Such a meeting in the open air; such an audience, in which the dress of every man and woman was got up according to their own notions, and that, too, without consulting Mrs.Grundy; _such a preacher! and such a sermon_! Certainly these all were new to them, and did not command their highest admiration.

These young gentlemen kept up a sort of running commentary between themselves, on what they saw going on, until, becoming tired of their misbehavior, I turned and said to them in effect: "Young gentlemen, you profess to be men of good breeding, and it is understood that well-bred people will behave themselves in meeting." They were very angry, and one of them wrote me a saucy letter about it.

But finding little sympathy in the settlement, they went to Atchison, and there they found abundant sympathy and open ears to hear.

A man who was a preacher, and a pronounced free State man, had come from Illinois and had settled on the Stranger Creek; and who could tell the mischief he might do to his brethren who were squatters from Missouri?
When these same New England gentlemen were in their turn stripped of all they were worth by the "Border Ruffians" it changed their feelings toward their free State brethren "mightily." And now that feeling of dissatisfaction that had been all along festering in the hearts of the people, began to come to the surface.

An inside view would have revealed a perpetual murmur of discontent.