And now I had my heart's best desire. I was in the field as an
evangelist; the harvest was abundant and the grain was already ripe
and waiting for the sickle. But above all, and beyond all these, was
peace in the land. We all had had a lover's quarrel, but we had made
it up and were the better friends. Everywhere they had their joke with
me, as to my method of navigating the Missouri River, and to the
attire I sometimes put on; but I had come out the upper dog in the
fight, and could afford to stand their bantering. There is a warmth,
freshness, and enthusiasm in the friendships formed under such
conditions that can never be transferred to associations of older and
more orderly communities. As a result of this summer's work, here were
seven churches full of zeal and rapidly growing, and occupying a field
that had been almost absolutely fallow, for outside of the towns there
was no religious movement except our own.
But at one point we were put at a very great disadvantage. Older and
better established denominations were able to plant missionaries in
such cities as Atchison, Topeka and Lawrence, while we were not; and
yet in each of these cities there were from the first a small number
of brethren, who might have served as the nucleus of a church.
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