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Chapter 2: the father of the man.
Truly says the poet, that the child is father of the man. This is why every incident of the childhood of great men is so eagerly sought and cherished by their friends and admirers. When the fruit is glorious, we desire to see the blossom, too. Happily, in the case of Captain John Brown, this desire can be amply gratified-and in a way, and by the pen, of all others the best fitted to do justice to it. Gladly I here step aside for the old hero; to permit him, in his own inimitable style, to narrate the history of his infancy, and early manhood.All that it becomes me to write, by way of preface, is a brief statement of the story of this autobiography.
When John Brown was in Boston, in the winter of 1857, among other noble friends of freedom here, he made the acquaintance of Mr.Stearns and Mrs. Stearns, of Medford; who, recognizing him at once as an historic character,--although clad in a plain suit of clothes only, and with a leathern strap for a neck-tie,--received him at their hospitable home with all the honor justly due to a hero and a saint. Their children soon learned
