But by this time my hitherto blinded eyes were opened, and I charged her with being false to me.  She protested she had not been; but finally confessed that she had been too intimate with the clerk at the hotel.  I began a suit at law against the clerk; but finally, on account of my wife’s family and for the sake of my children, I stopped proceedings, the clerk paying the costs of the suit as far as it had gone, and giving me what I should probably have got from him in the way of damages.  My wife too, was apparently so penitent, and I was so much infatuated with her, that I forgave her, and even consented to continue to live with her.  But I removed to Greenville, Greene County, N. Y., where I went into the black-smithing business, and was very successful.  We lived here long enough to add two children to our little family; but as time went on, the woman became bad again, and displayed the worst depravity.  I could no longer live with her, and we finally mutually agreed upon a life-long separation—­she insisting upon keeping the children, and going to Rochester where she subsequently developed the full extent of her character.

This, as nearly as I remember, was in the year 1838, and with this came a new trouble upon me.  Just before the separation, I received from my brother’s wife a note for one hundred dollars, and sold it.  It proved to be a forgery.  I was temporarily in Troy, N. Y., when the discovery was made, and as I made no secret of my whereabouts at any time, I was followed to Troy, was there arrested, and after lying in jail at Albany one night, was taken next morning to Coxsackie, Greene County, and front thence to Catskill.  After one day in jail there, I was brought before a justice and examined on the charge of uttering a forged note.  There was a most exciting trial of four days duration.  I had two good lawyers who did their best to show that I did not know the note to be forged when I sold it, but the justice seemed determined to bind me over for trial, and he did so, putting me under five hundred dollars’ bonds.  My half-sister at Sidney was sent for, came to Catskill, and became bail for me.  I was released, and my lawyers advised me to leave, which I did at once, and went to Pittsfield, and from there to Worthington, Mass., where I had another half-sister, who was married to Mr. Josiah Bartlett, and was well off.

Here I settled down, for all that I knew to the contrary, for life.  For some years past, I had devoted my leisure hours from the forge to the honest endeavor to make up for the deficiencies in my youthful education, and had acquired, among other things, a good knowledge of medicine.  I did not however, believe in any of the “schools” particularly those schools that make use of mineral medicines in their practice.  I favored purely vegetable remedies, and had been very successful in administering them.  So I began life anew, in Worthington, as a Doctor, and aided by my half-sister and her friends, I soon secured a remunerative practice.