With Mr. Foss of Overshoe, every farm and house, had a name in Denmark, I now began to do real farm work. I was put to drive teams most of the summer, in fact all the time except when there was something else to do. I went along fine.

In the fall of the year, I went and hired myself out to a big Dairy farm, by the name of Bangs, in Fade Song, near the Ossian on the east.

I was now sixteen years old and was doing a man’s job, driving teams and what so ever was required. I began to enjoy life among the youth of my own age. I must go back to my miserable school days and say a few more words about it. The custom of the Lutheran Church is to start school when eight and to be confirmed when fourteen, and then one can stay out of school. The confirmation is done by the Priest. The baptism is done when the child is a few weeks old.

As I was told by my school teacher many times, “You are as ignorant as the child that was born last night.” He also told me I did not know anything. He did not know what the matter with me was. He said that I had a good head on me but I just could not learn anything. I had my mind set that if I could get out of this I would never open a book any more. I got confirmed and I never opened a book of any kind again, until I first heard the Mormon Missionaries from Utah. I got a chance to find out what Mormonism is.

When I was 14 years old, and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church, the last counsel and warning I received from the Priest together with the class I was among was, “Now you are turned loose to yourself, and whatever you do, look out for the Mormons, and have nothing to do with that false religion, for they are a very bad set of people.”

When I came to Bangs, there was a Mormon. He wet to a meeting on Sunday, he asked me if I wanted to go with him to hear the Mormons. I answered, “Yes, I’ll go with you, I have never been to a Mormon meeting before.” This was a very enjoyable time for me.