It was now Friday night.  Early the next morning, we received an invitation to spend the afternoon, in company with others, at Major Roundtree’s, with Bishop Hamline.  We went.  The company was composed mostly of preachers, on their way to Conference.  Among them were the Mitchells and Haneys.  Of the first, there were Father Mitchell, a grand old Patriarch, John T. James, and Frank.  Of the latter, there were the Father, Richard, William, Freeborn, and M.L.

But the central figure among them all was the good Bishop.  Of full form, compact frame, broad forehead, and strong features, he would be selected in any group as a princely man.  And yet, withal, his spirit was as gentle as that of a child.  Though one of the intellectual giants of the country, and one of her greatest orators, he still seemed so humble in spirit that I felt myself drawn towards him at once.  In such a presence the conversation was necessarily restrained.  Dismissing, for the time, the freedom of debate, anecdote and repartee, that so often characterize ministerial gatherings, the interchange of thought took on a more serious tone.  Only once was there an exception.  Referring to the labors of some distinguished man of his acquaintance, one of the leading brethren and prince of story tellers, whose name I need not mention, proceeded to relate an anecdote.  Immediately the tides of feeling began to rise, and, as the story advanced to its climax, they broke over all restraint.  An immoderate laughter followed, in which no one joined more heartily than the brother himself.  The storm of merriment, however, had hardly passed, when the Bishop, in one of those indescribably solemn tones for which he was distinguished, said, “Brethren, I always find it difficult to maintain the proper spiritual equilibrium without a good deal of prayer.”  Then, turning to the offending brother, he added, “Brother, will you lead us in prayer?” The entire company instantly fell upon their knees.  But the poor brother!  What could he do?  Pray he must, for the entire company were on their knees, waiting for him to begin.  So, making a virtue of necessity, he made the venture.  But, I am free to say, it took a good deal of coasting before the good brother could get his craft well out to sea, and headed towards the desired haven.  During the balance of the visit anecdotes were at a discount.

On Monday we went forward to the Conference, that I might appear before the Committee of Examination.  The Committee were Revs.  Salmon Stebbins, N.P.  Heath, and S. Stover.

CHAPTER VIII.

Appointed to Watertown.—­Aztalan the Mother of Circuits.—­Divisions and Subdivisions.—­Rev. S.H.  Stocking.—­Watertown.—­Church Enterprise.—­Sickly Season.—­Quarterly Meeting at Burnett—­Rev. A.P.  Allen.—­Elder Sampson Ties a Knot.—­Conference of 1847.—­Returned to Watertown.—­Financial Pressure.—­Opens a School.—­The Coat Sermon.