"Old Duke Young," as the father of Judge William Young had been affectionately called in Western Missouri, had been an eminently popular frontier and pioneer preacher, and Judge Young had inherited an honorable distinction as being the son of such a father; and when it was known that I was acting with the concurrence and under the approval of such men, the arrangement was generally accepted as satisfactory.
And now I had my heart's best desire.

I was in the field as an evangelist; the harvest was abundant and the grain was already ripe and waiting for the sickle.

But above all, and beyond all these, was peace in the land.

We all had had a lover's quarrel, but we had made it up and were the better friends.

Everywhere they had their joke with me, as to my method of navigating the Missouri River, and to the attire I sometimes put on; but I had come out the upper dog in the fight, and could afford to stand their bantering.