At this place I found Brother R.S.  Hayward.  Before my arrival at Brothertown, this noble man of God, and his most estimable and talented wife, had purchased a farm on the Stockbridge reservation.  They had already erected a log house, cleared a few acres of land, and founded a home both for themselves and passing Itinerants.  Such a surprise, and such a cordial welcome as I experienced, fall but seldom to the lot of a stranger.

Brother Hayward was also an Exhorter.  Two Exhorters together, what a ministerial force!  Why, we began to feel that, by the help of the Master, we could take the whole land for Christ!  Plans were immediately formed to extend our field of operations.

Among these, we decided to hold a series of two days’ meetings, and, that they might prove a grand success, we selected as the localities the grand centres of population.  We appointed the first to be held in Father Chick’s barn, a mile west of the Mission Chapel in Stockbridge.  The day came, and so did the two Exhorters.  The people from the two nations came in throngs.  The barn was filled, and the groves around it, until my head grew dizzy in looking at the multitudes and thinking of what was to follow.  There was a congregation that might awaken the eloquence of a Bishop, and nobody to conduct the services but two young, inexperienced Exhorters.  The reader may well imagine that there was genuine repentance on the part of the striplings, and, may be, hastily made vows never again to challenge a multitude, but these did not solve the problem of the hour.  Of course, as I was “Exhorter in Charge,” though the youngest man, I had to take the morning service.  I was so thoroughly frightened that I have forgotten the text, if I took any; but this point I do remember most distinctly.  It was my first thought, on seeing the crowd, that I would take for a text, “There is a Lad here with five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?” But the more I thought of it, the more frightened I became.  Fortunately, I dismissed it before the hour of service arrived, for I seriously questioned whether I could furnish the people so generous a feast.  How I got through the service I am unable to say, for I never dared to ask any one, and my friends, doubtless out of regard to my youth, forbore to tell me.  As to the afternoon service, I need say nothing, for, though respectable, I have no doubt Brother Hayward has preached many better sermons since.

But whatever was wanting in the public services, the social meetings of the day were a great success.  Here the brethren came in with their singing and earnest prayers, and the sisters with their Christian testimonies, until every heart was moved.  In this part of the service Sister Hayward led off with her accustomed ability and spirit, making a marked feature of the exercises.