Eight years of earnest study followed, years full of happiness, because they were years of progress, of growing religious experience, of expanding intellectual and spiritual vision. The dream of his uncared for boyhood was in process of realization. He enjoyed the confidence of teachers and scholars alike, for he was the soul of honor, and his word was the word of truth. His vacations were spent in teaching in the common schools of Louisiana. Success always crowned his efforts; his schools were usually full to overflowing. He taught in the Sunday-schools and made himself useful in every form of Christian service. On one occasion the school house was destroyed by fire, but nothing daunted, the enthusiastic teacher rallied the neighbors, and with them and the scholars he went into the woods, chopped down the trees, hewed the logs, and in a few days replaced the old building with a better, and the school went on more successfully than ever. And so on till the end of his life, difficulties were faced bravely and successfully. With the assistance of friends, a cork leg took the place of the pole which he had lashed to the stump of his lost limb. After completing the normal course, he took the usual course in theology. On Vermillion Bay, not far from the Gulf Coast, and at the terminus of a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, about twenty miles from Bayou Teche, the stream that keeps green and beautiful the year round that section of Louisiana which was first settled by the exiled Acadians and made famous in Longfellow's "Evangeline," is a thriving village. In the patois of the country the people are called "Cajians," a corruption of Acadians. As a rule, they are non-progressive and ignorant. But the spirit of modern progress, brought in on the railroad, is putting new life into old customs. In this village just waking into its new life, a humble man of faith, in the year 1885, organized a Congregational church. The organizer of this new church, having only a limited education, soon found himself at the end of his resources. The people were still hungry and still unfed. One plants, another waters. Unknown to the people, and in his own good way and time, God was preparing to answer their prayer for a shepherd who could lead them into the green pastures and by the side of quiet waters.