CHAPTER II.
THE YOUTHFUL ADVENTURES OF ISRAEL.
Imagination will easily picture the rural day of the youth of Israel.
Let us pass on to a less immature period.
It appears that he began his wanderings very early; moreover, that ere, on just principles throwing off the yoke off his king, Israel, on equally excusable grounds, emancipated himself from his sire.

He continued in the enjoyment of parental love till the age of eighteen, when, having formed an attachment for a neighbor's daughter--for some reason, not deemed a suitable match by his father--he was severely reprimanded, warned to discontinue his visits, and threatened with some disgraceful punishment in case he persisted.

As the girl was not only beautiful, but amiable--though, as will be seen, rather weak--and her family as respectable as any, though unfortunately but poor, Israel deemed his father's conduct unreasonable and oppressive; particularly as it turned out that he had taken secret means to thwart his son with the girl's connections, if not with the girl herself, so as to place almost insurmountable obstacles to an eventual marriage.

For it had not been the purpose of Israel to marry at once, but at a future day, when prudence should approve the step.

So, oppressed by his father, and bitterly disappointed in his love, the desperate boy formed the determination to quit them both for another home and other friends.
It was on Sunday, while the family were gone to a farmhouse church near by, that he packed up as much of his clothing as might be contained in a handkerchief, which, with a small quantity of provision, he hid in a piece of woods in the rear of the house.