The prairie had put on its royal robes, the forest its richest garments, and the people had become impatient with their long isolation from religious meetings.

The Lord's day was almost ceasing to be the Lord's day to them, and they demanded a sermon.

We, therefore, came together in the timbered bottoms of Caleb May's claim, on the banks of the Stranger Creek.

The gathering was primitive and peculiar, like the gathering at a Western camp-meeting--footmen, and men and women on horseback, and whole families in two-horse lumber wagons.

Some were dressed in Kentucky-jeans, and some in broadcloth; there were smooth-shaven men and bearded men; there were hats and bonnets of every form and fashion; all were dressed in such ways as best suited their convenience or necessities.