But a sharper joke than that was passed upon the people of Fond du Lac.  Only six years before they had given me license to preach, and sent me to the Conference, and now, in sending me back so soon, the Conference seemed to say, “Brethren, we return you as good as you gave.”  I have heard it said that sometimes Quarterly Conferences grant licenses with the implied understanding that the recipients are not expected to serve the home Church, but are good enough to preach to less highly favored people abroad.  If this course had been adopted by these Fond du Lac brethren as their policy, certainly it was a cruel joke to return the labor of their hands on such short notice.

But fortunately I was not supposed to know anything about this matter, and hence, on the principle that “where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise,” I had nothing to do but to gather up my family and hasten to my new field of labor.

Fond du Lac District at this time embraced that portion of the State lying North and East of the city of Fond du Lac, and included thirteen charges.  A few of the charges could be reached by steamers on the Fox and Wolf Rivers and Lake Winnebago, but the balance could only be visited by the stage or private conveyance.  I chose to adopt the latter.  Having provided board for my wife and child with Rev. M.L.  Noble, and secured a horse and buggy, I was ready to enter upon my work.

The First Quarterly Meeting was held at Fond du Lac.  The Church edifice was unfinished, and the celebrated school house having been burned, as stated in a former chapter, the Meeting was held in the Court House.  At that time the building, though now so dingy, was new, and aspired to be the most respectable edifice in the village.  To prepare the Court House especially for the Quarterly Meeting, the floors were newly carpeted with sawdust, even then a famous product of the village, and the seats well broomed.  The place was crowded with people, and the occasion one of rare interest.  The Gospel was dispensed from the “Seat of Justice,” the Sacrament was administered within the “Bar,” now vacated by the lawyers, and the people knelt outside to receive the sacred emblems.  Several of the Members present had attended the Quarterly Meeting in the school house six years before, and among them were a few who had known me from my boyhood.  It afforded me great pleasure to meet them and receive their friendly greetings.

Rev. J.S.  Prescott, the Pastor at Fond du Lac, had been bred to the legal profession in the State of Ohio.  He came to Wisconsin as a Local Preacher, and joined the Conference in 1846.  He had been stationed at Sheboygan, Waupun, and Green Bay.  He was a man of sharp, decisive movements, sometimes angular in his opinions and measures, but full of energy and not afraid of hard work.  He kept no horse, even when on the largest circuits, as he could not afford to wait for so laggard a conveyance.  In this particular he became notorious, and marvelous