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52
Shoffner History.
blv. The consciousness of a life earnestly spent in an endeavor to live uprightly and to deal justly l>v all is worth more than all the world can give in return. L have lived more than three-fourths of my life in the same place, in sight of mv boyhood home, the scene of so many pleasant recollections. Where I now live was a vast canebrake and dense forest. The river was then a clear, running stream, and twined with fish. So very numerous were they that it required but an hour or two to catch enough by the hook to serve a large company. Now the most patience is required to catch within a day a like number, and then a failure is more than possible. On one occasion Col. Mat. Martin, Martin Euless, and myself, being all striplings of young men, caught with a seine at the opening of the lake, or bayou, below my house, fifteen hundred fish?an utter impossibility now.
While the face of our country has changed, so have the people. Simple manners have given way to mere formality. But 1 am not one who would assert that the world has not growii better. As our ancestors had fewer temptations to evil, they had not the same need of constant watchfulness'its is needful now that temptations have multiplied. Enlightenment has kept up with the world?s material progress. As for mvself, 1 have no complaint to make. My friends and my neighbors are faithful and kindly in their attention, and my old age is passed in serenity and quiet, awaiting the summons that comes to all.