Not being entirely satisfied with the climate and country, and being desirous of visiting California and Mexico, before my return to Michigan, I quite suddenly, in the fall of 1857, concluded to make a start. What means I had were loaned out on demand notes. To my regret I found my debtors unable to respond promptly. I concluded, however, to go to Jackson County and there to await collections. I made the trip on horseback and most of the time alone. Approaching Canonville late in the afternoon one day I saw a lone horseman ahead of me, whose appearance indicated that he was a traveler. I increased my speed and was soon along side of him,--I said "How do you do, sir?" He turned a frowning countenance towards me and snarlingly answered, "None of your business, sir." I was not long in coming to the conclusion that possibly company was not desired by him and especially my company; so I touched the spurs to my horse and left him to his melancholy meditations. I might have been wrong in my conclusion, and I must confess that I felt a good deal as I suppose the fellow felt who was kicked out of the fourth-story window: after gathering himself up and finding that his physical economy, though somewhat bruised, was intact, he came, after deliberate reflection, to the conclusion that possibly he was not wanted up there. I stopped at a town in Jackson County, bearing the euphonious name of Gasberg. I rested there for a couple of weeks. The people of that settlement were contemplating the erection of a building for a high school or seminary; and they offered me $150 a month to teach a six-months' school. Mr. Culver, quite a wealthy gentleman, offered me an additional $50 a month to keep his books posted, a work I could attend to at night without interfering with the school. I concluded as I probably would have to wait until spring for my collections, to accept the offer. The district already had quite a good school-house. My scholars were mostly young men and women, and I taught everything from reading and spelling, up to and including algebra, and surveying. I never had to do with a finer lot of pupils, and my position was in every way agreeable to me. I ought possibly to state that my wife, then Miss Lucinda Davenport, the only daughter of Dr. Davenport, attended that school. This added to my other employments the delightsome one of courting, and we were married on the first of January, 1858. Although we have lived together for fifty years, we never have been reconciled yet, because there never has been any occasion for a reconciliation. At the close of the first term I contracted to teach for another term of six months, as my roving disposition had dissolved into thin air. When the second term was closed, I was appointed a Justice of the Peace of that precinct, and I returned to the practice of law--occasionally writing for the newspapers.