He was continually passing from the extreme of heat in sunny valleys to
the arctic cold of snows and glaciers. His lodging on these journeys was
in the huts of the peasants. He shared their coarse and unwholesome
food, often cooked in ill-cleansed copper vessels. He slept in small,
unventilated hovels, a dozen other persons often dividing with him the
scanty space. He did not shrink from even the stables in winter. However
exhausted he might be by hours of toilsome walking, his elastic spirit
quickly revived: all thought of refreshment for himself was secondary to
the spiritual wants he sought to meet in others.
Nor was he content without trying to ameliorate the temporal condition
of his parishioners. By the care of his own garden he sought to teach
them more intelligent and productive methods of agriculture than the
rude processes to which they were accustomed. In the valley of
Fressiniere he built an aqueduct for purposes of irrigation, overcoming
prejudice and opposition by beginning the work with his own hands. The
example of Oberlin was constantly before him, and he often expresses his
ambition to be to his people such a guide and helper as the pastor of
Ban de la Roche had been to the peasants of the Vosges.
Neff was not long in discovering that his work must begin with the most
elementary instruction. Generally, the people were ignorant of any
language but their native patois. Up to this period their schoolmasters,
paid at the rate of twenty-five francs a year, had been peasants like
themselves.
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