Referring to services abroad reminds me of the Quarterly Meeting I held for the Presiding Elder, on what was then called Howard's Prairie, some twenty miles distant. Seated in my buggy with my wife and child, I started on Friday afternoon for the place. We reached the neighborhood at nightfall. We were directed by the Elder to call on a given family for entertainment, the gentleman being the most wealthy Methodist in the settlement. We halted the buggy at his gate, and I went in to crave his hospitality. As I approached the door and addressed myself to the master of the premises, he put on a frigid expression of countenance, and answered me coldly. I decided at once that I would not make myself known, but try the spirit of the man. I inquired whether there was to be a Quarterly Meeting in his neighborhood. He replied in the affirmative. I then inquired where the Methodist preachers put up when they came into the settlement. He said, "They usually put up at the second house further on." I concluded the old gentleman was not expecting company until the Presiding Elder should come, and so concluded we had better go on. As I retired the old gentleman looked sharply after me, but doubtless thinking so small and young a man as I then was could not be the Elder, he permitted me to go on my way. We went on to the house indicated, and inquired of the gentleman at the gate whether the Methodist preachers who visited the settlement usually found entertainment with him. He replied, "I am not a Methodist myself, but my old woman is one, I believe, and she sometimes takes in the preachers on her own hook, but she is not at home to-night. Why didn't you stop up at the white house on the hill? He is the loudest Methodist in this neighborhood." I inquired, "Who lives up here in this small house that we have just passed?" "Oh," said he, "that is my son, the Class-Leader." It was now quite dark. I returned to the buggy and asked my wife how she liked the Presiding Eldership. She laughed heartily, and said, "The fact is, they are all waiting for the Presiding Elder, for no one would ever take you for one." I concluded she was right, and on returning to the Class-Leader's house I made bold to announce myself in due form. We were most hospitably entertained, and were so pleased with our kind host and hostess that we felt constrained to decline, the next day, urgent invitations from both of the large houses. My wife has often queried since as to what became of the pies and cakes that were intended for the Presiding Elder on that occasion.