Hall Jackson Kelley 187
that industry, frugality, temperance, benevolence, intense pur- pose, brotherly kindness and charity have all along marked my career. I do not thus speak of myself to glorify self; but to glorify Him whose servant I am."^
"The shattered and morbid-smitten nervous system is never so bad as in the hot season of the year, and has never been so terrible as in the present season. Am all the while faint, and suffering a slow fever. As I have heretofore said, am forced to live alone. I am fond of society, and delight in communion with the virtuous and intelligent. Am forced to do my indoor and outdoor work. There are none disposed to help me. Help, both male and female, are turned from me. My beloved house- hold, and all in the circle of kindred, every soul of them de- ceived, have gone from me and are turned against me, and all in the circle of friends and acquaintances, deceived, have turned to treat me with contempt, some with shameful abuse. . . ."^
There ar€ middle-aged men to-day in Three Rivers who would be surprised to learn that their boyish practical jokes upon the strange old man were charged against the account of the Hud- son's Bay company, and that when they robbed his orchard they were interfering with the preparation of works for which future historians would search in libraries and collectors would pay extravagant sums in the auction rooms. When in the thought- less cruelty of youth they called out "Old Kelley" as he passed along the street, they did not know that they were acting as "guerillas." The boy who put pepper on the stove after offer- ing to help Kelley about his housework could hardly have known of the Hudson's Bay company, yet he was classed as one of its "troops."
There are also men in Three Rivers who can testify that Kelley's interests were cared for by his neighbors, and that food was regularly reserved from their tables for the old man, who came daily to their door, pail in hand. Yet of these acts of kindness the pamphlets tell nothing. Nor do they tell of the efforts of his brother to induce him to leave his hermitage
21 Settltment of Oregon, v.
22 IWd., 16-7.
