In the fall of the year he bought a span of horses and wagon, and spent the winter hauling wood into Whitewater, buying it for $1.00 per cord and selling it for $2.50 or $3.00. His leg was still very painful, but he could not content himself to be idle. In the spring of 1859 he obtained considerable employment on the roads, working poll tax for people who were too busy to work it out for themselves, getting $2.25 per day for himself and team. He also secured the privilege of cultivating a three-acre patch of a large farm, the owner of which was willing that he should have all he could raise on it. He planted it to corn, and raised 200 bushels to the acre, which, although corn was very cheap, insured them against want for bread and provided feed for the animals. In the spring of 1861 he rented nine acres of land, and sowed it to wheat, with a fervent hope that if the Lord favored him with a good crop on it, he would be able, with what he had already saved up, to journey to the mountains. On the 6th of April, that same year, his fourth child, Mary Ann, was born. She was welcomed as the others had been, notwithstanding the increased number it involved for the prospective overland journey. The wheat planted grew well, and promised a heavy yield, but one morning it was noticed that numerous black bugs, called the chinch bug, had begun to devour the grain, or rather suck the sap from the stalks just as they were heading out, and it looked as if the next few days would witness the total destruction of the crop. One of the strange things about it was, that his seemed to be the only field in that vicinity that was affected with the bugs. While contemplating the shattering of his hopes, the Spirit of the Lord prompted him to go to the man who was working the other part of the farm and borrow a cradle (the best implement used at that time to cut grain with,) and cut a swath through the grain with it. He had an assurance that this would have the effect of stopping the ravages of the bugs. He immediately went to the man and told him what he intended to do, and the man laughed at him, and told him it was a foolish notion. After some pleading and persuasion, however, the man took his cradle and cut a swath through the field, Thomas (whom the man evidently regarded as slightly demented) following along after him. After the man had gone, Thomas knelt and offered up a silent prayer to the Lord, telling him that he had acted according to the promptings of His Spirit, and that he would leave the result with Him. On his return he told his wife of the presence of the bugs in their wheat field, and what he had done. She felt very sorrowful, knowing that the habit of the bugs was, when they commenced on a field, never to leave it until it was completely destroyed, but he assured her that the crop would be saved.