Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/131

 did resign. Within five minutes the band voted for a leader. Brown was unanimously re-elected. The choice of any other man would have been as absurd and as impossible as the election of a successor for Bonaparte before Austerlitz. Prom that time forward there was no talk of any other plan than his.

The time was near in which the women must be sent away. The blow was ready. Brown wrote on September 8 to his wife and children at North Elba, who were consulting him about details of farm management: "It now appears likely that Martha and Anne will be on their way home in the course of a month, but they may be detained to a little later period. I do not know what to advise about fattening the old spotted cow, as much will depend on what you have to feed her with, whether your heifers will come in or not next spring, also upon her present condition. You must exercise the best judgment you have in the