Excerpt from The Tale of a Plain Man

I have no recollection of being born, but from what has been told me, and other evidence I am convinced that I was born on the 18th day of April, 1846, in Delmar Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania. My father was a widower when he married my mother by which circumstance 1 had a half sister and three half brothers. He was a small farmer on a fifty-acre farm and his best crop was children-not in quality perhaps, but quantity, at least the neighbors thought there was enough oi us. We were not bad children, but somewhat shiftless, and indifferent to the opinion of the neighbors. My earliest recollection was being hustled out of bed early in the morning by my half brothers to see Santa Claus as he galloped over the brow of the hill in his sleigh behind his reindeers in a scud of blinding, flying snow. I thought I could see him and hear the bells on the reindeers. The others said they could see him and hear the bells jingling. They pointed him out to me and 1 saw or was persuaded to see him. Afterwards 1 had some doubt whether I did see him. We often sec things through the influence and insistence of others that we cannot see when they are not with us. Santa did not bring me much that Christinas morning, two round bullseye candies and some doughnuts in the shape of elephants and horses. But that was as much as the others got, and it was enough. We were as happy and proud of Santa's gifts as any children could be, and had no doubt of the existence of Santa Claus.

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