But on the other hand he was a friend to the poor; and seldom sent
the beggar empty-handed from his door. He also gave largely to the
support of the gospel, as well as to benevolent institutions. One very
noticeable and oftentimes laughable peculiarity was his proneness to
charge every thing that went wrong to the state of the weather. I think
it was more from a habit of speech than from any wish to be
unreasonable. I remember one day passing a field when he was trying to
catch a horse that to all appearance had no idea of being captured. He
tried various methods of coaxing him into the halter, and several times
nearly succeeded, but just when he thought himself sure of him, the
animal would gallop off in another direction. Out of all patience, he at
length exclaimed, "What does possess that critter to act so to-day?"
then glancing at the sky, which at the time happened to be overcast by
dull murky clouds, he said: "It must be the weather." I chanced one day
to be present when Uncle Ephraim was busily occupied in making some
arithmetical calculations regarding his farm-products. The result not
proving satisfactory he handed his slate to a friend for inspection, and
it was soon discovered that he had made a very considerable error in his
calculation.
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