An experience which is not very pleasant comes from the vermin,
especially the fleas--not a refined word; but the most refined society
gets accustomed to it here because they _have to do so_, and the more so
the nearer they get to the native land of these animals--the Indians. I
stood one evening and preached in one of their houses when I am
satisfied that I scratched every half-minute during the service; for,
although I stood them as long as I could, I could not help it. I would
quietly take up one foot and rub it against the other, put my hand
behind my back or in my pocket, and treat the creatures as gently as I
could, and the like, so as not to attract any more attention than
possible.
But then Indian houses are not their only dwellings. At one place I once
stayed at a white man’s house, who was as kind as he knew how to be: but
backing for twenty years with very few neighbors except Indians is not
very elevating; it is one of the trials of the hardy frontiersman. I
tried to go to sleep--one bit; I kicked--he stopped; I shut my
eyes--another wanted his supper; I scratched; and so we kept up the
interminable warfare until three o’clock, when sleep conquered for two
hours. The next day, on the strength of it, I preached twice, held a
council, tramped five miles, and talked the rest of the time. That night
mine host, having suspected something, proposed that we take our
blankets and go to the barn. I was willing, and we all slept soundly;
but the hay was a year old, and in that region sometimes innumerable
small hay-lice get on it--a fact of which I was not aware. They did not
trouble us during the night; but when we arose the next morning our
clothes, which had lain on the hay, were covered with thousands of them.
Every seam, torn place, button-hole, and turned-over place was crowded
with the lilliputians. It took me three quarters of an hour to brush
them from my clothes. However, it did not hurt the clothes or me. My
better two-thirds would have said that they needed brushing.
Twice while traveling to Jamestown have I been obliged, when within
twenty miles of the place, to stop all day Saturday because of heavy
head-winds, when I was exceedingly anxious to be at Jamestown over the
Sabbath. That day was consequently spent not where I wished to be. It
seemed to me to be a strange Providence; but I have since been inclined
to believe that my example in not traveling on the Sabbath, when the
Indians knew how anxious I was to reach the place, was worth more than
the sermons I would have preached.