Had I obeyed the words "do not go, but stay at home," I should not have fallen into this trouble. May you who read this be wise, and in this particular, profit by my experience.
LORENZO DOW YOUNG'S NARRATIVE.
CHAPTER I.
MY MOTHER'S PROMISE—CHASED BY WOLVES—A REMARKABLE DREAM—THROWN FROM A HORSE—PROVIDENTIALLY SAVED—RELIGIOUS REVIVAL—PREACHERS TRY IN VAIN TO CONVERT ME—RIDICULED FOR NOT PLAYING AT CARDS—READ INFIDEL WORKS—THEIR EFFECT—A VISION.
I was born October 19th, 1807, in the town of Smyrna, Chenango County, New York.
My mother was afflicted many years with consumption. I remember her as a fervent, praying woman. She used, frequently, to call me to her bedside and counsel me to be a good man, that the Lord might bless my future life. On one occasion, she told me that if I would not neglect to pray to my Heavenly Father, He would send a guardian angel to protect me in the dangers to which I might be exposed.
She had so trained me to trust in God, that, even in my early youth, I seemed capable of grasping, in my faith, the prophetic promise she had made. It sank deep into my heart, and ever since has been an anchor of hope in the difficulties and dangers to which I have been exposed.
This pious, faithful, friend and mother, drooped and died on the 11th of June, 1814.
Soon after her death, my father broke up housekeeping, and I was sent about sixty miles to live with my brother-in-law, John P. Green, near Cayuga Bridge.
It was a marshy, malarious country, and I was taken very sick with fever and ague, with which I suffered severely. In the fall of 1815, we removed to Tyrone, Schuyler County. In the meantime, my father had taken up some land on which to make a home, about six miles from where Mr. Green lived. This country, at that time, was new, and there was nothing but a dense forest between Mr. Green's house and my father's. The wolves were very numerous in this forest. At one time, several of them chased me to Mr. Green's house, and I seemed to barely escape with my life.