking me tosee if "it was all right. " I had no disposition to stop and examinejust then; I told the mob I had no other business there; that I wasgoing away, and to my surprise, I confess, I was permitted to leavethe place unmolested. 

It is quite certain the ferryman made no objection to my crossing, and I went to Belvidere where I remained quietly till the appointedThursday night, when I started with a trusty man for Scheimer's. Wetimed our journey so as to arrive there at one o'clock in themorning. Ever since her attempt to elope, Sarah had been watchednight and day, and to prevent her abduction by me, Mr. Scheimer hadtwo or three men in the house to stand guard at night. Sarah waslocked in her room, which is precisely what we had provided for, forno one in the house supposed that she could escape by the window. There was a big dog on the premises, but he and I were old friends, and he seemed very glad to see me when I came on the ground on thiseventful night. Sarah was watching, and when I made the signal sheopened the window and threw out her ready prepared bundle. Then myman and I set the ladder and she came safely to the ground. A momentmore and we would have stolen away, when, as ill luck would have it, the ladder fell with a great crash, and the infernal dog, that amoment before seemed almost in our confidence, set up a howl andthen barked loud enough to wake the dead. 

Forthwith issued from the house old Scheimer, two of his sons andhis hired guard-a half dozen in all. There was a time then. The girlwas instantly seized and taken into the house. Then all hands fellupon us two, and though I and my man fought our best they managed topound us nearly to death. The dog, too, in revenge no doubt for thescare the ladder had given him, or perhaps to show his loyalty tohis master, assisted in routing us, and put in a bite where hecould. It is a wonder we were not killed. Sarah, meanwhile, wascalling out from the house, and imploring them not to murder us. Howwe ever got away I hardly know now, but presently we found ourselvesin the road running for our lives, and running also for the carriagewe had concealed in the woods, half a mile above. We reached it, andhastily unhitching and getting in we drove rapidly for the bridgecrossing over to Belvidere. That beautiful August night had very fewcharms for us. It would have been different indeed if I hadsucceeded in securing my Sarah; and to think of having the prize inmy very grasp, and the losing all!

We reached the hotel in Belvidere at about half-past two o'clock inthe morning, wearied, worn, bruised and disheartened. My man had notsuffered nearly as severely as I had; the bulk of their blows fellupon me, and I had the sorest body and the worst looking face I hadever exhibited. I rested one day and then hurried on to New York. Ofcourse, I had no means of knowing the feelings or condition of theloved girl from whom I had been so suddenly and so violently parted. I only learned from an Easton man whom I knew and whom I met in thecity, that "Sarah Scheimer was sick"-that was all; the man said hedid'nt know the family very well, but he had heard that MissScheimer had been "out of her head, if not downright crazy. "

Crazy indeed! How mad and how miserable that poor girl was made byher own family, I did not know till months afterward, and then I hadthe terrible story from her own lips. It seems that when her fatherand his gang returned from pursuing me, as they did a little way upthe road towards Belvidere, they found her almost frantic. Theylocked her up in her room that night with no one to say so much as akind word to her. How she passed that night, after the scenes shehad witnessed, and the abuse with which her father and brothers hadloaded her before they thrust her into her prison, may be imagined. The next day she was wrought up to a frenzy. Her parents pronouncedher insane, and called in a Dutch doctor who examined her and saidshe was "bewitched!" And this is the remedy he proposed as a cure;he advised that she should be soundly flogged, and the devil whippedout of her. Her family, intensely angered at her for the trouble shehad made them, or rather had caused them to make for themselves, were only too glad to accept the advice. The old man and two sonscarried a sore bruise or two apiece they got from me the nightbefore, and seized the opportunity to pay them off upon her. So theystripped her bare, and flogged her till her back was a mass of weltsand cuts, and then put her to bed. That bed she never left for twomonths, and then came out the shadow of her former self. But theDutch doctor declared that the devil was whipped out of her, andthat she was entirely cured. A few months afterward the family hadthe best of reasons for believing that they had whipped the devilinto her, instead of out of her. 

After staying in New York a few days, I went to Dover, N. H. , where Ihad some acquaintances, and where I hoped to get into a medicalpractice, which, with the help of my friends, I did very soon. Ilived quietly in that place all winter, earning a good living andlaying by some money. During the whole time I never heard a wordfrom Sarah. I wrote at least fifty letters to her, but as I learnedafterward, and, indeed, surmised at the time, every one of them wasintercepted by her father or brothers, and she did not know where Iwas and so could not write to me. I left Dover in May and went downto New York. I had some business there which was soon transacted, and early in June I went over to New Jersey-to Oxford, a small placenear Belvidere. 

This place I meant to make my base of operations for the newcampaign I had been planning all winter. I "put up" at a publichouse kept by a man who was known in the region round about as the"Boston Yankee, " for he migrated from Boston to New Jersey and wasdoing a thriving business at hotel keeping in Oxford. What athorough good-fellow he was will presently appear. I had been in thehotel four days and had become pretty intimate with the landlordbefore I ventured to make inquiries about what I was most anxious tolearn; but finally I asked him if he knew the Scheimers over theriver? He looked at me in a very comical way, and then broke out:

"Well, I declare, I thought I knew you, you're the chap that triedto run away with old Scheimer's daughter Sarah, last August; andyou're down here to get her this time, if you can. "

I owned up to my identity, but warned Boston Yankee that if he toldany one who I was, or that I was about there, I'd blow his brainsout. 

"You keep cool, " said he, "don't you be uneasy; I'm your friend andthe gal's friend, and I'll help you both all I can; and if you wantto carry off Sarah Scheimer and marry her, I'll tell you how to workit. You see she has been watched as closely as possible all winter, ever since she got well, for she was crazy-like, awhile. Well, youcould'nt get nearer to her, first off, than you could to the NorthPole; but do you remember Mary Smith who was servant gal, there whenyou boarded with Scheimer?" I remembered the girl well and told himso, and he continued: "Well, I saw her the other day, and she toldme she was living in Easton, and where she could be found; now, I'llgive you full directions and do you take my horse and buggy to-morrowmorning early and go down and see her, and get her to go over andlet Sarah know that you're round; meantime I'll keep dark; I knowmy business and you know yours. "

I need not say how overjoyed I was to find this new and mostunexpected friend, and how gratefully I accepted his offer. He gaveme the street, house and number where Mary Smith lived and duringthe evening we planned together exactly how the whole affair was tobe managed, from beginning to end. I went to bed, but could scarcelysleep; and all night long I was agitated by alternate hopes andfears for the success of the scheme of to-morrow. 

CHAPTER IV. 

SUCCESS WITH SARAH. 

MARY SMITH AS A CONFEDERATE--THE PLOT--WAITING IN THE WOODS--THE SPYOUTWITTED--SARAH SECURED--THE PURSUERS BAFFLED--NIGHT ON THEROAD--EFFORTS TO GET MARRIED--THE "OLD OFFENDER" MARRIED AT LAST--ACONSTABLE AFTER SARAH--HE GIVES IT UP--AN ALE ORGIE--RETURN TO "BOSTONYANKEE'S"--A HOME IN GOSHEN. 

It was Saturday morning, and after an early breakfast I was on theroad with Boston Yankee's fast horse; towards Easton. On my arrivalthere I had no difficulty in finding Mary Smith, who recognized meat once, and was very glad to see me. She knew I had come there tolearn something about Sarah; she had seen her only a week ago; shewas well again, and the girls had talked together about me. This waspleasant to hear, and I at once proposed to Mary to go to Scheimer'sand tell Sarah that I was there; I would give her ten dollars if shewould go. "O! she would gladly serve us both for nothing. "

So she made herself ready, got into the buggy, and we started forScheimer's. When we were well on the road I said to her:

"Now, Mary, attend carefully to what I say: you will need to be verycautious in breaking the news to Sarah that I am here; she hasalready suffered a great deal on my account, and may be very timidabout my being in the neighborhood; but if she still loves me as yousay she does, she will run any risk to see me, and, if I know her, she will be glad to go away with me. Now, this is what you must do;you must see her alone and tell her my plan; here, take this diamondring; she knows it well; manage to let her see it on your finger;then tell her that if she is willing to leave home and marry me, Iwill be in the woods half a mile above her house to-morrow afternoonat 5 o'clock, with a horse and buggy ready to carry her toBelvidere. If she will not, or dare not come, give her the ring, andtell her we part, good friends, forever. "

It was a beautiful afternoon as we drove along the road. We talkedabout Sarah and old times, and I made her repeat my instructionsover and over again and she promised to convey every word to Sarah. We neared Scheimer's house about six o'clock, and when we were alittle way from there I told Mary to get out, so as to excite nosuspicions as to who I was; she did so, and I waited till I saw hergo into the house, and then drove rapidly by towards the Belviderebridge, and was safely at Oxford by nightfall. I told my friend, thelandlord, what I had done, and he said that everything was wellplanned. He also promised to go with me next day to assist me ifnecessary, and, said he:

"If everything is all right, do you carry off the girl and I'll walkup to Belvidere; but don't bring Sarah this way-head toward WaterGap. When you're married fast and sure, you can come back here asleisurely as you're a mind to, and nobody can lay a hand upon you orher. "

We arranged some other minor details of our expedition and I went tobed. 

The next afternoon at four o'clock I was at the appointed place, andBoston Yankee was with me. I did not look for Sarah before fiveo'clock, so we tied our horse and kept a good watch upon the road. An hour went by and no Sarah appeared. I told Boston Yankee I didnot believe she would come. 

"Don't be impatient; wait a little longer, " said my friend. 

In twenty minutes we saw emerge, not from Scheimer's house, but fromhis eldest son's house, which was still nearer to the place where wewere waiting, three women, two of whom I recognized as Sarah andMary, and the third I did not know, nor could I imagine why she waswith the other two; but as I saw them, leaving Boston Yankee in thewoods, I drove the horse down into the road. As Sarah drew near shekissed her hand to me and came up to the wagon. "Are you ready to gowith me?" I asked. "I am, indeed, " was her reply, and I put out myhand to help her into the buggy. But the third woman caught hold ofher dress, tried to prevent her from getting in, and began to screamso as to attract attention at Sarah's brother's house. I told thewoman to let her go, and threatened her with my whip. "Get away, "shouted Boston Yankee, who had come upon the scene. "Drive as fastas you can; never mind if you kill the horse. "

We started; the woman still shouting for help, and I drove on asrapidly as the horse would go. When we had gone on a mile or two, Iasked Sarah what all this meant? She told me that the woman was herbrother's servant; that Mary and herself left her father's house alittle after four o'clock to go over and call at her brother's; thatjust before five, when she was to meet me, she and Mary proposed togo out for a walk; that the whole family watched her constantly, andso her brother's wife told the servant woman to get on her thingsand go with them. "You, may be sure, " she, added, "that the womanwill arouse the whole neighborhood, and that they will all be afterus. " I needed no further hint to push on. We were going toward WaterGap, as Boston Yankee had advised, and when we were about eightmiles on the way, I deemed it prudent to drive into the woods and towait till night before going on. We drove in just off the road, andtied our horse. We were effectually concealed; our pursuers, ifthere were any, would be sure to go by us, and meantime we couldtalk over our plans for the future. Sarah told me that when Marycame to the house the night before, she was not at all surprised tosee her, as she occasionally came up from Easton to make them alittle visit, and to stay all night; that she went to thesummer-house with Mary to sit down and talk, and almost immediatelysaw the ring on Mary's finger; that when she saw it she at oncerecognized it, and asked her: "O! Mary, where did you get thatring?" "Keep quiet, " said Mary: "don't talk loud, or some one mayhear you; don't be agitated; your lover is near, and has sent me totell you. " It was joyful news to Sarah, and how readily she hadacquiesced in my plan for an elopement was manifest in the fact thatshe was then by my side. 

We bad not been in the woods an hour when, as I anticipated, weheard our pursuers, we did not know how many there were, driverapidly by. "Now we can go on, I suppose, " said Sarah. "Oh no, mydear, " I replied, "now is just the time to wait quietly here;" andwait we did till eight o'clock, when our pursuers, having gone on afew miles, and having seen or learned nothing of the fugitives, cameby again "on the back track. " They must have thought we had turnedoff into some other road. I waited a while longer to let ourfriend's get a little nearer home and further away from us, and thentook the road again toward Water Gap. 

We reached Water Gap at midnight, had some supper and fed the horse. We rested awhile, and then drove leisurely on nine miles further, where we waited till daylight and crossed the river. We were in nogreat hurry now; we were comparatively safe from pursuit. We sooncame to a public house, where we stopped and put out the horse, intending to take breakfast. While I was inquiring of the landlordif there was a justice of the peace in the neighborhood, thelandlord's wife had elicited from Sarah the fact of our elopement, who she was, who her folks were, and so on. The well-meaninglandlady advised Sarah to go back home and get her parents consentbefore she married. Sarah suggested that the very impossibility ofgetting such consent was the reason for her running away; nor did itappear how she was to go back home alone even if she desired to. Wesaw that we could get no help there, so I countermanded my order forbreakfast, offering at the same time to pay for it as if we hadeaten it, ordered out my horse and drove on. After riding some tenmiles we arrived at another public house on the road, and as thelandlord come out to the door I immediately asked him where I couldfind a justice of the peace? He laughed, for he at once comprehendedthe whole situation, and said:

"Well, well! I am an old offender myself; I ran away with my wife;there is a justice of the peace two miles from here, and if you'llcome in I'll have him here within an hour. "

We had reached the right place at last, for while the landlady wasgetting breakfast for us, and doing her best to make us comfortableand happy, the Old Offender himself took his horse and carriage andwent for the justice. By the time we had finished our breakfast hewas back with him, and Sarah and I were married in "less than notime, " the Old Offender and his wife singing the certificate aswitnesses. I never paid a fee more gladly. We were married now, andall the Scheimers in Pennsylvania were welcome to come and see us ifthey pleased. 

No Scheimers came that day; but the day following came a deputationfrom that family, some half dozen delegates, and with them aconstable from Easton, with a warrant to arrest Sarah forsomething-I never knew what-but at any rate he was to take her homeif necessary by force. The Old Offender declined to let these peopleinto his house; Sarah told me to keep out of the way and she wouldsee what was wanted. Whereupon she boldly went to the door andgreeted those of her acquaintances who were in the party. Theconstable knew her, and told her he had come to take her home. "Butwhat if I refuse to go?" "Well then, I have a warrant to take you;but if you are married, I have no power over you. " Well married Iam, said Sarah, and she produced the certificate, and the OldOffender and his wife came out and declared that they witnessed theceremony. 

What was to be done? evidently nothing; only the constable ordered awhole barrel of ale to treat his posse and any one about tire townwho chose to drink, and the barrel was rolled out on the grass, tapped, and for a half hour there was a great jollification, whichwas not exactly in honor of our wedding, but which afforded thegreatest gratification to the constable, his retainers, and thosewho happened to gather to see what was going on. This ended, and thebill paid, the Easton delegation got into their wagons and turnedtheir horses heads towards home. 

We passed three delightful days under the Old Offender's roof, andthen thanking our host for his kindness to us, and paying our bill, we started on our return journey for Oxford. We arrived safely, andstaid with Boston Yankee a fortnight. We were close by the Scheimerhomestead, which was but a few miles away across the river; but wefeared neither father nor brothers, nor even the woman who was sounwilling to let Sarah go with me. The constable, and the rest hadcarried home the news of our marriage, and the old folks made thebest of it. Indeed, after they heard we had returned to Oxford, Sarah's mother sent a man over to tell her that if she would comehome any day she could pack her clothes and other things, and takethem away with her. The day after we received this invitation, Boston Yankee offered to take Sarah over home, and promised to bringher safely back. So she went, was treated tolerably well, at anyrate, she secured her clothes and brought them home with her. 

It was now time to bid farewell to our staunch friend, BostonYankee. I had inducements to go to Goshen, Orange County, N. Y. , where I had many acquaintances, and to Goshen we went. We found agood boarding place, and I began to practice medicine, After we hadbeen there a while, Sarah wrote home to let her family know whereshe was, and that she was well and happy. Her father wrote in replythat we both might come there at any time, and that if she wouldcome home he would do as well by her as he would by any of hischildren. This letter made Sarah uneasy. In spite of all the illusage she had received from her parents and family, she wasnevertheless homesick, and longed to get back again. I could seethat this feeling grew upon her daily. We were pleasantly situatedwhere we were; I had a good and growing practice, and we had mademany friends; but this did not satisfy her; she had some property inher own right, but her father was trustee of it, and he had hithertokept it away from her from spite at her love affair with me. But nowshe was to be taken into favor again, and she represented to me thatwe could go back and get her money, and that I could establishmyself there as well as anywhere; we could live well and happilyamong her friends and old associations. These things were dinged inmy ears day after day, till I was sick of the very sound. I couldsee that she was bound, or, as the Dutch doctor would have said, "bewitched" to go back, and at last, after five happy months inGoshen, in an evil hour I consented to go home with her. 

CHAPTER V. 

HOW THE SCHEIMERS MADE ME SUFFER. 

RETURN TO SCHEIMER--PEACE AND THEN PANDEMONIUM--FRIGHTFUL FAMILYROW--RUNNING FOR REFUGE--THE GANG AGAIN--ARREST AT MIDNIGHT--STRUGGLEWITH MY CAPTORS--IN JAIL ONCE MORE--PUT IN IRONS--A HORRIBLE PRISONBREAKING OUT--THE DUNGEON--SARAH'S BABY--CURIOUS COMPROMISES--OLDSCHEIMER MY JAILER--SIGNING A BOND--FREE AGAIN--LAST WORDS FROM SARAH. 

We went back to the Scheimer homestead and were favorably received. There was no special enthusiasm over our return, no markeddemonstrations of delight; but they seemed glad to see us, and allthe unpleasant things of the past, if not forgotten, were tacitlyignored on all sides. We passed a pleasant evening together in whatseemed a re-united family circle-one of the brothers only wasabsent-and next morning we met cordially around the breakfast table. I really began to think it was possible that all the olddifficulties might be healed, and that the pleasant picture Sarahpainted, at Goshen, about settling down happily in Pennsylvania, could be fully realized. 

After breakfast I took a conveyance to go three or four miles to seea man who owed me some money for medical services in his family, andwas away from Scheimer's three or four hours. During this briefabsence I could not help thinking with genuine satisfaction of thehappiness Sarah was experiencing in the gratification of her longingto return home again. Surely, I thought, she must be happy now. Nomore homesickness, and a full and complete reconciliation with herfamily; all the anger, abuse, and blows forgotten or forgiven; sherestored to her place in the family; and even her objectionablehusband received with open arms. 

But what an enormous difference there is between fancy and fact. During this brief absence of mine, had come home the brother who hadalways seemed to concentrate the hatred of the whole family towardsme for the wrong they assumed I had done to the youngest daughterwho loved me. On my return I found the peaceful home I left in themorning a perfect pandemonium. Sarah was fairly frantic. The wholefamily were abusing her. The returned brother especially, wascalling her all the vile names he could lay his tongue to. I learnedafterwards that he had been doing it ever since he came into thehouse that day and found her at home and heard that I was with her. They had picked, wrenched rather, out of her the secret I hadconfided to her that I had another wife from whom I was "separated, "but not divorced. My sudden presence on this scene was not exactlyoil on troubled waters; it was gunpowder to fire. As soon as Sarahsaw me at the door she cried out:

"O! husband, let us go away from here. "

Her mother turned and shouted at me that I had better fly at once orthey would kill me. Meanwhile, that mob, which the Scheimer boysseemed always to have at hand, was gathering in the dooryard. Imanaged to get near enough to Sarah to tell her that I would send aman for her next day, and then if she was willing to come with meshe must get away from her family if possible. I then made a rushthrough the crowd, and reached the road. I think the gang had anindistinct knowledge of the situation, or they would have mobbed me, and perhaps killed me. They knew something was "to pay" atScheimer's, but did not know exactly what. Once on the road it wasmy intention to have gone over to Belvidere, and then on to Oxford, where I should have found a sure refuge with my friend BostonYankee. 

Would that I had done so; but I was a fool; I thought I could be ofservice to Sarah by remaining near her; might see her next day; Imight even be able to get her out of the house, and then we couldonce more elope together and go back again to Goshen where we hadbeen so happy. So I went to a public house three miles aboveScheimer's, and remained there quietly during the rest of the day, revolving plans for the deliverance of Sarah. I thought only of her. It is strange that I did not once realize what a perilous position Iwas in myself--that, firmly as I believed myself to be wedded toSarah, I was in fact amenable to the law, and liable to arrest andpunishment. All this never occurred to me. I saw one or two of thegang who were at Scheimer's about the hotel, but they did not offerto molest me, and I paid no particular attention to them. I did notknow then that they were spies and were watching my movements. Atnine o'clock I went to bed. At midnight, or thereabouts, I wasroughly awakened and told to get up. Without waiting for me, tocomply, five men who had entered my room pulled me out of bed, andalmost before I could huddle on my clothes I was handcuffed. Thenone of them, who said he was a constable from Easton, showed awarrant for my arrest. What the arrest was for I was not informed. Iwas taken down stairs, put into a wagon, the men followed, and thehorses started in the direction of Easton. By Scheimer's on the way, and I could see a light in Sarah's window. I remembered how in, allthe Bedlam in the house that morning she still cried out: "I will gowith him. " I remembered how, only a few months before, she had beenbrutally flogged in that very chamber, to "get the devil out ofher. " I remembered, too, the many happy, happy hours we had passedtogether. And here was I, handcuffed and dragged in a wagon, I knewnot whither. 

This for thoughts-in the way of action, was all the while trying toget my handcuffs off, and at last I succeeded in getting one handfree. Waiting my opportunity till we came to a piece of woods, Isuddenly jumped up and sprang from the wagon. It was a very darknight, and in running into the woods I struck against a tree withsuch force as to knock me down and nearly stun me. Two of the menwere on me in an instant. After a brief struggle I managed to getaway and ran again. I should have escaped, only a high rail fencebrought me to a sudden stop, and I was too exhausted to climb overit. My pursuers who were hard at my heels the whole while now laidhold of me. In the subsequent struggle I got out my pocket knife, and stabbed one of them, cutting his arm badly. Then theyoverpowered me. They dragged me to the roadside, brought a rope outof the wagon, bound my arms and legs, and so at last carried me toEaston. 

It was nearly daylight when I was thrust into jail. There were nocells, only large rooms for a dozen or more men, and I was put, intoone of these with several prisoners who were awaiting trial, or whohad been tried and were there till they could be sent to prison. Itwas a day or two before I found out what I was there for. Then aDutch Deputy Sheriff, who was also keeper of the jail, came and toldme that I was held for bigamy, adding the consoling intelligencethat it would be a very hard job for me, and that I would get fiveor six years in State prison sure. I was well acquainted in Easton, and I sent for lawyer Litgreave for assistance and advice. I sentalso to my half-sister in Delaware County, N. Y. , and in a day ortwo she came and saw me, and gave Mr. Litgreave one hundred dollarsretaining fee. My lawyer went to see the Scheimers and when hereturned he told me that he hoped to save me from State prison-atall events he would exercise the influence he had over the family tothat end; but I must expect to remain in jail a long time. Preciselywhat this meant I did not know then; but I found out afterwards. 

Soon after this visit from the lawyer, the Deputy Sheriff came inand said that he was ordered "by the Judge" to iron me, and it wasdone. They were heavy leg-irons weighing full twelve pounds, and Imay say here that I wore them during the whole term of myimprisonment in this jail, or rather they wore me--wearing their wayin time almost into the bone. I had been here a week now, and waswell acquainted with the character of the place. It wasindescribably filthy; no pretence was made of cleansing it. Theprisoners were half fed, and, at that, the food was oftentimes sovile that starving men rejected it. The deputy who kept the jail wascruel and malignant, and took delight in torturing his prisoners. Hewould come in sometimes under pretence of looking at my irons to seeif they were safe, and would twist and turn them about so that Isuffered intolerable pain, and blood flowed from my wounds made bythese cruel irons. Such abuse as he could give with his tongue hedispensed freely. Of course he was a coward, and he never dared tocome into one of the prisoner's rooms unless he was armed. This is afaithful photograph of the interior of the jail at Easton, Penn. , asit was a few years ago; there may have been some improvement sincethat time; for the sake of humanity, I hope there has been. 

After I had been in this jail about six weeks, and had become wellacquainted with my room-mates, I communicated to them one day, theresult of my observation:

"There, " said I, showing them a certain place in the wall, "is aloose stone that with a little labor can be lifted out, and it willleave a hole large enough for us to get out of and go where welike. "

Examination elicited a unanimous verdict in favor of making theattempt. With no tools but a case knife we dug out the mortar on allsides of the stone doing the work by turns and covering the stone byhanging up an old blanket-which excited no suspicion, as it was atthe head of one of the iron bedsteads--whenever the Deputy or any ofhis men were likely to visit us. In twelve days we completed thework, and could lift out the stone. The hole was large enough to leta man through, and there was nothing for us to do but to crawl outone after the other and drop down a few feet into the yard. Thisyard was surrounded by a board fence that could be easilysurmounted. I intended to take the lead, after taking off my irons(which I had learned to do, and indeed, did every day, putting themon only when I was liable to be "inspected") and after leaving theseirons at the Deputy's door, I intended to put myself on the Jerseyside of the river as speedily as possible. 

Liberty was within reach of every man in that room, and the nightwas set for the escape. But one of the crowd turned traitor, and, under pretence, of speaking to the Deputy about some matter, managedto be called out of the room and disclosed the whole. The man waswaiting transportation to prison to serve out a sentence of tenyears, and, with the chance of escape before him, it seemed singularthat he should reveal a plan which promised to give him liberty; butprobably he feared a failure; or that he might be recaptured and hisprison sentence increased; while on the other hand by disclosing theplot he could curry favor enough to get his term reduced, andperhaps he might gain a pardon. Any how, he betrayed us. The Deputycame in and found the stone in the condition described, andforthwith we were all removed to the dungeon, or dark room, and keptthere on bread and water for twelve days. We heard afterwards thatour betrayer did get five years less than his original sentence forsubjecting his comrades in misery to twelve days of almostindescribable suffering. We were not only in a totally dark andfrightfully filthy hole, but we were half starved, and the Deputydaily took delight in taunting us with our sufferings. 

At the end of the twelve days we were taken back to the old roomwhere we found the stone securely fastened in with irons. Moreover, we were now under stricter observation, and at stated hours everyday, an inspector came in and examined the walls. This soon woreoff, however, and when the inspection was finally abandoned, abouttwo months from the time of our first attempt, we managed to findanother place in the old wall where we could dig out and we went towork. We were a fortnight at it, and had nearly completed our laborwhen we were discovered. 

This time we spent fourteen days in the dungeon for our pains. 

And now comes an extraordinary disclosure with regard to myimprisonment. A few days after my removal from the dungeon to theold quarters again, the Deputy, in one of his rare periods of what, with him, passed for good humor, informed me that Sarah had beenconfined, and had given birth to a fine boy; that she was crying formy release; that Lawyer Sitgreave was interceding for me; but thatthe old man Scheimer was still obstinate and would not let me out. Passing over my feelings with regard to the birth of my son, herewas a revelation indeed! It will be remembered that I had only beentold that I was under indictment for bigamy. I had never beenbrought before a justice for a preliminary examination; never boundover for trial; and now it transpired that old Scheimer, aPennsylvania Dutch farmer, had the power to put me in jail, put mein irons, and subject me to long months, perhaps years ofimprisonment. I had something to occupy my thoughts now, and forthe remaining period of my jail life. 

Next came a new dodge of the Scheimers, the object of which was toshow that Sarah's marriage to me was no marriage at all, thusleaving her free to marry any other man her family might force uponher. When I had been in jail seven months, one day the Deputy camein and said that he was going to take off my irons. I told him Iwouldn't trouble him to do that, for though I had worn them when heand his subordinates were around till the irons had nearly killedme, yet at other times I had been in a habit of taking them off atpleasure; and to prove it, I sat down and in a few minutes handedhim the irons. The man was amazed; but saying nothing about theirons, he approached me on another subject. He said he thought if Iwould sign an acknowledgment that I was a married man when I marriedSarah Scheimer, and would leave the State forever, I could get outof jail; would I do it? I told him I would give no answer till I hadseen my counsel. 

Well, the next day Lawyer Sitgreave came to me and told me I hadbetter do it, and I consented. Shortly afterwards, I was taken tocourt, for the first time in this whole affair, and was informed bythe judge that if I would sign a bond not to go near the Scheimerhouse or family he would discharge me. I signed such a bond, and thejudge then told me I was discharged; but that I ought to have goneto State prison for ten years for destroying the peace and happinessof the Scheimer family. Truly the Scheimer family were a power, indeed, in that part of the country!

My lawyer gave me five dollars and I went to Harmony and staid thatnight. The next day I went to an old friend of mine, a Methodistminister, and persuaded him to go over and see what Sarah Scheimer'sfeelings were towards me, and if she was willing to come to me withour child. He went over there, but the old Scheimers suspected hiserrand, and watched him closely to see that he held no communicationwith Sarah. He did, however, have an opportunity to speak to her, and she sent me word that if she could ever get her money and getaway from her parents, she would certainly join me in any part ofthe world. I was warned, at the same time, not to come near thehouse, for fear that her father or some of her brothers would killme. 

CHAPTER VI. 

FREE LIFE AND FISHING. 

TAKING CARE OF CRAZY MEN--CARRYING OFF A BOY--ARRESTED FOR STEALINGMY OWN HORSE AND BUGGY--FISHING IN LAKE WINNIPISEOGEE--AN ODDLANDLORD--A WOMAN AS BIG AS A HOGSHEAD--REDUCING THE HOGSHEAD TO ABARREL--WONDERFUL VERIFICATION OF A DREAM--SUCCESSFUL MEDICALPRACTICE--A BUSY WINTER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE--BLANDISHMENTS OF CAPTAINBROWN--I GO TO NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. 

The next day I left Harmony and walked to Port Jarvis, on the ErieRailroad, N. Y. , arriving late at night, and entirely footsore, sick, and disheartened. I went to the hotel, and the next morning Ifound myself seriously sick. Asking advice, I was directed to thehouse of a widow, who promised to nurse and take care of me. I wasill for two weeks, and meantime, my half-sister in Delaware County, to whom I made known my condition, sent me money for my expenses, and when I had sufficiently recovered to travel, I went to thissister's house in Sidney, and there I remained several days, till Iwas quite well and strong again. 

Casting about for something to do, a friend told me that he knew ofan opportunity for a good man at Newbury to take care of a youngman, eighteen years of age, who was insane. I went there and saw hisfather, and he put him under my charge. I had the care of him fourmonths, and during the last two months of the time I traveled aboutwith him, and returned him, finally, to his friends in a materiallyimproved condition. The friends of another insane man in Montgomery, near Newbury, hearing of my success with this young man, sent for meto come and see them. I went there and found a man who had beeninsane seven years, but who was quiet and well-behaved, only he was"out of his head. " I engaged to do what I could for him. The fatherof my Newbury patient had paid me well, and with my medical practiceand the sale of medicines in traveling about, I had accumulatedseveral hundred dollars, and when I went to Montgomery I had a goodhorse and buggy which cost me five hundred dollars. So, when my newpatient had been under my care and control two months, I proposedthat he should travel about with me in my buggy, and visit variousparts of the State in the immediate vicinity. His friends thoughtwell of the suggestion, and we traveled in this way about fourmonths, stopping a few days here and there, when I practiced where Icould, and sold medicines, making some money. At the end of thistime I went back to Montgomery with my patient, as I think, fullyrestored, and his father, besides, paying the actual expenses of ourjourney, gave me six hundred dollars. 

Returning to Sidney I learned that my first and worst wife was thenliving with the children at Unadilla, a few miles across the riverin Otsego County. I had no desire to see her, but I heard at thesame time that my youngest boy, a lad ten years old, had been sentto work on a farm three miles beyond, and that he was not well takencare of. I drove over to see about it, and after some inquiry I wastold that the boy was then in school. Going to the schoolhouse andasking for him, the school-mistress, who knew me, denied that he wasthere, but I pushed in, and found him, and a ragged, miserablelooking little wretch he was. I brought him out, put him into thecarriage and took him with me on the journey which I was thencontemplating to Amsterdam, N. Y. , stopping at the first town to gethim decently clothed. The boy went with me willingly, indeed he wasglad to go, and in due time we arrived at Amsterdam, and from therewe went to Troy. 

I had not been in Troy two hours before I was arrested for stealingmy own horse and buggy! My turnout was taken from me, and I foundmyself in durance vile. I was not long in procuring bail, and I thenset myself, to work to find out what this meant. I was shown ahandbill describing my person, giving my name, giving a descriptionof my horse, and offering a reward of fifty dollars for my arrest. This was signed by a certain Benson, of Kingston, Sullivan County, N. Y. I then remembered that while I was traveling with my insanepatient from Montgomery through Sullivan County, I fell in with aBenson who was a very plausible fellow, and who scraped acquaintancewith me, and while I was at Kingston he rode about with me on one ortwo occasions. One day he told me that he knew a girl just out ofthe place who was subject to fits, and wanted to know if I could doanything for her; that her father was rich and would pay a goodprice to have her cured. I went to see the girl and did at leastenough to earn a fee of one hundred dollars, which her father gladlypaid me. Benson also introduced me to some other people whom I foundprofitable patients. I thought he was a very good friend to me, buthe was a cool, calculating rascal. He meant to rob me of my horseand buggy, and went deliberately to work about it. First, he issuedthe handbill which caused my arrest in Troy, where he knew I wasgoing. Next, as appeared when he came up to Troy to prosecute thesuit against me, he forged a bill of sale. The case was tried anddecided in my favor. Benson appealed, and again it was decided thatthe horse belonged to me. I then had him indicted for perjury andforgery, and he was put under bonds of fourteen hundred dollars ineach case to appear for trial. Some how or other he never appeared, and whether he forfeited his bonds, or otherwise slipped through the"meshes of the law, " I never learned, nor have I ever seen him sincehe attempted to swindle me. But these proceedings kept me in Troymore than a month, and to pay my lawyer and other expenses, Iactually sold the horse and buggy the scoundrel tried to steal fromme. 

Taking my boy to Sidney and putting him under the care of my halfsister, I went to Boston, where I met two friends of mine who wereabout going to Meredith Bridge, N. H. , to fish through the ice onLake Winnipiseogee. It was early in January, 1853, and good, clear, cold weather. They represented the sport to be capital, and saidthat plenty of superb lake trout and pickerel could be taken everyday, and urged me to go with them. As I had nothing special to dofor a few days, I went. When we reached Meredith we stopped at atavern near the lake, kept by one of the oddest landlords I haveever met. After a good supper, as we were sitting in the barroom, the landlord came up to me and at once opened conversation in thefollowing manner:

"Waal, where do you come from, anyhow?"

"From Boston, " I replied. 

"Waal, what be you, anyhow?"

"Well, I practice medicine, and take care of the sick. "

"Dew ye? Waal, do ye ever cure anybody?"

"O, sometimes; quite frequently, in fact. "

"Dew ye! waal, there's a woman up here to Lake Village, 'SquireBlaisdell's wife, who has had the dropsy more'n twelve years; beenfilling' all the time till they tell me she's bigger'n a hogsheadnow, and she's had a hundred doctors, and the more doctors she hasthe bigger she gets; what d' ye think of that now?"

I answered that I thought it was quite likely, and then turned awayfrom the landlord to talk to my friends about our proposed sport forto-morrow, mentally making note of 'Squire Blaisdell's wife in LakeVillage. 

After breakfast next morning we went out on the lake, cut holes inthe ice, set our lines, and before dinner we had taken several finetrout and pickerel, the largest and finest of which we put into abox with ice, and sent as a present to President Pierce, inWashington. We had agreed, the night before, to fish for him thefirst day, and to send him the best specimens we could from hisnative state. After dinner my friends started to go out on the iceagain, and I told them "I guess'd I wouldn't go with them, I hadfished enough for that day. " They insisted I should go, but I toldthem I preferred to take a walk and explore the country. So theywent to the lake and I walked up to Lake Village. 

I soon found Mr. Blaisdell's house, and as the servant who came tothe door informed me that Mr. Blaisdell was not at home, I asked tosee Mrs. Blaisdell, And was shown in to that lady. She was not quitethe "hogshead" the landlord declared her to be, but she was one ofthe worst cases of dropsy I had ever seen. I introduced myself toher, told her my profession, and that I had called upon her in thehope of being able to afford her some relief; that I wanted nothingfor my services unless I could really benefit her. 

"O, Doctor, " said she, "you can do nothing for me; in the pasttwelve years I have had at least forty different doctors, and noneof them have helped me. "

"But there can be no harm in trying the forty-first;" and as I saidit I took from my vest pocket and held out in the palm of my handsome pills:

"Here, madame, are some pills made from a simple blossom, whichcannot possibly harm you, and which, I am sure, will do you a greatdeal of good. "

"O, Mary!" she exclaimed to her niece, who was in attendance uponher, "this is my dream! I dreamed last night that my father appearedto me and told me that a stranger would come with a blossom in hishand; that he would offer it to me, and that if I would take it Ishould recover. Go and get a glass of water and I will take thesepills at once. "

"Surely, " said Mary, "you are not going to take this stranger'smedicine without knowing anything about it, or him?"

"I am indeed; go and get the water. "

She took the medicine and then told me that her father, who had diedtwo years ago, was a physician, and had carefully attended to hercase as long as he lived; but that she had a will of her own, andhad sent far and near for other doctors, though with no good result. 

"You have come to me, " she continued, "and although I am notsuperstitious, your coming with a blossom in your hand, figurativelyspeaking, is so exactly in accordance with my dream, that I am goingto put myself under your care. "

She then asked me if I lived in the neighborhood, and I told her no;that I had merely come up from Boston with two friends to try a fewdays' fishing through the ice on the lake. 

"You can fish to better purpose here, I think, " she said; "you canget plenty of practice in the villages and farm houses about here:at any rate, stay for the present and undertake my case, and I willpay you liberally. "

I went back to Meredith Bridge-I believe it is now calledLaconia-and had another day's fishing with my friends. When theywere ready to pack up and return to Boston, I astonished them byinforming them that I should stay where I was for the present, perhaps for months, and that I believed I could find a good practicein Meredith and adjoining places. So they left me and I went to LakeVillage, and made that pleasant place my headquarters. 

The weeks wore on, and if Mrs. Blaisdell was a hogshead, as theMeredith landlord said, when I first saw her, she soon became abarrel under my treatment, and in four months she was entirelycured, and was as sound as any woman in the State. I had as muchother business too as I could attend to, and was very busy and happyall the time. 

In May I went to Exeter, alternating between there and Portsmouth, and finding enough to do till the end of July. While I was inPortsmouth on one of my last visits to that place, I received a callfrom a sea-captain by the name of Brown, who told me that he hadheard of my success in dropsical cases, and that I must go toNewark, N. J. , and see his daughter. "Pay, " he said, "was no object;I must go. " I told him that I had early finished my business in thatvicinity, and that when I went to New York, as I proposed to doshortly, I would go over to Newark and see his daughter. A few daysafterward, when I had settled my business and collected my bills inPortsmouth and Exeter, I went to New York, and from there to Newark. 

CHAPTER VII. 

WEDDING A WIDOW, AND THE CONSEQUENCES. 

I MARRY A WIDOW--SIX WEEKS OF HAPPINESS--CONFIDING A SECRET AND THECONSEQUENCES--THE WIDOW'S BROTHER--SUDDEN FLIGHT FROM NEWARK--INHARTFORD, CONN. --MY WIFE'S SISTER BETRAYS ME--TRIAL FORBIGAMY--SENTENCED TO TEN YEARS IMPRISONMENT--I BECOME A "BOBBINBOY"--A GOOD FRIEND--GOVERNOR PRICE VISITS ME IN PRISON--HE PARDONSME--TEN YEARS' SENTENCE FULFILLED IN SEVEN MONTHS. 

Why in the world did Captain Brown ever tempt me with the prospectof a profitable patient in Newark? I had no thought of going to thatcity, and no business there except to see if I could cure CaptainBrown's daughter. With my matrimonial monomania it was like puttingmy hand into the fire to go to a fresh place, where I should seefresh faces, and where fresh temptations would beset me. And when Iwent to Newark, I went only as I supposed, to see a single patient;but Captain Brown prevailed upon me to stay to take care of hisdaughter, and assured me that he and his friends would secure me agood practice. They did. In two months I was doing as well in myprofession as I had ever done in any place where I had located. Imight have attended strictly to my business, and in a few years haveacquired a handsome competence. But, as ill luck, which, strangelyenough, I then considered good luck, would have it, when I had beenin Newark some two months, I became acquainted with a buxom, good-looking widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Roberts. I protest to-day thatshe courted me-not I her. She was fair, fascinating, and had agoodly share of property. I fell into the snare. She said she waslonely; she sighed; she smiled, and I was lost. 

Would that I had observed the elder Weller's injunction: "Bevare ofvidders;" would that I had never seen the Widow Roberts, or ratherthat she had never seen me. Eight weeks after we first met we weremarried. We had a great wedding in her own house, and all herfriends were present. I was in good practice with as many patientsas I could attend to; she had a good home and we settled down to bevery happy. 

For six weeks, only six weeks, I think we were so. We might havebeen so for six weeks, six months, six years longer; but alas! I wasa fool I confided to her the secret of my first marriage, andseparation, and she confided the same secret to her brother, awell-to-do wagon-maker in Newark. So far as Elizabeth was concerned, she said she didn't care; so long as the separation was mutual andfinal, since so many years had elapsed, and especially since Ihadn't seen the woman for full six years, and was not supposed toknow whether she was alive or dead, why, it was as good as adivorce; so reasoned Elizabeth, and it was precisely my ownreasoning, and the reasoning which had got me into numberlessdifficulties, to say nothing of jails and prisons. But the brotherhad his doubts about it, and came and talked to me on the subjectseveral times. We quarrelled about it. He threatened to have mearrested for bigamy. I told him that if he took a step in thatdirection I would flog him. Then he had me brought before a justicefor threatening him, with a view to having me put under bonds tokeep the peace. I employed a lawyer who managed my case so well thatthe justice concluded there was no cause of action against me. 

But this lawyer informed me that the brother was putting, even then, another rod in pickle for me, and that I had better clear out. Itook his advice, I went to the widow's house, packed my trunk, gathered together what money I could readily lay hands upon, andwith about $300 in my pocket, I started for New York, staying thatnight at a hotel in Courtland street. 

The following morning I went over to Jersey City, hired asaddle-horse, and rode to Newark. The precise object of my journey Ido not think I knew myself; but I must have had some vague idea ofpersuading Elizabeth to leave Newark and join me in New York orelsewhere. I confess, too, that I was more or less under theinfluence of liquor, and considerably more than less. However, noone would have noticed this in my appearance or demeanor. I rodedirectly to Elizabeth's door, hitched my horse, and went into thehouse. The moment my wife saw me she cried out:

"For God's sake get out of this house and out of town as soon as youcan; they have been watching for you ever since yesterday; they'vegot a warrant for your arrest; don't stay here one moment. "

I asked her if she was willing to follow me, and she said she woulddo so if she only dared but her brother had made an awful row, andhad sworn he would put me in prison anyhow; I had better go back toNew York and await events. I started for the door, and wasunhitching my horse, when the brother and a half dozen more wereupon me. I sprang to the saddle. They tried to stop me; theover-eager brother even caught me by the foot; but I dashed throughthe crowd and rode like mad to Jersey City, returned the horse tothe livery stable, crossed the ferry to New York, went to my hotel, got my trunk, and started for Hartford, Conn. , where I arrived inthe evening. 

This was in the month of June, 1854. I went to the old ExchangeHotel in State street, and very soon acquired a good practice. Indeed, it seems as if I was always successful enough in my medicalbusiness-my mishaps have been in the matrimonial line. When I hadbeen in Hartford about three months, and was well settled, I thoughtI would go down to New York and see a married sister of Elizabeth's, who was living there, and try to find out how matters were going onover in Newark. That I found out fully, if not exactly to mysatisfaction, will appear anon. 

When I called at the sister's house, the servant told me she wasout, but would be back in an hour; so I left my name, promising tocall again. I returned again at one o'clock in the afternoon, andthe sister was in, but declined to see me. As I was coming down thesteps, a policeman who seemed to be lounging on the opposite side ofthe street, beckoned to me, and suspecting nothing, I crossed overto see what he wanted. He simply wanted to know my name, and when Igave it to him he informed me that I was his prisoner. I asked forwhat? and he said "as a fugitive from justice in New Jersey. "

This was for taking the pains to come down from Hartford to inquireafter the welfare of my wife! whose sister, the moment the servanttold her I had been there, and would call again, had gone to thenearest police station and given information, or made statements, which led to the setting of this latest trap for me. The policemantook me before a justice who sent me to the Tombs. On my arrivalthere I managed to pick up a lawyer, or rather one of the sharks ofthe place picked me up, and said that for twenty-five dollars hewould get me clear in three or four hours. I gave him the money, andfrom that day till now, I have never set eyes upon him. I lay in acell all night, and next morning Elizabeth's brother, to whom thesister in New York had sent word that I was caged, came over fromNewark to see me. He said he felt sorry for me, but that he was"bound to put me through. " He then asked me if I would go over toNewark without a requisition from the Governor of New Jersey, and Itold him I would not; whereupon he went away without saying anotherword, and I waited all day to hear from the lawyer to whom I hadgiven twenty-five dollars, but he did not come. 

So next day when the brother came over and asked me the samequestion, I said I would go; wherein I was a fool; for I ought tohave reflected that he had had twenty-four hours in which to get arequisition, and that he might in fact have made application for onealready, without getting it, and every delay favored my chances ofgetting out. But I had no one to advise me, and so I went quietlywith him and an officer to the ferry, where we crossed and went bycars to Newark. I was at once taken before a justice, who, after ahearing of the case, bound me over, under bonds of only one thousanddollars, to take my trial for bigamy. 

If I could have gone into the street I could have procured thiscomparatively trifling bail in half an hour; as it was, after I wasin jail I sent for a man whom I knew, and gave him my gold watch andone hundred dollars, all the money I had, to procure me bail, whichhe promised to do; but he never did a thing for me, except to robme. 

A lawyer came to me and offered to take my case in hand for onehundred dollars, but I had not the money to give him. I then sent toNew York for a lawyer whom I knew, and when he came to see me hetook the same view of the case that Elizabeth and I did; that is, that the long separation between my first wife and myself, and mypresumed ignorance as to whether she was alive or dead, gave me fullliberty to marry again. At least, he thought any court wouldconsider it an extenuating circumstance, and he promised to bepresent at my trial and aid me all he could. 

I lay in Newark jail nine months, awaiting my trial. During thattime I had almost daily quarrels with the jailor, who abused meshamefully, and told me I ought to go to State prison and stay therefor life. Once he took hold of me and I struck him, for which I wasput in the dark cell forty-eight hours. At last came my trial. Thecourt appointed counsel for me, for I had no money to fee a lawyer, and my New York friend was on hand to advise and assist. I ladwitnesses to show the length of time that had elapsed since myseparation from my first wife, and we also raised the point as towhether the justice who married me, was really a legal justice ofthe peace or not. The trial occupied two days. I suppose allprisoners think so, but the Judge charged against me in every point;the jury was out two hours, and then came in for advice on adoubtful question; the judge gave them another blast against me, andan hour after they came in with a verdict of "guilty. " I went backto jail and two days afterwards was brought up for sentence whichwas--"ten years at hard labor in the State prison at Trenton. "

Good heavens! All this for being courted and won by a widow!

The day following, I was taken in irons to Trenton. The Warden ofthe prison, who wanted to console me, said that, for the offence, mysentence was an awful one, and that he didn't believe I would beobliged to serve out half of it. As I felt then, I did not believe Ishould live out one-third of it. After I had gone through theroutine of questions, and had been put in the prison uniform, a capwas drawn down over my face, as if I was about to be hung, and I wasled, thus blind-folded, around and around, evidently to confuse me, with regard to the interior of the prison-in case I might ever haveany idea of breaking out. At last I was brought to a cell door andthe cap was taken off. There were, properly no "cells" in thisprison-at least I never saw any; but good sized rooms for twoprisoners, not only to live in but to work in. I found myself in aroom with a man who was weaving carpets, and I was at onceinstructed in the art of winding yarn on bobbins for him-in fact, Iwas to be his "bobbin-boy. "

I pursued this monotonous occupation for two months, when I told thekeeper I did not like that business, and wanted to try somethingthat had a little more variety in it. Whereupon he put me at thecane chair bottoming business, which gave me another room andanother chum, and I remained at this work while I was in the prison. In three weeks I could bottom one chair, while my mate was bottomingnine or ten as his day's work; but I told the keeper I did not meanto work hard, or work at all, if I could help it. He was a very nicefellow and he only laughed and let me do as I pleased. Indeed, Icould not complain of my treatment in any respect; I had a goodclean room, good bed, and the fare was wholesome and abundant. Butthen, there was that terrible, terrible sentence of ten long yearsof this kind of life, if I should live through it. 

After I had been in prison nearly seven months, one day a merchanttailor whom I well knew in Newark, and who made my clothes, including my wedding suit when I married the Widow Roberts, came tosee me. The legislature was in session and he was a member of theSenate. He knew all the circumstances of my case, and was present atmy trial. After the first salutation, he laughingly said:

"Well, Doctor, those are not quite as nice clothes as I used tofurnish you with. "

"No, " I replied, "but perhaps they are more durable. "

After some other chaff and chat, he made me tell him all about myfirst marriage and subsequent separation, and after talking awhilehe went away, promising to see me soon. I looked upon this only as afriendly visit, for which I was grateful; and attached no greatimportance to it. But he came again in a few days, and after somegeneral conversation, he told me that there was a movement on footin my favor, which might bring the best of news to me; that he hadnot only talked with his friends in the legislature, and enlistedtheir sympathy and assistance, but he had laid the wholecircumstances, from beginning to end, before Governor Price; thatthe Governor would visit the prison shortly, and then I must do mybest in pleading my own cause. 

In a day or two the Governor came, and I had an opportunity torelate my story. I told him all about my first unfortunate marriage, and the separation. He said that he knew the facts, and also that hehad lately received a letter from my oldest son on the subject, andhad read it with great interest. I then appealed to the Governor forhis clemency; my sentence was an outrageously severe one, and seemedalmost prompted by private malice; I implored him to pardon me; Iwent down on my knees before him, and asked his mercy. He told me tobe encouraged; that he would be in the prison again in a few days, and he would see me. He then went away. 

I at once drew up a petition which my friend in the Senatecirculated in the legislature for signatures, and afterwards sent itto Newark, securing some of the best names in that city. It was thenreturned to me, and two weeks afterwards when the Governor cameagain to the prison I presented it to him, and he put it in hispocket. 

In two days' time, Governor Price sent my pardon into the prison. The Warden came and told me of it, and said he would let me out inan hour. Then came a keeper who once more put the cap over my faceand led me around the interior-I was willingly led now-till hebrought me to a room where he gave me my own clothes which I put on, and with a kind parting word, and five dollars from the Warden, Iwas soon in the street, once more a free man. My sentence of tenyears had been fulfilled by an imprisonment of exactly seven months. 

I went and called on Governor Price to thank him for his greatgoodness towards me. He received me kindly, talked to me for sometime, and gave me some good advice and a little money. With this andthe five dollars I received from the Warden of the prison I startedfor New York. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ON THE KEEN SCENT. 

GOOD RESOLUTIONS--ENJOYING FREEDOM--GOING AFTER A CRAZY MAN--THE OLDTEMPTER IN A NEW FORM--MARY GORDON--MY NEW "COUSIN"--ENGAGEDAGAIN--VISIT TO THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME--ANOTHER MARRIAGE--STARTING FOROHIO--CHANGE OF PLANS--DOMESTIC QUARRELS--UNPLEASANT STORIES ABOUTMARY--BOUND OVER TO KEEP THE PEACE--ANOTHER ARREST FOR BIGAMY--A SUDDENFLIGHT--SECRETED THREE WEEKS IN A FARM HOUSE--RECAPTURED ATCONCORD--ESCAPED ONCE MORE--TRAVELING ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD--INCANADA. 

It would seem as if, by this time, I had had enough of miscellaneousmarrying and the imprisonment that almost invariably followed. I hadtold Governor Price, when I first implored him for pardon, that ifhe would release me I would begin a new life, and endeavor to be inall respects a better man. I honestly meant to make every effort tobe so, and on my stay to New York I made numberless vows for my ownfuture good behavior. I bound myself over, as it were, to keep thepace-my own peace and quiet especially-and became my own surety. That I could not have had a poorer bondsman, subsequent eventsproved to my sorrow. But I started fairly, and meant to let liquoralone; to attend strictly to my medical business, which I alwaysmanaged to make profitable, and above all, to have nothing to dowith women in the love-making or matrimonial way. 

With those good resolutions I arrived in New York and went to my oldhotel in Courtland Street, where I was well known and was wellreceived. My trunk, which I had left there sixteen months before, was safe, and I had a good suit of clothes on my back--the clothes Itook off when I went to prison in Trenton--and which were returnedto me when I came away. I went to a friend who loaned me some money, and I remained two or three days in town to try my new-foundfreedom, going about the city, visiting places of amusement, enjoying myself very much, and keeping, so far, the good resolutionsI had formed. 

From New York I went to Troy, and at the hotel where I stopped Ibecame acquainted with a woman who told me that her husband was inthe Insane Asylum at Brattleboro, Vt. She was going to see him, andif he was fit to be removed, she proposed to take him home, withher. I told her of the success I had had in taking care of two menat Newbury and Montgomery; and how I had traveled about the countrywith them, and with the most beneficial results to my patients. Shewas much interested, inquired into the particulars, and finallythought the plan would be a favorable one for her husband. She askedme to go with her to see him, and said that if he was in conditionto travel he should go about with me if he would; at any rate, if hecame out of the Asylum she would put him under my care. We wenttogether to Brattleboro, and the very day we arrived her husband wastaken in an apoplectic fit from which he did not recover. Shecarried home his corpse, and I lost my expected patient. 

But I must have something to do for my daily support, and so I wentto work and very soon sold some medicines and recipes, and secured afew patients. I also visited the adjoining villages, and in a fewweeks I had a very good practice. I might have lived here quietlyand made money. Nobody knew anything of my former history, mymarriages or my misfortunes, and I was doing well, with a dailyincreasing business. And so I went on for nearly three months, gaining new acquaintances, and extending my practice every day. 

Then came the old tempter in a new form, and my matrimonialmonomania, which I hoped was cured forever, broke out afresh. Oneday, at the public house where I lived, I saw a fine girl from NewHampshire, with whom I became acquainted--so easily, so far as shewas concerned--that I ought to have been warned to have nothing todo with her; but, as usual, in such cases, my common sense left me, and I was infatuated enough to fancy that I was in love. 

Mary Gordon was the daughter of a farmer living near Keene, N. H. , and was a handsome girl about twenty years of age. She was going, she told me, to visit some friends in Bennington, and would be thereabout a month, during which time, if I was in that vicinity, shehoped I would come and see her. We parted very lovingly, and whenshe had been in Bennington a few days she wrote to me, setting atime for me to visit her; but in business in Brattleboro was toogood to leave, and I so wrote to her. Whereupon, in another week, she came back to Brattleboro and proposed to finish the remainder ofher visit there, thus blinding her friends at home who would thinkshe was all the while at Bennington. 

Our brief acquaintance when she was at the house before, attractedno particular attention, and when she came now I told the landlordthat she was my cousin, and he gave her a room and I paid her bills. The cousin business was a full cover to our intimacy; she sat nextto me at the table, rode about with me to see my patients, and whenI went to places near by to sell medicine, and we were almostconstantly together. Of course, we were engaged to be married, andthat very soon. 

In a fortnight after her arrival I went home with her to herfather's farm near Keene, and she told her mother that we were"engaged. " The old folks thought they would like to know me a littlebetter, but she said we were old friends, she knew me thoroughly, and meant to marry me. There was no further objection on the part ofher parents, and in the few days following she and her mother werebusily engaged in preparing her clothes and outfit. 

I then announced my intention of returning to Brattleboro to settleup my business in that place, and she declared she would go with me;I was sure to be lonesome; she might help me about my bills, and soon. Strange as it may seem, her parents made no objection to hergoing, though I was to be absent a fortnight, and was not to bemarried till I came back. So we went together, and I and my "cousin"put up at the hotel we had lately left. For two weeks I was busy inmaking my final visits to my patients acquaintances, she generallygoing with me every day. 

At the end of that time we went back to Keene, and in three weeks wewere married in her father's house, the old folks making a greatwedding for us, which was attended by all the neighbors and friendsof the family. We stayed at home two weeks, and meanwhile arrangedour plans for the future. We proposed to go out to Ohio, where shehad some relatives, and settle down. She had seven hundred dollarsin bank in Keene which she drew, and we started on our journey. Wewent to Troy, where we stayed a few days, and during that time weboth concluded that we would not go West, but return to Keene andlive in the town instead of on the farm, so that I could open anoffice and practice there. 

So we went back to her home again, but before I completed my plansfor settling down in Keene, Mary and I had several quarrels whichwere worse than mere ordinary matrimonial squabbles. Two or threeyoung men in Keene, with whom I had become acquainted, twitted mewith marrying Mary, and told me enough about her to convince me thather former life had not been altogether what it should have been. Ihad been too blinded by her beauty when I first saw her inBrattleboro, to notice how extremely easily she was won. Herparents, too, were wonderfully willing, if not eager, to marry herto me. All these things came to me now, and we had some very livelyconversations on the subject, in which the old folks joined, sidingwith their daughter of course. By and by the girl went to Keene andmade a complaint that she was afraid of her life, and I was broughtbefore a magistrate and put under bonds of four hundred dollars tokeep the peace. I gave a man fifty dollars to go bail for me, andthen, instead of going out to the farm with Mary, I went to thehotel in Keene. 

The well-known character of the girl, my marriage to her, the briefhoneymoon, the quarrels and the cause of the same, were all tootempting material not to be served up in a paragraph, and as Iexpected and feared, out came the whole story in the Keene paper. 

This was copied in other journals, and presently came letters to thefamily and to other persons in the place, giving some account of myformer adventures and marriages. Of this however I knew nothing, till one day, while I was at the hotel, I was suddenly arrested forbigamy. But I was used to this kind of arrest by this time, and Iwent before the magistrate with my mind made up that I must sufferagain for my matrimonial monomania. 

It was just after dinner when I was arrested, and the examination, which was a long one, continued till evening. Every one in themagistrate's office was tired out with it, I especially, and so Itook a favorable opportunity to leave the premises. I bolted for thedoor, ran down stairs into the street, and was well out of townbefore the astonished magistrate, stunned constable, and amazedspectators realized that I had gone. 

Whether they than set out in pursuit of me I never knew, I only knowthey did not catch me. I ran till I came to the house of a farmerwhom I had been attending for some ailment, and hurriedly narratingthe situation, I offered him one hundred dollars if he would secreteme till the hue and cry was over and I could safely get away. Ithink he would have done it from good will, but the hundred dollarbill I offered him made the matter sure. He put my money into hispocket, and he put me into a dark closet, not more than five feetsquare, and locked me in. 

I stayed in that man's house, never going out of doors, for morethan three weeks, and did my best to board out my hundred dollars. The day after my flight the whole neighborhood was searched, thatis, the woods, roads, and adjacent villages. They never thought oflooking in a house, particularly in a house so near the town; and, as I heard from my protector, they telegraphed and advertised farand near for me. 

I anticipated all this, and for this very reason I remained quietlywhere I was, in an unsuspected house, and with my dark closet toretire to whenever any one came in; and gossiping neighbors comingin almost every hour, kept me in that hole nearly half the time. Iheard my own story told in that house at least fifty times, and infifty different ways. 

At last, when I thought it was safe, one night my host harnessed uphis horses and carried me some miles on my way to Concord. He droveas far as he dared, for he wanted to get back home by daylight, sothat his expedition might excite no suspicion. Twenty miles awayfrom Keene he set me down in the road, and, bidding him "good-bye, "I began my march toward Concord. When I arrived there, almost thefirst man I saw in the street was a doctor from Keene. I did notthink he saw me, but he did, as I soon found out, for while I waswaiting at the depot to take the cars to the north, I was arrested. 

The Keene doctor owed me a grudge for interfering, as he deemed it;with his regular practice, and the moment he saw me he put anofficer on my trail. I thought it was safe here to take the cars, for I was footsore and weary, nor did I get away from Keene as fastand as far as I wanted to. I should have succeeded but for thatdoctor. 

When the officer brought me before a justice, the doctor was awilling witness to declare that I was a fugitive from justice, andhe stated the circumstances of my escape. So I was sent back toKeene under charge of the very officer who arrested me at the depot. 

I would not give this officer's name if I could remember it, but hewas a fine fellow, and was exceedingly impressible. For instance, onour arrival at Keene, he allowed me to go to the hotel and pack mytrunk to be forwarded to Meredith Bridge by express. He then handedme over to the authorities, and I was immediately taken before themagistrate from whom I had previously escaped, the Concord officeraccompanying the Keene officer who had charge of me. 

The examination was short; I was bound over in the sum of onethousand dollars to take my trial for bigamy. On my way to jail Ipersuaded the Concord officer-with a hundred dollar bill which Islipped into his hand-to induce the other officer to go with me tothe hotel under pretense of looking after my things, and gettingwhat would be necessary for my comfort in jail. My Concord friendkept the other officer down stairs--in the bar-room, I presume--whileI went to my room. I put a single shirt in my pocket; the distancefrom my window to the ground was not more than twelve or fifteenfeet, and I let myself down from the window sill and then dropped. 

I was out of the yard, into the street, and out of town in less thanno time. It was already evening, and everything favored my escape. Ihad no idea of spending months in jail at Keene, and months more, perhaps years, in the New Hampshire State Prison. All my past bitterexperiences of wretched prison life urged me to flight. 

And fly I did. No stopping at the friendly farmer's, my formerrefuge, this time; that would be too great a risk. No showing ofmyself in any town or village where the telegraph might haveconveyed a description of my person. I traveled night and day onfoot, and more at night than during the day, taking by-roads, lyingby in the woods, sleeping in barns, and getting my meals inout-of-the-way farm houses. 

I had plenty of money; but this kind of travelling is inexpensive, and, paying twenty-five cents for one or two meals a day, as I daredto get them, and sleeping in barns or under haystacks for nothing, my purse did not materially diminish. I was a good walker, and inthe course of a week from the night when I left Keene, I foundmyself in Biddeford, Maine. 

There was some sense of security in being in another State, and hereI ventured to take the cars for Portland, where I staid two days, sending in the meantime for my trunk from Meredith Bridge, andgetting it by express. Of course it went to a fictitious address atMeredith, and it came to me under the same name which I hadregistered in my hotel at Portland. 

I did not mean to stay there long. My departure was hastened by theadvice of a man who knew me, and told he also knew my New Hampshirescrape, and that I had better leave Portland as soon as possible. Half an hour after this good advice I was on my way by cars toCanada. In Canada I stayed in different small towns near the border, and "kept moving, " till I thought the New Hampshire matter had blownover a little, or at least till they had given me up as a "gonecase, " and I then reappeared in Troy. 

CHAPTER IX. 

MARRYING TWO MILLINERS. 

BACK IN VERMONT--FRESH TEMPTATIONS--MARGARET BRADLEY--WINE AND WOMEN--AMOCK MARRIAGE IN TROY--THE FALSE CERTIFICATE--MEDICINE ANDMILLINERY--ELIZA GURNSEY--A SPREE AT SARATOGA--MARRYING ANOTHERMILLINER--AGAIN ARRESTED OR BIGAMY--IN JAIL ELEVEN MONTHS--A TEDIOUSTRIAL--FOUND GUILTY--APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT--TRYING TO BREAK OUT OFJAIL--A GOVERNOR'S PROMISE--SECOND TRIAL--SENTENCE TO THREE YEARS'IMPRISONMENT. 

From Troy I went, first to Newburyport, Mass. , where I had somebusiness, and where I remained a week, and then returned to Troyagain. Next I went to Bennington, Vt. , to sell medicines andpractice, and I found enough to occupy me there for full two months. From Bennington to Rutland, selling medicines on the way, and atRutland I intended to stay for some time. My oldest son was therewell established in the medical business, and I thought that both ofus together might extend a wide practice and make a great deal ofmoney. 

No doubt we might have done so, if I had minded my medical businessonly, and had let matrimonial matters alone. I had just got rid of aworthless woman in New Hampshire with a very narrow escape fromState prison. But, as my readers know by this time, all experience, even the bitterest, was utterly thrown away upon me; I seemed to getout of one scrape only to walk, with my eyes open, straight intoanother. 

At the hotel where I went to board, there was temporarily staying awoman, about thirty-two years old, Margaret Bradly, by name, whokept a large millinery establishment in town. I became acquaintedwith her, and she told me that she owned a house in the place, inwhich she and her mother lived; but her mother had gone away on avisit, and as she did not like to live alone she had come to thehotel to stay for a few days till her mother returned. Margaret wasa fascinating woman; she knew it, and it was my miserable fate tobecome intimate, altogether too intimate with this designingmilliner. 

I went to her store every day, sometimes two or three times a day, and she always had in her backroom, wine or something stronger totreat me with, and in the evening I saw her at the hotel. When hermother came back, and Margaret opened her house again, I was aconstant visitor. I was once more caught; I was in love. 

Matters went on in this way for several weeks, when one evening Itold her that I was going next day to Troy on business, and she saidshe wanted to go there to buy some goods, and that she would gladlytake the opportunity to go with me, if I would let her. Of course, Iwas only too happy; and the next day I and my son, and she and oneof the young women in her employ, who was to assist her in selectinggoods, started for Troy. When I called for her, just as we wereleaving the house, the old lady, her mother, called out:

"Margaret, don't you get married before you come back. "

"I guess I will, " was Margaret's answer, and we went, a very jovialparty of four, to Troy and put up at the Girard House, where we haddinner together, and drank a good deal of wine. After dinner my sonand myself went to attend to our business, she and her young womangoing to make their purchases, and arranging to meet us at arestaurant at half past four o'clock, when we would lunchpreparatory to returning to Rutland. 

We met at the appointed place and hour, and had a very lively lunchindeed, an orgie in fact, with not only enough to eat, butaltogether too much to drink. I honestly think the two women couldhave laid me and my son under the table, and would have done it, ifwe had not looked out for ourselves; as it was, we all drank a greatdeal and were very merry. We were in a room by ourselves, and whenwe had been there nearly an hour, it occurred to Margaret that itwould be a good idea to humor the old lady's dry joke about thedanger of our getting married during this visit to Troy. 

"Henry, " said she to my son; "Go out and ask the woman who keeps thesaloon where you can get a blank marriage certificate, and then getone and bring it here, and we'll have some fun. "

We were all just drunk enough to see that there was a joke in it, and we urged the boy to go. He went to the woman, who directed himto a stationer's opposite, and presently he came in with a blankmarriage certificate. We called for pen and ink and he sat down andfilled out the blank form putting in my name and Margaret Bradley's, signing it with some odd name I have forgotten as that of theclergyman performing the ceremony. He then signed his own name as awitness to the marriage, and the young woman who was with us alsowitnessed it with her signature. We had a great deal of fun over it, then more wine, and then it was time for us to hurry to the depot totake the six o'clock train for Rutland. 

Reaching home at about eleven o'clock at night, we found the oldlady up, and waiting for Margaret. We went in and Margaret's firstwords were:

"Well, mother! I'm married; I told you, you know, I thought I shouldbe; and here's my certificate. "

The mother expressed no surprise-she knew her daughter better than Idid, then-but quietly congratulated her, while I said not a singleword. My son went to see his companion home, and, as I had notachieved this latest greatness, but had it thrust upon me, I and mynew found "wife" went to our room. The next day I removed from thehotel to Margaret's house and remained there during my residence inRutland, she introducing me to her friends as her husband, andseeming to consider it an established fact. 

Three weeks after this mock marriage, however, I told Margaret thatI was going to travel about the State a while to sell my medicines, and that I might be absent for some time. She made no objections, and as I was going with my own team she asked me to take somemantillas and a few other goods which were a little out of fashion, and see if I could not sell them for her. To be sure I would, and weparted on the best of terms. 

Behold rue now, not only a medical man and a marrying man, but alsoa man milliner. When I could not dispose of my medicines, I triedmantillas, and in the course of my tour I sold the whole ofMargaret's wares, faithfully remitting to her the money for thesame. I think she would have put her whole stock of goods on me towork off in the same way; but I never gave her the opportunity to doso. 

My journeying brought me at last to Montpelier where I proposed tostay awhile and see if I could establish a practice. I had disposedof my millinery goods and had nothing to attend to but mymedicines--alas that my professional acquirements as a marrying manshould again have been called in requisition. But it was to be. Itwas my fate to fall into the hands of another milliner. 

"Insatiate monster! would not one suffice?"

It seems not. There was a milliner at Rutland whose family and, friends all believed to be my wife, though she knew she was not; andhere in Montpelier, was ready waiting, like a spider for a fly, another milliner who was about to enmesh me in the matrimonial net. I had not been in the place a week before I became acquainted withEliza Gurnsey. I could hardly help it, for she lived in the hotelwhere I stopped, and although she was full thirty-five years old, she was altogether the most attractive woman in the house. She wasagreeable, good-looking, intelligent, and what the vernacular calls"smart. " At all events, she was much too smart for me, as I soonfound out. 

She had a considerable millinery establishment which she and heryounger sister carried on, employing several women, and she wasreputed to be well off. Strange as it may seem in the light of afterevents, she actually belonged to the church and was a regularattendant at the services. But no woman in town was more talkedabout, and precisely what sort of a woman she was may be estimatedfrom the fact that I had known her but little more than a week, whenshe proposed that she, her sister and I should go to Saratogatogether, and have a good time for a day or two. 

I was fairly fascinated with the woman and I consented. The youngersister was taken with us, I thought at first as a cover, I knewafterwards as a confederate, and Eliza paid all the bills, whichwere by no means small ones, of the entire trip. We stopped inSaratoga at a hotel, which is now in very different hands, but whichwas then kept by proprietors who, in addition to a most excellenttable and accommodations, afforded their guests the opportunity, ifthey desired it, of attending prayers every night and morning in oneof the parlors. This may have been the inducement which made Elizainsist upon going to this house, but I doubt it. 

For our stay at Saratoga, three or four days, was one wild revel. Werode about, got drunk, went to the Lake, came back to the hotel, andthe second day we were there, Eliza sent her sister for aPresbyterian minister, whose address she had somehow secured, andthis minister came to the hotel and married us. I presume Iconsented, I don't know, for I was too much under the effect ofliquor to know much of anything. I have an indistinct recollectionof some sort of a ceremony, and afterwards Eliza showed me acertificate-no Troy affair, but a genuine document signed by aminister residing in Saratoga, and witnessed by her sister and someone in the hotel who had been called in. But the whole was like adream to me; it was the plot of an infamous woman to endeavor tomake herself respectable by means of a marriage, no matter to whomor how that marriage was effected. 

Meanwhile, the Montpelier papers had the whole story, one of thempublishing a glowing account of my elopement with Miss Gurnsey, andthe facts of our marriage at Saratoga was duly chronicled. Thispaper fell into the hands of Miss Bradley, at Rutland, and as sheclaimed to be my wife, and had parted with me only a little whilebefore, when I went out to peddle medicines and millinery, herfeelings can be imagined. She read the story and then aroused allRutland. I had not been back from Saratoga half an hour before I wasarrested in the public house in Montpelier and taken before amagistrate, on complaint of Miss Bradley, of Rutland, that I wasguilty of bigamy. 

The examination was a long one, and as the facts which were thenshown appeared afterwards in my trial they need not be noted now. Ihad two first-rate lawyers, but for all that, and with the plainestshowing that Margaret Bradley had no claim whatever to be consideredmy wife, I was bound over in the sum of three thousand dollars toappear for trial, and was sent to jail. There was a tremendousexcitement about the matter, and the whole town seemed interested. 

To jail I went, Eliza going with me, and insisting upon staying; butthe jailer would not let her, nor was she permitted to visit meduring my entire stay there, at least she got in to see me but once. I made every effort to get bail, but was unsuccessful. Eight longweary months elapsed before my trial came on, and all this while Iwas in jail. My trial lasted a week. The Bradley woman knew she wasno more married to me than she was to the man in the moon; but sheswore stoutly that we were actually wedded according to thecertificate. On the other hand, my son swore to all the facts aboutthe Troy spree, and his buying and filling out the certificate, which showed for itself that, excepting the signature of the youngwoman who also witnessed it, it was entirely in Henry's handwriting. I should have got along well enough so far as the Bradley woman wasconcerned; but the prosecution had been put in possession of all thefacts relative to my first and worst marriage, and the whole mattercame up in this case. The District Attorney had sent everywhere, asfar even as Illinois, for witness with regard to that marriage. Itseemed as if all Vermont was against me. I have heard that with thecost of witnesses and other expenses, my trial cost the state morethan five thousand dollars. My three lawyers could not save me. After a week's trial the case went to the jury, and in four hoursthey returned a verdict of "guilty. "

My counsel instantly appealed the case to the Supreme Court, and, meanwhile I went back to jail where I remained three months more. Afew days after I returned to jail a friend of mine managed tofurnish me with files and saws, and I went industriously to work atthe gratings of my window to saw my way out. I could work only atnight, when the keepers were away, and I covered the traces of mycuttings by filling in with tallow. In two months I had everythingin readiness for my escape. An hour's more sawing at the bars wouldset me free. But just at that time the Governor of the State, Fletcher, made a visit to the jail. I told him all about my case. Heassured me, after hearing all the circumstances, that if I should beconvicted and sentenced, he would surely pardon me in the course ofsix or eight weeks. Trusting in this promise, I made no furthereffort to escape though I could have done so easily any night; butrather than run the risk of recapture, and a heavier sentence if Ishould be convicted, I awaited the chances of the court, and lookedbeyond for the clemency of the Governor. 

Well, finally my case came up in the Supreme Court. It only occupieda day, and the result was that I was sentenced for three years inthe State prison. I was remanded to jail, and five days from thattime I was taken from Montpelier to Windsor. 

CHAPTER X. 

PRISON-LIFE IN VERMONT. 

ENTERING PRISON--THE SCYTHE SNATH BUSINESS--BLISTERED HANDS--I LEARNNOTHING--THREAT TO KILL THE SHOP-KEEPER--LOCKSMITHING--OPENREBELLION--SIX WEEKS IN THE DUNGEON--ESCAPE OF A PRISONER--IN THEDUNGEON AGAIN--THE MAD MAN, HALL--HE ATTEMPTS TO MURDER THE DEPUTY--ISAVE MOREY'S LIFE--HOWLING IN THE BLACK HOLE--TAKING OFF HALL'SIRONS--A GHASTLY SPECTACLE--A PRISON FUNERAL--I AM LET ALONE--BETTERTREATMENT--THE FULL TERM OF MY IMPRISONMENT. 

We arrived at Windsor and I was safely inside of the prison at threeo'clock in the afternoon. Warden Harlow met me with a joke, to theeffect that, had it not been for my handcuffs he should have takenthe officer who brought me, to be the prisoner, I was so much thebetter dressed of the two. He then talked very seriously to me for along time. He was sorry, and surprised, he said, to see a man of myappearance brought to such a place for such a crime; he could notunderstand how a person of my evident intelligence should get intosuch a scrape. 

I told him that he understood it as well as I did, at all events;that I could not conceive why I should get into these difficulties, one after the other; but that I believed I was a crazy man on thisone subject-matrimonial monomania; that when I had gone through withone of these scrapes, and had suffered the severe punishment thatwas almost certain to follow, the whole was like a dream to me-anightmare and nothing more. With regard to what was before me inthis prison I should try and behave myself, and make the best of thesituation; but I notified the Warden that I did not mean to do onebit of work if I could help it. 

He took me inside, where my fine clothes were taken away, and I. Wasdressed in the usual particolored prison uniform. I was told therules, and was warned that if I did not observe them it would gohard with me. Then followed twenty-four hours solitary confinement, and the next afternoon I was taken from my cell to a shop in whichscythe snaths were made. 

It had transpired during my trial at Montpelier, that when I was ayoung man, I was a blacksmith by trade. This information had beentransmitted to prison and I was at once put to work making heelrings. It was some years since I had worked at a forge and handled ahammer. Consequently, in three or four days, my hands were terriblyblistered, and as the Warden happened to come into the shop, Ishowed them to him, and quietly told him that I would do that workno longer. He told me that I must do it; he would make me do it. Ianswered that he might kill me, or punish me in any way he pleased, but he could not make me do that kind of labor, and I threw down myhammer and refused to work a moment longer. 

The Warden left me and sent Deputy Warden Morey to try me. Heapproached me in a kindly way, and I showed my blistered hands tohim. He thought that was the way to "toughen" me. I thought not, andsaid so, and, moreover, told him I would never make another heelring in that prison, and I never did. 

He sent me to my cell and I stayed there a week, till my hands werewell. Then the Deputy came to me and asked me if I was willing tolearn to hew out scythe snaths in the rough for the shavers, whofinished them? I said I would try. I went into the shop and wasshown how the work was to be done. Every man was expected to hew outfifty snaths in a day. In three or four days the shop-keeper cameand overlooked me while I was working in my bungling way, and saidif I couldn't do better than that I must clear out of his shop anddo something else. My reply was that I did not understand thebusiness, and had no desire or intention to learn it. He sent forthe Deputy Warden, who came and expressed the opinion that I couldnot do anything. I said I was willing to do anything I couldunderstand. 

"Do you understand anything?" asked the Deputy. 

"Well, some things, marrying for instance, " was my answer. 

"I want no joking or blackguardism about this matter, " said theDeputy; "them simple fact is, you've got to work; if you don't we'llmake you. "

So I kept on at hewing, making no improvement, and in a day or twomore the shopkeeper undertook to show me how the work should bedone. I protested I never could learn it. 

"You don't try; and I have a good mind to punish you. "

The moment the shop-keeper said it I dropped the snath, raised myaxe, and told him that if he came one step nearer to me I would makemincemeat of him. He thought it was advisable to stay where he was;but one of the prison-keepers was in the shop, and as he came towardme I warned him that he had better keep away. 

All the men in the shop were ready to break out in insubordination;when I threatened the shop keeper and the guard, they cheered; theDeputy Warden was soon on the ground; he stood in the doorway amoment, and then, in a kind tone called me to him. I had noimmediate quarrel with him, and so I dropped my axe and went to him. He told me that there was no use of "making a muss" there, itincited the other prisoners to insubordination, and was sure tobring severe punishment upon myself. "Go and get your cap and coat, "said he "and come with me. "

"But if you are going to put me into that black hole of yours, " Iexclaimed, "I won't go; you'll have to draw me there or kill me onthe way. "

He promised he would not put me in the dungeon, he was only going toput me in my cell, he said, and to my cell I went, willingly enough, and stayed there a week, during which time I suppose everyone of myshopmates thought I was in the dungeon, undergoing severe punishmentfor my rebellions conduct. 

I had learned now the worst lesson which a prisoner can learn-thatis, that my keepers were afraid of me. To a limited extent, it istrue, I was now my own master and keeper. In a few days Deputy Moreycame to me and asked me if I was "willing" to come out and work. Iwas sick of solitary confinement, and longed to see the faces ofmen, even prisoners: so I told him if I could get any work I coulddo I was willing to try it, and would do as well as I knew how. Heasked me if I knew anything of locksmithing? I told him I had sometaste for it, and if he would show me his job I would let him seewhat I could do. 

The fact is, I was a very fair amateur locksmith, and had quite afondness for fixing, picking, and fussing generally over locks. Accordingly, when he gave me a lock to work upon to make it "playeasier, " as he described it, I did the job so satisfactorily that Ihad nearly every lock in the prison to take off and operate upon, ifit was nothing more than to clean and oil one. This businessoccupied my entire time and attention for nearly three months. ThenI repaired iron bedsteads, did other iron work, and I was thegeneral tinker of the prison. 

It came into my head, however, one day, that I might as well donothing. The prison fare was indescribably bad, almost as bad as thejail fare at Easton. We lived upon the poorest possible salt beeffor dinner, varied now and then with plucks and such stuff from theslaughter houses, with nothing but bread and rye coffee forbreakfast and supper, and mush and molasses perhaps twice a week. 

I was daily abused, too, by the Warden, his Deputy, and his keepers. They looked upon me as an ugly, insubordinate, refractory, rebellious rascal, who was ready to kill any of them, and, worst ofall, who would not work. I determined to confirm their minds in thelatter supposition, and so one day I threw down my tools and refusedto do another thing. 

They dragged me to the dungeon and thrust me in. It was a wretcheddark hole, with a little dirty straw in one corner to lie upon. Myentire food and drink was bread and water. The man who brought itnever spoke to me. His face was the only one I saw during thelivelong day. Day and night were alike to me; I lost the run oftime; but at long intervals, once in eight or ten days, I suppose, the Deputy came to this hole and asked me if I would come out andwork. 

"No, no!" I always answered, "never!" Then I paced the stone floorin the dark, or lay on my straw. I lay there till my hips were wornraw. No human being can conceive the agony, the suffering endured inthis dungeon. At last I was nearly blind, and was scarcely able tostand up. I presume that the attendant who brought my daily dole ofbread and my cup of water, reported my condition. One day the dooropened and I was ordered out. They were obliged to bring me out; Iwas so reduced that I was but the shadow of myself. They meant tocure my obstinacy or to kill me, and had not quite succeeded indoing either. 

There was no use in asking me if I would go to work then; I was justalive. A few days in my own cell, in the daylight, and withsomething beside bread and water to eat, partially restored me. Iwas then taken into the shop where the snaths were finished byscraping and varnishing, the lightest part of the work, but I wouldnot learn, would not do, would not try to do anything at all. Theygave me up. The whole struggle nearly killed me, but I beat them. Iwas turned into the halls and told to do what I could, which, I knewwell enough, meant what I would. 

After that I worked about the halls and yard, sometimes sweeping, and again carrying something, or doing errands for the keepers fromone part of the prison to another. I was what theatrical managerscall a general utility man, and, not at all strangely, for it ishuman nature, now that I could do what I pleased, I pleased to do agreat deal, and was tolerably useful, and far more agreeable than Ihad been in the past. 

There was a young fellow, twenty-two years of age, in one of thecells, serving out a sentence of six years. When I was sweepingaround I used to stop and talk to him every day. One day he wasmissing. He had been supposed to be sick or asleep for severalhours, for apparently lie lay in bed, and was lying very still. Butthat was only an ingeniously constructed dummy. The young manhimself had made a hole under his bed into an adjoining vacant cell, the door of which stood open. He had crawled through his hole, comeout of the vacant cell door, and gone up to the prison garret, wherehe found some old pieces of rope. These he tied together, andgetting out at the cupola upon the roof, he managed to let himselfdown on the outside of the building and got away. He was neverrecaptured. The Warden said that some one must have told him aboutthe adjoining vacant cell, with its always open door, else how wouldthe young man have known it?

I was accused of imparting this valuable information, and I sufferedfour weeks' confinement in that horrible dungeon on the meresuspicion. This made ten weeks in all of my prison-life in a hole inwhich I suffered so that I hoped I should die there. 

One of the prisoners was a desperate man, named Hall. He was aconvicted murderer, and was sentenced for life. He too, worked aboutin the prison and the yards, dragging or carrying a heavy ball andchain. When bundles of snaths were to be carried from one shop tothe other in the various processes of finishing, Hall had to do it, and to carry his ball and chain as well, so that he was loaded likea pack-horse. No pack-horse was ever so abused. 

Of course he was ugly; the wardens and the keepers knew it, andgenerally kept away from him. 

I talked with him more than once, and he told me that with bettertreatment he should be a better man. "Look at the loads which areput on me every day, " he would say; as if this ball and chain werenot as much as I can carry; and this for life, for life!

One day when Hall and I were working together in the prison, DeputyWarden Morey came in and said something to him, and in a moment theman sprung upon him. He had secured somehow, perhaps he had pickedit up in the yard, a pocket knife, and with this he stabbed theWarden, striking him in the shoulder, arm, and where he could. 

Morey was a man sixty-five years of age, and he made such resistanceas he could, crying out loudly for help. I turned, ran to Hall, andwith one blow of my fist knocked him nearly senseless; then helpcame and we secured the mad man. Morey was profuse in protestationsof gratitude to me for saving his life. 

There was a great excitement over this attempt to murder the Deputy, and for a few hours, with wardens and keepers, I was a hero. I hadbeen in the prison more than a year, and was generally regarded asone of the worst prisoners, one of the "hardest cases;" a merechance had suddenly made me one of the most commendable men withinthose dreary walls. As for Hall, he was taken to the dungeon andsecurely chained by the feet to a ring in the center of the stonefloor. There is no doubt whatever that the man was a raving maniac. He howled night and day so that he could be heard everywhere in theprison-"Murder, murder! they are murdering me in this black hole;why don't they take me out and kill me?"

The Warden said it could not be helped; that the man must be keptthere; he was dangerous to himself and others; the dark cell was theonly place for him. So Hall stayed there and howled, his criesgrowing weaker from day to day; by-and-by we heard him only atintervals, and after that not at all. 

One morning there was a little knot of men around the open dungeondoor, the Deputy Warden and two or three keepers. Mr. Morey calledto me to go and get the tools and come there and take off Hall'sirons. I went into the cell and in a few minutes I unfastened hisfeet from the ring; then I took the shackles off his limbs. Ithought he held his legs very stiff, but knew he was obstinate, andonly wondered he was so quiet. 

Somebody brought in a candle and I looked at Hall's face. I neversaw a more ghastly sight. The blood from his mouth and nostrils hadclotted on the lower part of his face, and his wild eyes, fixed andglassy, were staring at the top wall of the dungeon. He must havebeen dead several hours. The Deputy and the rest knew he wasdead-the man who carried in the bread and water told them-me it camewith a shock from which I did not soon recover. 

They buried Hall in the little graveyard which was in the yard ofthe prison. An Episcopal clergyman, who was chaplain of the prison, read the burial service over him. The prisoners were brought out toattend the homely funeral. The ball and chain, all the personalproperty left by Hall, were put aside for the next murderersentenced for life, or for the next "ugly" prisoner. "If I were onlytreated better, and not abused so, I should be a better man. " Thisis what Hall used to say to me whenever he had an opportunity. Thelast and worst and best in that prison had been done for him now. 

From the day when I rescued Morey from the hands of Hall, his wholemanner changed towards me, and he treated me with great kindness, frequently bringing me a cup of tea or coffee, and something good toeat. He also promised to present the circumstances of the Hallaffair to the Governor, and to urge my pardon, but I do not think heever did so, at least I heard nothing of it. When I pressed thematter upon Morey's attention he said it would do no good till I hadserved out half my sentence, and then he would see what could bedone. 

I served half my sentence, and then the other half, every day of it. But during the last two years I had very little to complain ofexcept the loss of my liberty. I was put into the cook shop where Icould get better food, and I did pretty much what I pleased. Bygeneral consent I was let alone. They had found out that ill usageonly made me "ugly, " while kindness made me at least behave myself. And so the three weary years of my confinement were on to an end. 

CHAPTER XI. 

ON THE TRAMP. 

THE DAY OF MY DELIVERANCE--OUT OF CLOTHES--SHARING WITH A BEGGAR--AGOOD FRIEND--TRAMPING THROUGH THE SNOW-WEARY WALKS--TRUSTING TOLUCK--COMFORT AT CONCORD--AT MEREDITH BRIDGE--THE BLAISDELLS--LASTOF THE "BLOSSOM" BUSINESS--MAKING MONEY AT PORTSMOUTH--REVISITINGWINDSOR--AN ASTONISHED WARDEN--MAKING FRIENDS OF OLDENEMIES--INSPECTING THE PRISON--GOING TO PORT JERVIS. 

At last the happy day of my deliverance came. The penalty forpretending to marry one milliner and for being married by anothermilliner was paid. My sentence was fulfilled. I had looked forwardto this day for months. Of all my jail and prison life in differentStates, this in Vermont was the hardest, the most severe. Myobstinacy, no doubt, did much at first to enhance my sufferings, andit was the accident only of my saving Morey's life that made thelast part of my imprisonment a little more tolerable. When I waspreparing to go, it was discovered that the fine suit of clothes Iwore into the prison had been given by mistake or design to some oneelse, and my silk hat and calf-skin boots had gone with the clothes. But never mind! I would have gone out into the world in rags-myliberty was all I wanted then. The Warden gave me one of his own oldcoats, a ragged pair of pantaloons, and a new pair of brogan shoes. He also gave me three dollars, which was precisely a dollar a yearfor my services, and this was more than I ever meant to earn there. Thus equipped and supplied I was sent out into the streets ofWindsor. 

I had not gone half a mile before I met a poor old woman whom I hadknown very well in Rutland. She recognized me at once, though I knowI was sadly changed for the worse. She was on her way to Fall River, where she had relatives, and where she hoped for help, but had nomoney to pay her fare, so I divided my small stock with her, andthat left me just one dollar and a half with which to begin theworld again. I went down to the bridge and the toll-gatherer gave meas much as I could eat, twenty five cents in money, and apocket-full of food to carry with me. I was heading, footing rather, for Meredith Bridge in New Hampshire. It was in the month ofDecember; and I was poorly clad and without an overcoat. I musthave walked fifteen miles that afternoon, and just at nightfall Icame to a wayside public house and ventured to go in. As I stood bythe fire, the landlord stepped up and slapping me on the shoulder, said:

"Friend, you look as if you were in trouble; step up and havesomething to drink. "

I gladly accepted the invitation to partake of the first glass ofliquor I had tasted in three years. It was something, too, everything to be addressed thus kindly. I told this worthy landlordmy whole story; how I had been trapped by the two milliners, and howI had subsequently suffered. He had read something about it in thepapers; he felt as if he knew me; he certainly was sorry for me; andhe proved his sympathy by giving me what then seemed to me the bestsupper I had ever eaten, a good bed, a good breakfast, a package ofprovisions to carry with me, and then sent me on my way with acomparatively light heart. 

It rained, snowed, and drizzled all day long. I tramped through thewet snow ankle deep, but made nearly forty miles before night, andthen came to a public house which I knew well. When I was in thebar-room drying myself and warming my wet and half-frozen feet, Icould not but think how, only a few years before, I had put up atthat very house, with a fine horse and buggy of my own in thestable, and plenty of money in my pocket. The landlord's face wasfamiliar enough, but he did not know me, nor, under my changedcircumstances, did I desire that he should. Supper, lodging, andbreakfast nearly exhausted my small money capital; I was worn andweary, too, and the next day was able to walk but twenty miles, alltold. On the way, at noon I went into a farm house to warm myself. The woman had just baked a short-cake which stood on the hearth, toward which I must have cast longing eyes, for the farmer said:

"Have you had your dinner, man?"

"No, and I have no money to buy any. "

"Well, you don't need money here. Wife, put that short-cake and somebutter on the table; now, my man, fall to and eat as much as youlike. "

I was very hungry, and I declare I ate the whole of that short-cake. I told these people that I had been in better circumstances, andthat I was not always the poor, ragged, hungry wretch I appearedthen. They made we welcome to what I had eaten and when I went awayfilled my pockets with food. At night I was about thirty miles aboveConcord. I had no money, but trusting to luck, I got on the cars--theconductor came, and when he found I had no ticket, he said hemust put me off. It was a bitter night and I told him I should besure to freeze to death. A gentleman who heard the conversation atonce paid my fare, for which I expressed my grateful thanks, and Iwent to Concord. 

On my arrival I went to a hotel and told the landlord I wanted tostay there till the next day, when a conductor whom I knew would begoing to Meredith Bridge; that I was going with him, and that hewould probably pay my bill at the hotel. "All right, " said thelandlord, and he gave me my supper and a room. The next noon myfriend, the conductor, came and when I first spoke to him he did notrecognize me; I told him who I was, but to ask me no questions as tohow I came to appear in those old clothes, and to be so poor; Iwanted to borrow five dollars, and to go with him to MeredithBridge. He greeted me very cordially, handed me a ten-dollarBill--twice as much as I asked for--said he was not going to theBridge till next day, and told me meanwhile, to go to the hotel andmake myself comfortable. 

I went back to the hotel, paid my bill, stayed there that day andnight, and the next morning "deadheaded, " with my friend theconductor to Meredith Bridge. Everybody knew me there. Thehotel-keeper made me welcome to his house, and said I could stay aslong as I liked. 

"Say, dew ye ever cure anybody, Doctor?" asked my old friend, thelandlord, and he laughed and nudged me in the ribs, and asked me totake some of his medicine from the bar, which I immediately did. 

I was at home now. But the object of my visit was to see if I couldnot collect some of my old bills in that neighborhood, amounting inthe aggregate to several hundred dollars. They were indeed old billsof five or six years' standing, and I had very little hope ofcollecting much money. I went first to Lake Village, and called onMr. John Blaisdell, the husband of the woman whom I had cured of thedropsy, in accordance, as she believed at the time, with herprophetic dream. Blaisdell didn't know me at first; then he wantedto know what my bill was; I told him one hundred dollars, to saynothing of six years' interest; he said he had no money, though hewas regarded as a rich man, and in fact was. 

"But sir, " said I, "you see me and how poor I am. Give me somethingon account. I am so poor that I even borrowed this overcoat from thetailor in the village, that I might present a little morerespectable appearance when I called on my old patients to try tocollect some of my old bills. Please to give me something. "

But he had no money. He would pay for the overcoat; I might tell thetailor so; and afterwards he gave me a pair of boots and an oldshirt. This was the fruit which my "blossom" of years before broughtat last. I saw Mrs. Blaisdell, but she said she could do nothing forme. She had forgotten what I had done for her. 

Of all my bills in that vicinity, with a week's dunning, I collectedonly three dollars; but a good friend of mine, Sheriff Hill, wentaround and succeeded in making up a purse of twenty dollars which heput into my hands just as I was going away. My old landlord wantednothing for my week's board; all he wanted was to know "if I evercured anybody;" and when I told him I did, "sometimes" he insistedupon my taking more of his medicine, and he put up a good bottle ofit for me to carry with me on my journey. 

With my twenty dollars I went to Portsmouth, where I speedily feltthat I was among old and true friends. I had not been there a daybefore I was called upon to take care of a young man who was sick, and after a few weeks charge of him I received in addition to myboard and expenses, three hundred dollars. I was now enabled toclothe myself handsomely, and I did so and went to Newburyport, where I remained several weeks and made a great deal of money. 

In the spring I went to White River Junction, and while I was in thehotel taking a drink with some friends, who should come into thebar-room but the Lake Village tailor from whom I had borrowed theovercoat which I had even then on my back. I was about to thank himfor his kindness to me when he took me aside and said reproachfully:

"Doctor, you wore away my overcoat and this is it, I think. "

"Good heavens! didn't John Blaisdell pay you for the coat? He toldme he would; its little enough out of what he owes me. "

"He never said a word to me about it, " was the reply. I told thetailor the circumstances; I did not like to let him to know that Ihad then about seven hundred dollars in my pocket; I wished toappear poor as long as there was a chance to collect any of myMeredith and Lake Village bills; so I offered him three dollars totake back the coat. He willingly consented and that was the last ofthe "Blossom" business with the Blaisdells. 

I was bound not to leave this part of the country without revisitingWindsor, and I went there, stopping at the best house in the town, and, I fear, "putting on airs" a little. I had suffered so much inthis place that I wanted to see if there was any enjoyment to be hadthere. Satisfaction there was, certainly-the satisfaction one feelsin going back under the most favorable circumstances, to a spotwhere he has endured the very depths of misery. After a good dinnerI set out to visit the prison. Here was the very spot in the streetwhere, only a few months before, I, a ragged beggar, had divided mymere morsel of money with the poor woman from Rutland. What changein my circumstances those few months had wrought. I had recovered myhealth which bad food, ill usage, and imprisonment had broken down, and was in the best physical condition. The warden's old coat andpantaloons had been exchanged for the finest clothes that moneywould buy. I had a good gold watch and several hundred dollars in mypocket. I had seen many of my old friends, and knew that they werestill my friends, and I was fully restored to my old position. Mythree years' imprisonment was only a blank in my existence; I hadbegun life again and afresh, precisely where I left off before Ifell into the hands of the two Vermont milliners. 

All this was very pleasant to reflect upon; but do not believe Ithought even then, that the reason for this change in mycircumstances, and changes for the better, was simply because I hadminded my business and had let women alone. 

When I called on Warden Harlow, and courteously asked to be shownabout the prison, he got up and was ready to comply with my request, when he looked me full in the face and started back in amazement:

"Well, I declare! Is this you?"

"Yes, Warden Harlow; but I want you to understand that while I amhere I do not intend to do a bit of work, and you can't make me. Youmay as well give it up first as last; I won't work anyhow. "

The Warden laughed heartily, and sent for Deputy Morey who came into "see a gentleman, " and was much astonished to find the prisoner, who, two years before, had saved his life from the hands and knifeof the madman Hall. I spent a very pleasant hour with my oldenemies, and I took occasion to give them a hint or two with regardto the proper treatment of prisoners. I then made the rounds of theprison, and went into the dungeon where I had passed so manywretched hours for weeks at a time. The warden and his deputycongratulated me upon my improved appearance and prospects, andhoped that my whole future career would be equally prosperous. 

Nor did I forget to call up my friend in need and friend indeed inthe toll-house at the bridge. I stayed three or four days inWindsor, finding it really a charming place, and I was almost sorryto leave it. But my only purpose in going there, that is to revisitthe prison, was accomplished, and I started for New York, and wentfrom there to Port Jervis, where I met my eldest son. 

CHAPTER XII. 

ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP SARAH SCHEIMER'S BOY. 

STARTING TO SEE SARAH--THE LONG SEPARATION--WHAT I LEARNED ABOUTHER--HER DRUNKEN HUSBAND--CHANGE OF PLAN--A SUDDENLY-FORMED SCHEME--IFIND SARAH'S SON--THE FIRST INTERVIEW--RESOLVE TO KIDNAP THEBOY--REMONSTRANCES OF MY SON HENRY--THE ATTEMPT--A DESPERATESTRUGGLE--THE RESCUE--ARREST OF HENRY--MY FLIGHT INTOPENNSYLVANIA--SENDING ASSISTANCE TO MY SON--RETURN TO PORTJERVIS--BAILING HENRY--HIS RETURN TO BELVIDERE--HE IS BOUND OVER TOBE TRIED FOR KIDNAPPING--MY FOLLY. 

After I had been in Port Jervis three or four days I matured a planthat had long been forcing in my mind, and that was, to try and seeSarah Scheimer once more, or at least to find out something abouther and about our son. The boy, if he was living, must be about tenyears of age. I had never seen him; nor, since the night when I wastaken out of bed and carried to the Easton jail had I ever seenSarah, or even heard from her, except by the message the Methodistminister brought to me from her the day after I was released fromjail. In the long interval I had married the Newark widow, and hadserved a brief term in the New Jersey State prison for doing it; Ihad married Mary Gordon, in New Hampshire, and had run away, notonly from her, but from constables and the prison in that state; themock marriage with the Rutland woman at Troy, and the altogether tooreal marriage with the Montpelier milliner had followed; I had spentthree wretched years in the Vermont prison at Windsor; and numerousother exciting adventures had checkered my career. What had happenedto Sarah and her son during all this while? There was not a week inthe whole time since our sudden separation when I had not thought ofSarah; and now I was near her old home, with means at my command, leisure on my hands, and I was determined to know something abouther and the child. 

So long a time had elapsed and I was so changed in my personalappearance that I had little fear of being recognized by any one inPennsylvania or the adjoining part of New Jersey, who would molestme. The old matters must have been pretty much forgotten by all butthe very few who were immediately interested in them. It was safe tomake the venture at all events, and, I resolved to make the ventureto see and learn what I could. 

I had the idea in my mind that if Sarah was alive and well, andfree, I should be able to induce her to fulfil her promise to cometo me, and that we might go somewhere and settle down and livehappily together. At any rate, I would try to see her and our child. 

I did not communicate a word of all this to my son Henry. I told himI was going to New Jersey to visit some friends, to look forbusiness, and I would like to have him accompany me. He consented;I hired a horse and carriage, and one bright morning we started. Ihad no friends to visit, no business to do, except to see Sarah-thedearest and best-loved of all my wives. 

When we reached Water Gap I found an old acquaintance in thelandlord of the hotel, and I told him where I was going, and what Ihoped to do. He knew the Scheimers, knew all that had happenedeleven years before, and he told me that Sarah had married again, seven years ago, and was the mother of two more children. She livedon a farm, half a mile from Oxford, and her husband who had marriedher for her money, and had been urged upon her by her parents, was ashiftless, worthless, drunken fellow. The boy-my boy-was alive andwell, and was with his mother. 

This intelligence changed, or rather made definite my plan. Sarahwas nothing to me now. The boy was everything. I must see him, andif he was what he was represented to be, a bright little fellow, Idetermined that he should no longer remain in the hands and underthe control of his drunken step-father, but I would carry him awaywith me if I could. It was nearly noon when we arrived at Oxford, and going to my old quarters, I found that "Boston Yankee, " had longsince left the place. There was a new landlord, and I saw nofamiliar faces about the house; all was new and strange to me. Imade inquiries, and soon found out that Sarah's boy went to a schoolin town not far from the hotel, and I went there to "prospect, "leaving Henry at the public house. 

It was noon now, and fifty or more boys were trooping out of school. I carefully scanned the throng. The old proverb has it that it is awise child who knows its own father; but it is not so difficult fora father to know his own children. The moment I put my eyes onSarah's son, I knew him; he was the very image of me; I could havepicked him out of a thousand. I beckoned to the boy and he came tome. He was barefoot; and his very toes betrayed him, for they"overrode" just as mine did; but his face was enough and would havebeen evidence of his identity as my son in any court in Christendom. 

"Do you know me, my little man?" said I. 

"No, sir, I do not. "

"Do you know what was your mother's name before she was married?"

"Yes Sir, it was Sarah Scheimer. "

"Do you know that the man with whom you live is not your rather?"

"Oh, yes, Sir, I know that; mother always told me so; but she nevertold me who my father was. "

"My son, " said I taking him in my arms, "I am your father; waitabout here a few minutes till I can go and get my horse andcarriage, and I will take you to ride. "

I ran over to the hotel; ordered my horse to be brought to the doorat once, got into the wagon with Henry and told him that SarahScheimer's boy was just across the way, and that I was going tocarry him off with us. Henry implored me not to do it, and said itwas dangerous. I never stopped to think of danger when my willimpelled me. I did not know that at that moment, men who had noticedmy excited manner, and who knew I was "up to something, " werewatching me from the hotel piazza. I drove over where the boy waswaiting, called him to me, and Henry held the reins while I put outmy hands to pull the boy into the carriage. Two of the men who werewatching me came at once, one of them taking the horse by the head, and the other coming to me and demanding:

"What are you going to do with that boy?"

"Take him with me; he is my son. "

"No you don't, " said the man, and he laid hold of the boy andattempted to pull him out of the wagon. I also seized the lad whobegan to scream. In the struggle for possession, I caught up thewhip and struck the man with the handle, felling him to the ground. All the while the other man was shouting for assistance. The crowdgathered. The boy was roughly torn from me, in spite of my effortsto retain him. Henry was thoroughly alarmed; and while the mob weretrying to pull us also out of the carriage he whipped the horse tillhe sprang through the crowd and was well off in a moment. 

"Get out of town as fast as you can drive, " said I to Henry. 

We were not half an hour in reaching Belvidere. There I stopped tobreathe the horse a few minutes, and Henry insisted that he wasstarving, and must have something to eat; he would go into the hotelhe said, and get some dinner. I told him it was madness to do it;but he would not move an inch further on the road till he had somedinner. He went into the dining room, and I paced up and down thepiazza, nervous, anxious, fearing pursuit, dreading capture, wellknowing what would happen when those Jerseymen should get hold of meand find out who I was. At that moment I saw the pursuers comingrapidly up the road. I called to my son:

"Henry, Henry! for God's sake come out here, quick!"

But he thought I was only trying to frighten him so as to hurry himaway from his dinner, and get him on the road, and he paid noattention to my summons. I knew that I was the man who was wanted, and, without waiting for Henry, I jumped into my wagon and droveoff. I just escaped, that's all. The moment I left, my pursuers wereat the door. I looked back and saw them drag my son out of thehouse, and take him away with them. I turned my horse's head towardsthe Belvidere Bridge. All the country about there was as familiar tome as the county I was born in. I knew every road, and I had no fearof being caught. Once across the bridge and in Pennsylvania, and Iwas comparatively safe, unless I myself should be kidnapped as I wasat midnight, only a little way from this very spot, eleven yearsbefore. Here was an opportunity now to rest and reflect. Confoundthose Scheimers and all their blood! Was I never to see the end ofthe scrapes that family would get me into, or which I was to getmyself into, on account of the Scheimers?

Surely they could not harm Henry. They might have taken him merelyin the hope of drawing me back to try to clear him, or rescue him, and then they would get hold of the man they wanted. My son had donenothing. He did not even know of the contemplated abduction tillfive minutes before it was attempted, and then he protested againstit. He only held the horse when I pulled the lad into the wagon. 

Nothing showed so completely the consciousness of his own entireinnocence in the matter, as the coolness with which he sat down tohis dinner in Belvidere, and insisted upon remaining when I warnedhim of our danger. These facts shown, any magistrate before whomhe might be taken, must let him go at once. I thought, perhaps, if Iwaited a few hours where I was, he would be sure to rejoin me, andwe could then return to Port Jervis without Sarah's son to be sure;but, otherwise, no worse off than we were when we set out on thisill-starred expedition in the morning. 

All this seemed so plain to me that I sent over to Belvidere for alawyer, who soon came across the bridge to see me, and to him Inarrated the whole circumstances of the case from, beginning to end. I asked him if I had not a right to carry off the boy whom I knew tobe my own? His reply was that he would not stop to discuss thatquestion; all he knew was that there was a great hue and cry afterme for kidnapping the boy; that my son was seized and held foraiding and abetting in the attempted abduction; and he advised me, as a friend, to leave that part of the country as soon as possible. I gave him fifty dollars to look after Henry's case. He thought, considering how little, and that little involuntarily, my son had todo with the matter, he might be got off; he would do all he couldfor him anyhow. He then returned to Belvidere, and I took the roadnorth. 

When I arrived at Port Jervis I detailed to my landlord the wholeoccurrences of the day--what I had tried to do, and how miserably Ihad failed, and asked him what was to be done next. He said"nothing;" we could only wait and see what happened. 

The day following I received a letter from the Belvidere lawyerinforming me that Henry had been examined, had been bound over inthe sum of three hundred dollars to take his trial on a charge ofkidnapping, and he was then in the county jail. I at once showedthis letter to the landlord, and he offered to go down with anotherman to Belvidere and see about the bail. I gave him three hundreddollars, which he took with him and put into the bands of a residentthere who became bail, and in a day or two Henry came back with themto Port Jervis. 

My son was frantic; he had been roughly treated; and to think, hesaid, that he should be thrust into the common jail and kept theretwo days with all sorts of scoundrels, when he had done actuallynothing! He would go back there, stand his trial, and prove hisinnocence, if he died for it. He reproached me for attempting tocarry off the boy against his advice and warning; he knew we shouldinto trouble; but he would show them that he had nothing to do withit; that's what he would do. 

Now this was precisely what I did not wish to have him do. A trialof this case, even if Henry should come off scott free, would becertain to revive the whole of the old Scheimer story, which hadnearly died away, and which I had no desire to have brought beforethe public again in any way whatever. The bail bond I was willing, eager even to forfeit, if that would end the matter. But Henry wassure they couldn't touch him, and he meant to have the three hundreddollars returned to me. 

Seeing how sensitive the boy was on the subject, and how bent he wason proving his innocence, I thought it best to draw him away fromthe immediate locality, and so, in the course of a week, I persuadedhim to go to New York with me, and we afterward went to Maine for afew weeks to sell my medicines. This Maine trip was a most lucrativeone, which was very fortunate, for the money I made there, to theamount of several hundred dollars, was shortly needed for purposeswhich I did not anticipate when I put the money by. 

We returned to New York, and I supposed that Henry had given up allidea of attempting to "prove his innocence;" indeed we had noconversation about the kidnapping affair for several weeks. But heslipped away from me. One day I came back to the hotel, and, inquiring for him, was told at the office he had left word for methat he had gone to Belvidere. A letter from him a day or twoafterward confirmed this, to me, unhappy intelligence. The time wasnear at hand for his trial, and he had gone and given himself up tothe authorities. He wrote to me again that he had sent word abouthis situation to his mother-my first and worst wife-and she and hissister were already with him. 

Of course it was impossible for me to go there, if there were noother reasons, I was too immediately interested in this affair to bepresent, and I had no idea of undergoing a trial and a certainconviction for myself. But I sent down a New York lawyer with onehundred dollars, directing him to employ council there, and toadvise and assist as much as he could. Meanwhile, I remained in NewYork, anxious, it is true, yet almost certain that it would beimpossible, under the circumstances, to convict Henry of thekidnapping for which he was indicted. He had not even assisted inthe affair, and was sure his counsel would be able to so convincethe court and jury. 

And reviewing the whole matter, now in my cooler moments, thisscheme of trying to carry away Sarah's son, seemed to be as foolish, useless, and mad, as any one of my marrying adventures. Till Ipicked him out from among his schoolmates, I had never seen thechild at all. When I started from Port Jervis to go down, as Isupposed, into Pennsylvania, I had no more idea of kidnapping theboy than I had of robbing a sheep-fold. It was only when thelandlord at Water Gap told me that Sarah had remarried, and waswedded to a worthless, drunken husband, that I conceived the plan ofremoving the boy from such associations. I was going to bring him upin a respectable manner. Alas! I did not succeed even in bringinghim away. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

ANOTHER WIDOW. 

WAITING FOR THE VERDICT--MY SON SENT TO STATE PRISON--WHAT SARAH WOULDHAVE DONE--INTERVIEW WITH MY FIRST WIFE--HELP FOR HENRY--THE BIDDEFORDWIDOW--HER EFFORT TO MARRY ME--OUR VISIT TO BOSTON--A WARNING--AGENEROUS GIFT--HENRY PARDONED--CLOSE OF THE SCHEIMER ACCOUNT--VISIT TOONTARIO COUNTY--MY RICH COUSINS--WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN--MY BIRTH-PLACEREVISITED. 

I waited with nervous impatience for the close of the trial in NewJersey, when I hoped to welcome my son Henry to New York. It was soplain a case, as it seemed to me, and must appear, I thought, toeverybody, that I hardly doubted his instant acquittal. But veryshortly the New York lawyer whom I had sent to Belvidere, came backand brought terrible news. Henry had been tried, and notwithstandingthe fairest showing in his favor, he was convicted and sentenced toeighteen months imprisonment at Trenton. 

As it appeared, it was I really, and not Henry, who was on trial. The circumstances of the desperate struggle, and my knocking downone of the men with the butt of my whip, were conspicuous in thecase. Even the little boy was put on the stand, and was made totestify against his older half-brother. Henry himself was astoundedat the result of the trial, and was firmly convinced that instead of"proving his innocence" to Jersey jurymen, he had better have lethis innocence go by default. We never even got back again the threehundred dollars which had been put into the hands of the man whowent bail for Henry when he was bound over for trial. For us, it wasbad business from beginning to end. 

Henry wrote a letter to me, that just before his trial, before hehad delivered himself up, and while he was still under bail, he hadgone to see Sarah Scheimer on the little farm which was bought withher money, and was worked, so far as it was worked at all, by herdrunken husband. The family were even poorer than the landlord atWater Gap had reported. Sarah herself was miserable and unhappy. Shetold Henry, when he informed her who he was, that if I had wanted tosee her or her son, I should have been welcome. She would have beenvery glad to have had me take the boy and clothe him decently; butshe could not part with him, and would not have let me take himaway; still, I could see him at any time, and as often as I liked, and the boy should grow up to know and to look upon me as hisfather. 

And this, really, was all I desired, all I wanted; and it was alleasily within my grasp, ready in fact to be put into my hands, and Ihad gone ahead in my usual mad, blundering way, acting, not onlywithout advice, but against such advice as came from Henry at thelast moment, and had alienated the mother from me, lost the boy, andhad sent Henry, who was wholly innocent, to state prison foreighteen months. 

The poor fellow was take to Trenton and was put into the prisonwhere I had spent seven months. He was almost crazy when he gotthere. His mother and sister went with him, and took lodgings in theplace so as to be near him, to render him any assistance that mightbe in their power. 

I had been idle now for some weeks in New York, and I went back toMaine, to Biddeford, where I lad a good practice. I picked up a gooddeal of money, and in two months I returned to New York to make abrief visit, and to see if something could not be done for therelease of Henry from prison. At my solicitation a friend of minewrote to Trenton to Henry's mother to come on to New York, and meetme at the Metropolitan Hotel on a specified day, to transact somebusiness. She came, and we met for the first time in several years. We met now simply on business, and there was no expression ofsentiment or feeling on either side. We cared nothing for eachother. I commended her for her devotion to Henry, and then told herI believed, if the proper efforts were made, he could be pardonedout of prison. I told her what lawyer and other persons to see, andhow to proceed in the matter. I gave her the most minuteinstructions, and then handed her five hundred dollars with which tofee her lawyer, and to pay her and her daughter's living expenses inTrenton. She was grateful for the money, and was only too glad to goto work for Henry; she would have done it long ago if she had onlyknown what to do. We then parted, and I have never seen the woman, since that day. 

This business transacted, I at once returned to my practice atBiddeford. Among my patients was a wealthy widow, "fat, fair, andforty, " and I had not attended her long before a warm affectionsprung up between us, and in time, when the widow recovered, webegan to think we were in love with each other. I confess that Iagreed to marry her; but it was to be at some distant day-a verydistant day as I intended--for, strange as it may seem, and as itdid seem to me, I had at last learned the lesson that I had betterlet matrimony alone. I had married too many wives, widows, milliners, and what not, already, and had suffered too severely forso doing. I meant that my Vermont imprisonment, the worst of all, should be the last. 

So I only "courted" the widow, calling upon her almost every day, and I was received and presented to her acquaintances as heraffianced husband. Her family and immediate friends were violentlyopposed to the match, thereby showing their good sense. I was alsoinformed that they knew something of my previous history, and I waswarned that I had better not undertake to marry the widow. Blesstheir innocent hearts! I had no idea of doing it. I was daily amazedat my own common sense. My memory was active now; all my matrimonialmishaps of the past, with all the consequences, were ever present tomy mind, and never more present than when was in the company of thefascinating widow. As for her, the more her relatives opposed thematch, the more she was bent upon marrying me. Her family, she, said, were afraid they were going to lose her property, but shewould never give them a cent of it, anyhow, and she would marry whenand whom she pleased. 

Not "when, " exactly; because, as she protested she would marry me, Ihad something to say about it; I had been run away with by amilliner in Vermont, and I had no idea of beings forcibly wedded bya widow in Maine. I pleaded that my business was not sufficientlyestablished; I was liable to be called away from time to time; Ihad affairs to arrange in New York and elsewhere before I couldsettle down; and so the happy day was put off to an indefinitefuture time. 

By-and-by I had business in Boston, and the widow declared that shewould go with me; she wanted to visit her friend's there and do someshopping; and without making particular mention of her intention toher relatives, she went with me, and we were in Boston together morethan two weeks. At the end of that time she returned to Biddefordand notified her friends treat she was married to the doctor, thoughshe had no certificate, not even a Troy one, to show for it. 

I deemed it advisable not to go back with her, but went to Worcesterfor a while. In a few days I went to Biddeford, keeping somewhatclose, for I did not care to meet any of the relatives, and at nightI called upon the widow. She told me that her family had raised atremendous fuss about me, and had learned as much as they, andindeed she, wanted to know about my adventures in Vermont and NewHampshire. They had not gone back of that, but that was enough. Itwas dangerous, she told me, for me to stay there; I was sure to bearrested; I had better get away from the place as soon as possible. We might meet again by-and-by, but unless I wanted to be arrested Imust leave, the place that very night. She gave me seven hundreddollars, pressed the money upon me, and I parted from her, returningto Worcester, and going from there to Boston. Besides what the widowbad given me, I had made more than one thousand dollars in Maine, and was comparatively well off. 

Then came the joyful intelligence that Henry was released. Hismother had worked for him night and day. She bad drawn up apetition, secured a large number of sterling signatures, had gonewith her counsel to see the Governor, had presented the petition andall the facts in the case, and the Governor had granted a pardon. Henry served only six months of the eighteen for which he wassentenced, and very soon after I received word that he was free, hecame to me in Boston, stayed a few days, and then went home to hismother in Unadilla. 

With the release of my son, I considered the Scheimer accountclosed, and I have never made any effort to see Sarah or our boysince that time. 

From Boston I went to Pittsford, Ontario County, N. Y. , where I hadmany friends, who knew nothing about any of my marriages ormisfortunes, my arrests or imprisonments. I went visiting merely, and enjoyed myself so much that I stayed there nearly three months, going about the country, and practicing a little among my friends. Iwas never happier than I was during this time. I was free fromprisons, free from my wives, and free from care. As a matrimonialmonomaniac I now looked upon myself as cured. 

Among the friends whom I visited in Ontario County, and with whom Ipassed several pleasant weeks, were two cousins of mine whom I hadnot seen for many years, since we were children in fact, but whogave me a most cordial welcome, and made much of me while I wasthere. They knew absolutely nothing of my unhappy history-nounpleasant rumor even respecting me, had ever penetrated that quietquarter of the State. I told them what I pleased of my past career, from boyhood to the present time, and to them I was only a tolerablysuccessful doctor, who made money enough to live decently and dresswell, and who was then suffering from overwork and badly in need ofrecuperation. This, indeed, was the ostensible reason for my visitto Ontario. I was somewhat shattered; my old prison trials andtroubles began to tell upon me. I used to think sometimes that I wasa little "out of my head;" I certainly was so whenever I enteredupon one of my matrimonial schemes, and I must have been as mad as aMarch hare when I attempted to kidnap Sarah Scheimer's boy. Afterall the excitement and suffering of the past few years, I neededrest, and here I found it. 

My cousins were more than well-to-do farmers; they were enormouslyrich in lands and money. Just after the war of 1812, their father, my uncle, and my own father, had come to this, then wild and almostuninhabited, section of the State to settle. Soon after they arrivedthere my father's wife died, and this loss, with the generalloneliness of the region, to say nothing of the fever and ague, soondrove my father back to Delaware County to his forge for a living, and to the day of his death he was nothing more than a hard-working, hand-to-mouth-living, common blacksmith. 

But my uncle stayed there, and, as time went on, he bought hundredsof acres of land for a mere song, which were now immensely valuable, and had made his children almost the richest people in that region. My Cousins were great farmers, extensive raisers of stock, wool-growers, and everything else that could make them prosperous. There seemed to be no end to their wealth, and their fiat farms, spread out on every side as far as the eye could see. 

And if my father had only stayed there, I could not help but thinkwhat a different life mine might have been. Instead of being theadventurer I was, and had been ever since I separated from my firstand worst wife-doing well, perhaps, for a few weeks or a few months, and then blundering into a mad marriage or other difficulty whichgot me into prison; well-to-do to-day and to-morrow a beggar--I, too, might have been rich and respectable, and should have, savedmyself a world of suffering. This was but a passing thought whichdid not mar my visit, or make it less pleasant to me. I went thereto be happy, not to be miserable, and for three months I was happyindeed. 

From there I went to my birthplace in Columbia County, revisitingold scenes and the very few old friends and acquaintances whosurvived, or who had not moved away. I spent a month there andthereabouts, and at the end of that time I felt full restored to myusual good health, and was ready to go to work again, not in thematrimonial way, but in my medical business, that was enough for menow. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

MY OWN SON TRIES TO MURDER ME. 

SETTLING DOWN IN MAINE--HENRY'S HEALTH--TOUR THROUGH THESOUTH--SECESSION TIMES--DECEMBER IN NEW ORLEANS--UP THEMISSISSIPPI--LEAVING HENRY IN MASSACHUSETTS--BACK IN MAINEAGAIN--RETURN TO BOSTON--PROFITABLE HORSE TRADING--PLENTY OF MONEY--MYFIRST WIFE'S CHILDREN--HOW THEY HAD BEEN BROUGHT UP--A BAREFACEDROBBERY--ATTEMPT TO BLACKMAIL ME--MY SON TRIES TO ROB AND KILL ME--MYRESCUE--LAST OF THE YOUNG MAN. 

Where to go, not what to do, was the next question. Wherever I mightgo and establish myself, if only for a few days, or a few weeks, Iwas sure to have almost immediately plenty of patients and customersenough for my medicines--this had been my experience always--andunfortunately for me, I was almost equally sure to get into somedifficulty from which escape was not always easy. Looking over thewhole ground for a fresh start in business, it seemed to me thatMaine was the most favorable place. Whenever I had been there I haddone well; it was one of the very few States I had lived in where Ihad not been in jail or in prison; nor had I been married there, though the Biddeford widow did her best to wed me, and it is not herfault that she did not succeed in doing it. 

To Maine, then, I went, settling down in Augusta, and remainingthere four months, during which time I had as much as I couldpossibly attend to, and laid by a very considerable sum of money. While I was there I heard the most unfavorable reports with regardto the health of my eldest son Henry. Prison life at Trenton hadbroken him down in body as well as in spirit, and he had been ill, some of the time seriously, nearly all the time since he went toUnadilla. The fact that he was entirely innocent of the offence forwhich he was imprisoned, preyed upon his mind, and with the worstresults. As these stories reached me from week to week, I becameanxious and even alarmed about him, and at last I left my lucrativebusiness in Augusta and went to New York. I could not well go toUnadilla to visit Henry without seeing his mother, whom I had nodesire to see; so I sent for him to come to me in the city if wasable to do so. I knew that if medicine or medical attendance wouldbenefit him, I should be able to help him. 

In a few days he came to me in a most deplorable physical condition. He was a mere wreck of his former self. Almost immediately he beganto talk about the attempt to abduct the boy from Oxford; howinnocent he was in the matter, and how terribly he had sufferedmerely because he happened to be with me when I rashly endeavored tokidnap the lad. All this went through me like a sharp sword. Itseemed as if I was the cause, not only of great unhappiness tomyself, but of pain and misery to all who were associated or broughtin contact with me. For this poor boy, who had endured and sufferedso much on my account, I could not do enough. My means and time mustnow be devoted to his recovery, if recovery, was possible. 

He was weak, but was still able to walk about, and he enjoyed ridingvery much. I kept him with me in the city a week or two, takingdaily rides to the Park and into the country, and when he felt likegoing out in the evening I made him go to some place of amusementwith me. I had no other business, and meant to have none, but totake care of Henry, and I devoted myself wholly to his comfort andhappiness. In a few days he had much improved in health and spirits, so much so, that I meditated making a long tour with him to theSouth, hoping that the journey there and back again would fullyrestore him. 

Fortunately, my recent Maine business had put me in possession ofabundant funds, and when I had matured my scheme, and saw that Henrywas in tolerable condition to travel, I proposed the trip to him, and he joyfully assented to my plan. I wanted to get him far away, for awhile, from a part of the country which was associated in hismind, more than in mine, with so much misery, and he seemed quite aseager to go. Change of air and scene I knew would do wonders for himbodily, and would build him up again. 

We made our preparations and started for the South, going first toBaltimore and then on through the Southern States by railroad to NewOrleans. It was late in the fall of 1860, just before the rebellion, when the south was seceding or talking secession, and was alreadypreparing for war. Henry's physical condition compelled us to restfrequently on the way, and we stopped sometimes for two or threedays at a time, at nearly every large town or city on the entireroute. Everywhere there was a great deal of excitement; meetingswere held nearly every night secession was at fever heat, and therewas an unbounded expression and manifestation of ill-feeling againstthe north and against northern men. Nevertheless, I was never in anypart of the Union where I was treated with so much courtesy, consideration and genuine kindness as I was there and then. I wasgoing south, simply to benefit the invalid who accompanied me;everybody seemed to know it; and everybody expressed the tenderestsympathy for my son. Wherever we stopped, it seemed as if the peopleat the hotels, from the landlord to the lowest servant, could not doenough for us. At Atlanta, Augusta, Mobile, and other places, wherewe made our stay long enough to get a little acquainted, my son andmyself were daily taken out to ride, and were shown everything ofinterest that was to be seen. Henry did not enjoy this journey morethan I did-to me as well as to him, the trip was one prolongedpleasure, and by the time we reached New Orleans nearly a monthafter we left New York, my son had so recuperated that I had everyhope of his speedy and full restoration. 

It was the beginnings of winter when we reached New Orleans; butduring the whole month of December while we remained in that city, winter, if indeed it was winter, which we could hardly believe, wasonly a prolongation of the last beautiful autumn days we had left atthe north. Now Orleans was then at the very height of prosperity;business was brisk, money was plenty, the ships of all nations andcountless steamboats from St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville and allpoints up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers lay at the levee. Thelevee itself, from end to end, for miles along the river front, wasone mass of merchandise which had come to the city, or was awaitingshipment. I had never seen a livelier city. Indescribably gay, too, was New Orleans that winter. The city was full of strangers; thehotels were thronged; there were balls every night; the theatreswere crowded, and everybody seemed bent on having a good time. Withall the rest, there was an extraordinary military furor, and militiacompanies and regiments paraded the streets every day, whilesecession meetings were held in various halls, or in the publicsquares, nearly ever night. 

From the St. Charles hotel where we stopped, St. Charles streetseemed ablaze and alive all night, and densely thronged all day. Sunday brought no rest, for Sunday, so far as military parades, amusement and general gaiety were concerned, was the liveliest dayin the week; and Sunday night the theatres were sure to presenttheir best performances and to draw their largest audiences. And so, from morning till night, and from night till morning again, all waswhirl, stir, bustle, business, enjoyment, and excitement. To me, unaccustomed as I was to such scenes, New York even seemed tame anddull, and slow in comparison with New Orleans. 

This is a picture of the Crescent City as it presented itself to meand to my son in the early part of the winter before the war. No oneknew or even dreamed of the terrible times that were to come. No onebelieved that war was probable, or even possible; it was wellenough, perhaps, to prepare for it; but secession was to be anaccomplished fact, and the North and all the world would quietlyacknowledge it. This was the general sentiment in the city; thoughsecession, and what would, or what might come of it, was the generaltopic of talk in the hotels, in the restaurants, at the theatres, inthe streets, everywhere. Now and then some southerner with whom Ihad become acquainted would try to draw me out to ascertain mysentiments on the subject, but I always laughed, and said goodnaturedly:

"My dear sir, I didn't come down here to talk about secession, butto see if the southern climate would benefit my sick son. "

The fact was that I minded my own business, and minded it so wellthat while I was in New Orleans I managed to find a few patients andsold recipes and medicines enough to pay the entire expenses of ourjourney thus far, from the North. 

Almost every day my son and I drove somewhere up to Carrolton, downto the battle-ground, or on the shell road to Lake Ponchartrain. Itwas a month of genuine enjoyment to us both; of profit to mepecuniarily; and of the best possible benefit to Henry's health. 

Early in January we took passage on one of the finest of theMississippi steamboats for St. Louis. The boat was crowded, andamong the passengers were a good many merchants, Northern men longresident in New Orleans, who thought they saw trouble coming, andaccordingly had closed up their business in the Crescent City, andwere now going North to stay there. We had on board, too, the usualcomplement of gamblers and amateur or professional poker-players, who kept the forward saloon near the bar, and known in the riververnacular as the "Texas" of the boat, lively all day long and wellinto the night, or rather the next morning. It was ten or elevendays before we reached St. Louis. Nothing notable occurred on thetrip; but day after day, as we proceeded northward, and left thesoft, sunny south behind us, with the daily increasing coldness andwintry weather, Henry seemed to decline by degrees, and gradually tolose nearly all that he had gained since we left New York. When wereached St. Louis he was seriously sick. I was very sorry we hadcome away so soon in the season, and proposed that we should returnand stay in the south till spring; but Henry would not consent. There was nothing to be done, then, but to hurry on to the east, andwhen we arrived in New York Henry would not go home to his mother inUnadilla, but insisted upon accompanying me to Boston. I was willingenough that he should go with me, for then I could have him under myexclusive care; but when we arrived in Boston he was so overcome bythe excitement of travel, and was so feeble from fatigue as well asdisease, that instead of having him go with me to Augusta, as Iintended, by the advice of a friend I took him into the countrywhere he could be nursed, be quiet, and be well taken care of tillspring. I left him in good hands, promising to come and see him assoon as I could, and then went back to my old business in Augusta. 

It required a little time to knot the new end of that business tothe end where I had broken off three months before; but I was soonin full practice again and was once more making and saving money. Ihad no matrimonial affair in hand, no temptation in fact, and nonebut strictly professional engagements to fulfil. In Augusta and inseveral other towns which I visited, for the whole of the rest ofthe winter, I was as busy as I could be. Early in the spring I madeup my mind to run away for a week or two, and arranged my businessso that I could go down into Massachusetts and visit Henry, hoping, if he was better, to bring him back with me to Maine. 

Two of my patients in Paris, Maine, had each given me a good horsein payment for my attendance upon them and their families, and forwhat medicines I had furnished, and I took these horses with me tosell in Boston. I drove them down, putting a good supply ofmedicines in my wagon to sell in towns on the way, and when Iarrived in Boston sold out the establishment, getting one hundredand twenty-five dollars for the wagon, three hundred dollars for onehorse, and four hundred dollars for the other-a pretty good profiton my time and medicine for the two patients-and I brought with mebesides about eighteen hundred dollars, the net result, above myliving expenses, of about three months' business in Maine, and whatI had done on the way down through Massachusetts. I am thus minuteabout this money because it now devolves upon me to show what sortof a family of children my first and worst wife had brought up. 

Of these children by my first marriage, my eldest son Henry, sincehe had grown up, had been with me nearly as much as he had been withhis mother, and I loved him as I did my life. Since he became ofage, at such times when I was not in prison, or otherwiseunavoidably separated from him, we had been associated in business, and had traveled and lived together. I knew all about him; but ofthe rest of the children I knew next to nothing. Shortly after Isold my horses, one day I was in my room at the hotel, when word wasbrought to me that some one in the parlor wanted to see me. 

I went down and found a young man, about twenty-one years of age, who immediately came to me addressing me as "father, " and he thenpresented a young woman, about two years older than he was, as hissister and my daughter. I had not seen this young gentleman sincethe time when I had carried him off from school and from the farmerto whom he was bound, and had clothed him and taken him with me toAmsterdam and Troy, subsequently sending him to my half-sister atSidney. The ragged little lad, as I found him, had grown up into astout, good-looking young man; but I had no difficulty inrecognizing him, though I was much at loss to know the preciseobject of this visit; so after shaking hands with them, and askingthen how they were, I next inquired what they wanted?

Well, they had been to see Henry, and he was a great deal better. 

I told them I was very glad to hear it, and that I was then on myway to visit him, and hoped to see him in a few days, as soon as Icould finish my business in Boston; if Henry was as well as theyreported I should bring him away with me. 

"But if you are busy here, " said my young man, "we can save you bothtime and trouble. We will go to Henry again and settle his bills forboard and other expenses, and will bring him with us to you at thishotel. "

This, at the time, really seemed to me a kindly offer; it wouldenable me to stay in Boston and attend to business I had to do, andHenry would come there with his brother and sister in a day or two. I at once assented to the plan, and taking my well-filledpocket-book from the inside breast pocket of my coat, I counted outtwo hundred and fifty dollars and gave them to the young man to payHenry's board, doctor's and other bills, and the necessary car faresfor the party. They then left me and started, as I supposed, to goafter Henry. 

But a few days went on and I saw and heard nothing of Henry. At lastword came to me one day that some one down stairs wanted to see meand I told the servant to send him to my room, hoping that it mightbe Henry. But no; it was my young man, of whom I instantly demanded:

"Where is your brother, whom you were to bring to me a week ago?What have you done with the money I gave you for his bills?"

"I hadn't been near Henry; sister has gone home; and I've spent themoney on a spree, every cent of it, here in Boston, and I wantmore. "

"Want more!" I exclaimed in blank amazement:

"Yes, more; and if you don't give it to me, I'll follow you whereveryou go, and tell people all I know about you. "

"You scoundrel, " said I, "you come here and rob, not me, but yourpoor, sick brother, and then return and attempt to black-mail me. Get out of my sight this instant. "

He sprung on me, and made a desperate effort to get my money out ofmy pocket. We had a terrible struggle. He was younger and strongerthan I was, and as I felt that I was growing weaker I called outloudly for help and shouted "Murder!"

The landlord himself came running into the room; I succeeded intearing myself away, from the grasp of my assailant, and thelandlord felled him to the floor with a chair. He then ran to thedoor and called to a servant to bring a policeman. 

"No, don't!" I exclaimed; "Don't arrest the villain, for I can makeno complaint against him--he is my son!"

But the landlord was bound to have some satisfaction out of theaffair; so he dragged the young man into the hall and kicked himfrom the top of the stairs to the bottom, where, as soon as he hadpicked himself up, a convenient servant kicked him out into thestreet. I have never set eyes on my young man since his somewhatsudden departure from that hotel. 

And when I went to visit my poor Henry a day or two afterwards, Ican hardly say that I was surprised, though I was indignant to learnthat his brother and sister had never been near him at all since hehad been in Massachusetts. They knew where and how he was from hisletter's to his mother; they knew, too, from the same letters-for Ihad notified Henry-at what time I would be in Boston, and with thisinformation they had come on to swindle me. I have no doubt, whenthe young man came the second time to rob me, he would have murderedme, if the landlord had not come to my assistance. And this was theyoungest son of my first and worst wife!!

I found Henry in better condition than I expected, and I took himback with me to Augusta. I did not tell him of his brother's attemptto rob and kill. Me-it would have been too great a shock for him. Hestayed with me only a few days and then, complaining of beinghomesick, he went to visit his mother again. 

CHAPTER XV. 

A TRUE WIFE AND HOME, AT LAST. 

WHERE WERE ALL MY WIVES?--SENSE OF SECURITY--AN IMPRUDENTACQUAINTANCE--MOVING FROM MAINE--MY PROPERTY IN RENSSELAER COUNTY--HOWI LIVED--SELLING A RECIPE--ABOUT BUYING A CARPET--NINETEENLAW-SUITS--SUDDEN DEPARTURE FOR THE WEST--A VAGABOND FOR TWO YEARS--LIFEIN CALIFORNIA--RETURN TO THE EAST--DIVORCE FROM MY FIRST WIFE--A GENUINEMARRIAGE--MY FARM-HOME AT LAST. 

I remained in Maine nearly two years, hardly ever going out of theState, except occasionally to Boston on business. Making Augusta myresidence and headquarters, I practiced in Portland and in nearlyall the towns and cities in the eastern part of the State. Duringall this time, I behaved myself, in all respects better than I hadever before done in any period of my life. I began to look uponmyself as a reformed man; I had learned to let liquor alone, and wasconsequently in far less, indeed, next to no danger of stepping intothe traps in which my feet had been so often caught. I may as wellconfess it--it was intoxicating liquor, and that mainly, which hadled me into my various mad marrying schemes and made me thematrimonial monomaniac and lunatic lover that I was for years. Whatmy folly, my insanity caused me to suffer, these pages haveattempted to portray. I had grown older, wiser, and certainlybetter. I now only devoted myself strictly to my business, and Ifound profit as well as pleasure in doing it. 

What had become of all my wives in the meantime, I scarcely knew andhardly cared. Of course from time to time I had heard more or lessabout them-at least, a rumor of some sort now and then reached me. About my first and worst wife, at intervals I heard something fromHenry, who was still with her, and who frequently wrote to me whenhe was well enough to do so. Margaret Bradley and Eliza Gurnsey werestill carrying on the millinery business in Rutland, and inMontpelier, and were no doubt weaving other and new webs in hopes ofcatching fresh flies. Mary Gordon, as I learned soon afterwards, wasmarried almost before I had fairly escaped from New Hampshire in myflight to Canada, and she had gone to California with her newhusband. Of the Newark widow I knew nothing; but two years of peace, quiet, and freedom from molestation in Maine had made me feel quitesecure against any present or future trouble from my pastmatrimonial misadventures. 

I was living in Maine, prudently I think under an assumed name, andas the respectable, and, to my patients and customers, well-knownDoctor Blank, I was scarcely liable to be recognized at any time orby any one as the man who had married so many wives, been in so manyjails and prisons, and whose exploits had been detailed from time totime in the papers. 

Nor, all this while, did I have the slightest fear of detection. Ilooked upon myself as a victim rather than as a criminal, and forwhat I had done, and much that I had not done, I had more than paidthe penalty. So far as all my business transactions were concerned, my course had always been honorable, and in my profession, for mycures and for my medicines, I enjoyed a good reputation which all myefforts were directed to deserve. 

Of course, now and then, I met people in Portland, and especially inBoston, who had known me in former years, and who knew something ofmy past life; but these were generally my friends who sympathizedwith my sufferings, or who, at least, were willing to blot out thepast in my better behavior of the present. One day in Boston a youngman came up to me and said:

"How do you do, Doctor?"

"Quite well, " I replied; "but you have the advantage of me; I amsure I do not remember you, if I ever knew you. "

"You don't remember me! Why, I am the son of the jailer in Montpelierwith whom you spent so many months before you went to Windsor; Iknew you in a minute, and Doctor, I've been in Boston a week andhave got 'strapped;' how to get back to Montpelier I don't know, unless you will lend me five or six dollars which I will send backto you the moment I get home. "

"I remember you well, now, " said I; "you are the little rascal whowouldn't even go and buy me a cigar unless I gave you a dime fordoing it; and then, sometimes, you cheated me out of my money; Iwouldn't lend you a dollar now if it would save you from six month'simprisonment in your father's filthy jail. Good morning. "

And that was the last I saw of him. 

I was getting tired of Maine. I had been there longer than I hadstayed in any place, except in the Vermont State Prison, for thepast fifteen years, and I began to long for fresh scenes and a freshfield for practice. I had accumulated some means, and thought Imight take life a little easier-make a home for myself somewhere, practicing my profession when I wanted to, and at other timesenjoying the leisure I loved and really needed. So I closed up mybusiness in Augusta and Portland, put my money in my pocket, andonce more went out into the world on a prospecting tour. My firstidea was to go to the far West, and I went to Troy with theintention of staying there a few days, and then bidding farewell tothe East forever. The New England States presented no attractions tome; I had exhausted Maine, or rather it had exhausted me; NewHampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts had too many unpleasantassociations, if indeed they were safe states for me, with my recordto live in, and Connecticut I knew very little about. Certainly Ihad no intention of trying to settle in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. The west was the place; anywhere in the west. 

Here was I in Troy, revolving plans in my own mind for migrating tothe west, just as Mary Gordon and I had done in the very same hotel, only a few years before; and in the course of a week I came toexactly the same conclusion that Mary and I did--not to go. I heardof a small farm--it was a very small one of only twelve acres-whichcould be bought in Rensselaer County, not more than sixteen milesfrom Albany and Troy. I went to see the place, liked it, and boughtit for sixteen hundred dollars. There was a small but good house anda barn on the place, and altogether it was a cheap and desirableproperty. I got a good housekeeper, hired a man, and began to carryon this little farm, raising garden vegetables and fruit mainly, andsending them to market in Albany and Troy. Generally I took my ownstuff to market, and sold medicines and recipes as well, and inAlbany I had a first rate practice which I went to that city toattend to once or twice a week. While my man was selling vegetablesand fruit--I remember I sold a hundred dollars worth of cherries frommy farm the first summer--in the market, I was Doctor Blankreceiving my patients at Stanwix Hall, or calling upon them at theirresidences; and when the day's work was over, my man and I rode homein the wagon which had brought us and the garden truck early in themorning. On the whole, this kind of life was exceedinglysatisfactory, and I liked it. 

I made frequent expeditions to Saratoga and to other places not farfrom home to attend to cases to which I was called, and to sellmedicines; and considering that the main object I had in settling inRensselaer County was rest and more leisure than I had enjoyed forsome years, I had a great deal more to do than I desired. Nevertheless, I might have continued to live on my little farm, raising vegetables, picking cherries, and practicing medicine in theneighborhood, had not the fate, which seemed to insist that I shouldevery little while come before a court of justice for something orother, followed me even here. A certain hardware dealer in Albany, with whom I had become acquainted, proposed to buy one of myrecipes, and to go into an extensive manufacture of the medicine. Hehad read and heard of the fortunes that had been made in patentmedicines, by those who understand the business, and he thought hewould see if he could not get rich in a year or less in the sameway. 

After some solicitation I sold him the recipe for one thousanddollars, receiving six hundred dollars down, and a promise of thebalance when the first returns from sales of the medicine came in. Ialso entered into a contract to show the man how to make themedicine, and to give him such advice and assistance in his newbusiness as I could. My hardware friend understood his legitimatebusiness better than he did that which he had undertaken, andalthough be learned how to manufacture the medicine he did not knowhow to sell it; and after trying it a few weeks, and doing next tonothing, he turned upon me as the author of his misfortunes and suedme for damages. 

Incidental to this, and only incidental, is the following: Shortlyafter I purchased my property, as I was very fond of calling mylittle farm, in Rensselaer County, I was in Albany one day when itoccurred to me that I wanted a carpet for my parlor. I went to thestore of a well-known carpet-dealer, and asked to be shown some ofhis goods. While I was going through the establishment I came acrossa man who was industriously sewing together the lengths of a cutcarpet, and I recognized in him one of my fellow convicts atWindsor. He, however, did not know me, and I doubt if he could havebeen convinced of my identity as the wretch who plied the broom inthe halls of the prison. To him, as he glanced at me, I was only awell-dressed gentleman whom the proprietor was courteously showingthrough the establishment in the hope of securing a good customer. It was this little circumstance, I think-my chance meeting with myold fellow-prisoner, and my changed circumstances and appearancewhich put me beyond recognition by him-that prompted me to thesomewhat brazen business that followed:

"I only came in to look to-day, " I said to the carpet-dealer; "forthe precise sum of money in my pocket at present is eighteen pence, and no more; but if you will cut me off forty yards of that piece ofcarpeting, and trust me for it, I will pay your bill in a few days, as sure as I live. "

My frank statement with regard to my finances seemed to attract theattention of the merchant who laughed and said:

"Well, who are you, anyhow? Where do you live?"

I told him that I was Doctor Blank; that I lived in Rensselaercounty on a small place of my own; I raised fruit and vegetables formarket; I cured cancers, dropsy, and other diseases when I could;sold medicines readily almost where I would; and was in Albany onceor twice a week. 

"Measure and cut off the carpet, " said he to the clerk who wasfollowing us, "and put it in the Doctor's wagon. "

The bill was about a hundred dollars, and I drove home with thecarpet. It was nearly six weeks afterwards when I went into thestore again, and greeted the proprietor. He had seen me but oncebefore and had totally forgotten me. I told him I was Doctor Blank, small farmer and large medical practitioner of Rensselaer County. 

"The devil you are! Why, you're the man that bought a carpet of me afew weeks ago; I was wondering what had become of you. "

"I'm the man, and I must tell you that the carpet doesn't look well;but never mind-here's a hundred dollars, and I want you to receiptthe bill. "

"Now, " said I, when he returned the bill to me receipted, "thecarpet looks firstrate; I never saw a handsomer one in my life. "

"Well, you are an odd chap, any how, " said the carpet-dealer, laughing, and shaking me by the hand. Almost from that moment wewere more than mere acquaintances, we were fast friends. In thecourse of the long conversation that followed, I told him of mytrouble with the hardware man-how I had sold him the recipe; that hehad failed, from ignorance to conduct the business properly, and hadsued me for damages. 

"I know the man, " said my new friend; "let him go ahead and sue andbe-benefited, if he can; meanwhile, do you keep easy; I'll stand byyou. "

And stand by me he did through thick and thin. The hardware man suedme no less than nineteen times, and for pretty mucheverything-damages, debt, breach of contract, and what not. With theassistance of a lawyer whom my friend recommended to me, I beat myopponent in eighteen successive suits; but as fast as one suit wasdecided he brought another, almost before I could get out of thecourt room. At last he carried the case to the Supreme Court, andfrom there it went to a referee. The matter from beginning to end, must have cost him a mint of money; but he went on regardless of thecosts which he hoped and expected to get out of me at last. 

My long and painful experience, covering many years, had given me apretty thorough knowledge of the law's uncertainty, as well as thelaw's delay, and very early in the course of the present suit, I hadquietly disposed of my property in Rensselaer County. I sold thelittle farm, which cost me sixteen hundred dollars, for twenty-onehundred dollars, and I had had, besides, the profits of nearly twoyears' farming and a good living from and on the place. I alsoarranged all my money matters in a manner that I felt assured wouldbe satisfactory to me, if not to my opponent, and then, followingthe advice of my friend, the carpet-dealer, I let the hardware mansue and be-"benefited if he could. " When, however, the case wentfinally to a referee who was certain, I felt sure, to decide againstme, I took no further personal interest in the matter, nor have Iever troubled myself to learn the filial decision. I made up my mindin a moment and decided that the time had come, at last, when it wasadvisable for me to go to the West. 

Westward I went, towards sunset almost, and for the two followingyears I led, I fear, what would be considered a very vagabond life. I went to Utah, thinking while I was in Salt Lake City, if they onlyknew my history there I was sure to be elected an apostle, or shouldbe, at any rate, a shining light in Mormondom-only I had taken mywives in regular succession, and had not assembled the throngtogether. I pushed across the plains, and went to California, remaining a long time in San Francisco. This may have beenvagabondism, but it was profitable vagabondism to me. During thislong wandering I held no communication with my friends in the East;friends and foes alike had an opportunity to forget me, or if theythought of me they did not know whether I was dead or alive; theycertainly never knew, all the time, where I was; and while I wasjourneying I never once met a man or woman who had been acquaintedwith me in the past. All the time, too, I had plenty of money;indeed, when, I returned at last I was richer far than I was when Ileft Albany, and left as the common saying graphically expresses it, "between two days. " I had my old resources of recipes, medicines andmy profession, and these I used, and had plenty of opportunity touse, to the best advantage. I could have settled in San Franciscofor life with the certainty of securing a handsome annual income. Inever feared coming to want. If I had lost my money and all otherresources had failed, I was not afraid to make a horse-nail or turna horse-shoe with the best blacksmith in California, and I couldhave got my living, as I did for many a year, at the forge andanvil. 

But I made more money in other and easier ways, and I made friends. In every conceivable way my two years' wandering was of far morebenefit to me than I dreamed of when I wildly set out for the Westwithout knowing exactly where, or for what, I was going. The newcountry, too, had given me, not only a fresh fund of ideas, but anew stock of health--morally and physically I was in bettercondition than I ever was before in my life. I had a clear head; akeen sense of my past follies; a vivid consciousness of theconsequences which such follies, crimes they may be called, arealmost certain to bring. I flattered myself that I was not only areformed prisoner, but a reformed drunkard, and a thoroughlyrestored matrimonial monomaniac. 

And when I returned, at last, to the East, and went once more tovisit my near and dear friends in Ontario County, I was received asone who had come back from the dead. When I had been here a fewweeks, and had communicated to my cousins so much of the story of mylife as I then thought advisable, I took good counsel and finallydid what I ought to have done long years before. I commenced properlegal proceedings for a divorce from my first and worst wife. I donot need to dwell upon the particulars; it is enough to say, thatthe woman, who was then living, so far from opposing me, aided meall she could, even making affidavit to her adultery with the hotelclerk at Bainbridge, long ago, and I easily secured my full andcomplete divorce. Now I was, indeed, a free man-all the other wiveswhom I had married, or who had married me, whether I would or no, were as nothing; some were dead and others were again married. Itmay be that this new, and to me strange sense of freedom, legitimatefreedom, set me to thinking that I might now secure a genuine andtrue wife, who would make a new home happy to me as long as we bothshould live. 

Fortune, not fate now, followed me, led me rather and guided myfootsteps. It was not many months before I met a woman who seemed tome in every way calculated to fill the first place in that homewhich I had pictured as a final rest after all my woes andwanderings. From mutual esteem our acquaintance soon ripened intomutual love. She was all that my heart could desire. I was tolerablywell off; my position was reputable; my connections wererespectable. To us, and to our friends, the match seemed a mostdesirable one. It was no hasty courtship; we knew each other formonths and learned to know each other well; and with true love foreach other, we had for each other a genuine respect. I frankly toldher the whole story of my life as I have now written it. She onlypitied my misfortunes, pardoned my errors, and, one bright, golden, happy autumn day, we were married. 

In the northeastern part of the State of New York on the banks of abroad and beautiful river, spread out far and near the fertile acresof one of the finest farms in the country. It is well stocked andwell tilled. The surrounding country is charming--game in the woods, and fish in the streams afford abundant sport, and the region is faraway from large cities, and remote even from railroads. I do notknow of a more delightful place in the whole world to live in. Onthe farm I speak of, a cottage roof covers a peaceful, happy family, where content and comfort always seem to reign supreme. A noblewoman, a most worthy wife is mistress of that house; joyous childrenmove and play among the trees that shade the lawns; and the headof the household, the father of the family, is the happiest of theegroup. 

That farm, that family, that cottage, that wife, that happy home aremine-all mine. I have found a true wife and a real home at last. 

My story is told; and if it should suggest to the reader the moralwhich is too obvious to need rehearsal, one object I had in tellingthe story will have been accomplished. 

THE END.