one of the lawyers of Ellicottville drove to Buffalo, fifty miles, in a terrible storm, bought a draft and mailed it in time to reach Washington by the date specified, so that free papers were secured for Mary and her boy.
It was agreed that Jo should send money as fast as collected to Mr. E. Shepard Colman, of Ellicottville, and if there was not enough to pay the note, he was to collect the balance from the signers and pay it. Jo then started on a “lecturing tour,” as he called it, through Wyoming, Genesee and Erie Counties, collecting small sums wherever his friends could get up a meeting, and when he arrived at my house again on the 10th day of March, I had just received a letter from Mr. Chaplin, saying that he had brought Mary and her boy to Utica, and Jo must come without delay. He gave me every dollar that he had collected, which was only about $5 short of the amount due on the note; I gave him $30 of it, and he started for Utica about sunset; although he had walked from Buffalo that day, 27 miles, he walked back in time to take an early train the next morning. A few days after, I met an old friend who resided in Syracuse, who told me that he met Jo on the train, and learning from him his story, he went to Utica with him, intending to witness the meeting, but was not present when they first met each other; however, he was well paid for going by witnessing their happiness soon after. In due time I received a line from Mr. C., of Ellicottville, acknowledging the receipt of the money, and as it fell short but $35, he had paid the whole of the note, and said, “you and I will make all right between us.” However, as it turned out, there was nothing left to be made right between us, for in a few months he received a letter containing a draft for the $35; he could not decipher much of the letter, but the signature, “Jo Norton,” was sufficiently legible to explain it all.
