It may interest the reader to be informed that the two brethren are now, and for some days have been, in a sparsely settled region.  High mountains separated the habitable valleys.  Great progress has been made, and is still going on, in the upbuilding of the social state of these people, as well as the improvement of the country.  Those living in the highly cultivated States of our Union can hardly bring their minds to realize the conditions in which these people lived at the time that Brother Kline and Brother Thomas were laboring so faithfully among them.  Let me sketch a picture of the average house, its surroundings, and its occupants:  It is a log house, built up by notching the ends of the logs so as to fit together at the corners, and rises high enough to make one full story below and a half story above.  A huge chimney of stone is built up on the outside, with the wide fireplace inside.  The chinks between the logs are filled up with a mortar composed of clay and straw.  The chimney is supplied with one extra small flue at the side of the large flue, and at the bottom of this small flue, about four feet above the hearth, is a small opening for light.  This light is produced from the burning of small pieces of rich pine knots placed in the small opening, and as one piece burns out another is inserted, the smoke from the pine, the meanwhile, being all carried off through the small flue.  Above the door of entrance antlers in pairs may be seen carefully fastened to the side of the house, as evidences of success in deer hunting.  And more than once did the two brethren ministers feast on venison in the present journey, for it was the chosen season for deer hunting.  When the house is approached by a stranger, the father, if present, stands near the door with a doubtful look, as much as to ask within himself:  “Who can that be, and what is fetching him here?” He has, however, a kind heart under a rough exterior.  His wife is diffident at first introduction, but gain her confidence by true Christian behavior, and you find the heart of the true woman in her.  The children retire upon a stranger’s first entering the house:  but let him show a love for them; let him learn their names and ages as one by one they make their appearance, ranging in this respect according to the different degrees of backwardness and modesty with them; let him notice them with loving looks and gentle words, and they will soon play with his watch-chain, and ask him what it is for.

I have now given an outline sketch of many a family in these mountainous regions, in whose hearts Brother Kline never failed to find a welcome, and in whose house a home.  He loved the people and the people loved him.  But all this has passed into history.  The church has never had but one Johnny Kline, and it can never have another.  Even if born, the conditions for his development, and the sphere for his labors, have both passed away.  The Editor is happy to feel that he, by a wonderful providence, has been made the humble instrument by which the life-work of a great and good man has been snatched from the jaws of oblivion.