embodied that principle of the Roman maxim, that true friendship is everlasting. I ought possibly to have stated that the first person that I called upon in my educational venture was a baldheaded and sharp-visaged man, with a family of five boys, the youngest of whom was over ten years of age. He told me that his oldest son had been almost through arithmetic, and that it would require some ability in a teacher to instruct him. I modestly informed him that I thought I could do it; but my assurances did not seem to satisfy him, and he only signed one-half of a scholar. During our conversation he told me that he was a poet, that he had crossed the plains in '45 and had written an account of the trip in poetry. He said he would like to repeat a portion of that poem; but before he did so he exacted from me a promise that I would give him an honest opinion of the merits of his poem. He was a weird and skeleton-like man, and rising to his feet, and with sundry gestures, repeated his poem to me. It was a hard matter for me to keep a solemn aspect on my countenance during this recitation. I only remember two lines: "The Soda Springs lay on our way-- It makes good beer, I do say." When he took his seat, I stated to him briefly some of the laws of poetic composition, and then showed him how his lines failed to comply with these laws; I added, however, by way of salving his feelings, that genius knows no law, and was not to be judged by ordinary mortals. He seemed a little nettled, and replied that he had repeated his poem to a great many people, who were scholars and good judges of poetry, and that they had pronounced it a fine performance. This ended the incident. Had my judgment been given before he signed one-half a scholar, it would probably have been one-tenth, or a still smaller proportion of a scholar. His boys all attended school, however, and he personally urged me to teach another quarter. On the last day of school, many of the parents came in and paid me for my services, three hundred dollars, and hired me for six-months' more teaching at the same price. I taught in all about three years in that neighborhood. My teaching career was in every way pleasant, and I have every reason to feel proud of the positions of honor and trust attained by at least three of my pupils, and by the general financial success and high moral standing of all. Judge Bellinger, late of the United States District Court of Oregon, was a pupil of mine for about a year. He was the son of poor parents, and by sheer force of intellect and study pushed his way to the front, and to the honorable position which he attained, and which he held at the time of his death.