About a year
after the great fire, he had a long and dangerous illness, brought on
by great exposure to cold while lumbering in the woods.
Mrs. McNab voluntarily went to his house and took care of him most
assiduously, for many weeks, until his recovery. Micah said, that "it
looked remarkable kind in the old soul to come of her own accord and
take keer of him, when he'd allers plagued her so unmascifully".
He felt very grateful to her and paid her handsomely for her services.
Nevertheless, he teases her yet occasionally and says "he dont know
neow, which skeered him most, the great fire, or comin' to his senses
one night when he was sick, and seein' Aunt McNab with her head
wropped up in its cotton night gear".
Subsequent to Micah's recovery, he went to the Kennebec River and
visited his friends. After his return, he commenced trading, and is
now doing quite an extensive business. He has entirely broken off from
his old habits of swearing and gambling, and discountenances them
among the people. He attends religious worship constantly, and sets a
worthy example in keeping the Sabbath day.
He is also getting his ideas up on the subject of education. Not long
since, he told me it was his opinion that "there warn't half school
larnin' enuf among the people, and there'd oughter to be longer
schools. There's Jinny Campbell, there, a bright leetle imp as ever
was, and ef she'd had a chance would a taken to her books, like a
chicken to a dough dish.
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