CHAPTER XXV.

Oskaloosa never had what is called a "boom," but has just gone on in the "even tenor of its way," growing a little every year, sometime a little faster than other times. There have always been good and substantial people in Oskaloosa from the time the first settler built his log cabin in the place called The Narrows, down to the present time. If our town and country ever had a boom, it was from 1850 to 1856. Along in those years, if anybody wanted to sell, all they had to do was to make it known. There was no trouble in finding a purchaser. There was no such thing to be seen then as a card tacked on a house with "to rent" printed on it. Any sort of a house could be rented without advertising. Many of the new comers from Ohio and elsewhere, who had been used to better things, were glad to find shelter in one room and a poor room at that.

I can think of many families who came here about that time. The heads of many of those families have entered the vast beyond, and some are still among us. The children of some of those who have gone before are with us still, and are good citizens. There are the Downings, the Lorings, the Kalbachs, the Cowans, the McMullins, the Laceys, the Rhineharts, the Ketners, and many others I could mention.

Among the "many others" are the Myerses, Mr. J. C. Myers and wife and baby Alice, who came to Oskaloosa from Cincinnati in 1855. The Myerses came to stay. They were what we called "well off" when they came, but money could not procure for them a better place to go to housekeeping in than a little unfinished doctor's office which stood on the ground where McNeill's livery barn now is. The owner of that property then was Dr. Cusick, a brother-in-law to Mitch Wilson. Mr. Myers was a carpenter and his first job was to fix the window and door of that office so the cows and pigs which were grazing and rooting in the streets at will could not have access thereto.

The Myerses did not stay long in their small quarters, but straightway bought a lot northwest of the square and built a nice, comfortable home. That property was owned afterwards by the Blattners. Mr. Myers many years ago purchased lots 7 and 8, Block 29, o. p., which at that time was one of the most desirable homes in Oskaloosa. There they lived in comfort and luxury; there their three daughters, Alice, Clara and Emma, passed a happy childhood. There Alice was married to Mr. Case, a young man of good family, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to which place she went a happy bride. In a few years Alice returned to her father's house a widow, with two bright little daughters. She is now the wife of Mr. John J. Targgart, and is living in Monroe, Iowa. Clara and Emma were both handsome girls. Their parents were well-to-do and gave their daughters the advantage of a good education. Their home was handsomely furnished, and those girls, like their mother, had the faculty of making everything about them pretty and attractive. Look where one would in that home, some beautiful piece of fancy work, wrought by the skillful hands of those daughters, met the eye.

They made their home a center of attraction for the young people of the town, and nothing that would add to the happiness of their children was withheld by Mr. and Mrs. Myers. To see their children joyous was their joy. But there came a time in that home in which was wont to be heard the ring of merry voices and the sounds of mirth, when it was broken into by death, who is no respecter of homes or persons. Clara, handsome, happy, light-hearted Clara, went out of that borne to return no more. They made her a grave in a lovely spot in Forest Cemetery, whereon the snows of a score of Winters have lain as a mantle, and the birds of a score of Summers have sung and twittered. Blossoms send out their fragrance from the spot where rests all that is mortal of Clara Myers.

Emma, the youngest daughter, married Mr. A. T. Barnes; "Tim," as everybody calls him, a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Barnes, residents of Oskaloosa. Tim is doing a fine business in general merchandise in the town of Leighton, nine miles west of Oskaloosa. Emma has an eye for the beautiful and is called a superb housekeeper. Her table is a marvel of taste, her cooking daintiness itself.

Mr. J. C. Myers has always been an honorable, industrious, careful and prosperous business man. He has, by honest dealing and good management, accumulated a considerable fortune. Mr. and Mrs. Myers seem to be of one mind and one purpose. Both know how best to use their honestly earned dollars. The poor are not suffered to go hungry or cold if in reach of the Myerses. They are the most kind and obliging neighbors. No one receives his pay grudgingly who works for them. If they happen to owe anybody, they take supreme delight in paying every last cent, if not a little more. There is a happy medium, not often attained, between extravagance and stinginess. But Mr. and Mrs. Myers have just exactly struck it. They take care of, all they have but spend their money wisely.

To have the privilege of living in a neighborhood of upright and honest people is a blessing which the Lord has permitted me to enjoy for twenty-five years, consecutively. When I say neighborhood, I mean the people living within a block or two of each other. There are several families, or remnants of families, within that limit, who have been here all these years. We have gone in and out among each others-some have gone out never to return. There was David Evans and his wife, diagonally across the street, who twenty-nine years ago lived in the same cottage which stands there today. Two bright children played about their house, Mae and Carl. Two more came to them after, Dula and Walter. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were upright and honorable, took great pains and were successful in bringing their children up with the ideas which make successful and respected men and women. Mae is a charming woman, a fine scholar, and fills one of the most important positions in Oskaloosa's high school. Dula is a student in a school of art in the city of Chicago, with prospects of success in that profession. She, like her sister Mae, has from childhood bore an untarnished reputation. Carl and Walter are careful and successful young merchants in the town of their nativity. Mrs. Evans preceded her husband only a few months to the other shore. They died in peace and are lying side by side in Forest Cemetery on the identical spot where my young husband and I first went to housekeeping. Their children own and occupy the house where they were born. Mr. Evans built the block known as the Evans block, which belongs to his estate.

This is a neighborhood of old folks- a few young folks are sprinkled in- Dr. Clarks, the Neagles and Kents, for instance. The Dr. and his excellent wife have a handsome home, a well-kept lawn, and the very prettiest elm tree in all the town. Its trunk is straight, its top is wide-spreading, without a dead branch to mar its beauty. The Dr. may claim ownership, but he can't enjoy the symmetry and shade of that great old tree a bit more than his neighbors. Mrs. Ketner and I were saying this very day that on Summer afternoons it sent its cooling shadow across the street to our homes and gave us more pleasure than it did the real owners. Men and women cannot live to themselves alone, neither can they have a monopoly on their great big trees.

Just a little way down the street is the home of Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Bacon, which in Summer is a bower of beauty. That place don't wait for Summer, but before Summer comes their tulip beds are ablaze with gorgeous coloring. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon seem to have gathered from every clime all the beautiful shrubs and flowers that will flourish in this climate. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon are intelligent and interesting. Both love and tend their flowers, read books by the best authors, go on in the even tenor of their way year after year, without seeming to grow older. Their tastes are alike and they are of one mind and purpose. Their forty or more years of married life seem to have been one continuous honeymoon. Every Sunday morning they can be seen wending their way to the house of God. It is no wonder they don't grow old. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon have lived in Mahaska County since their youth. Mrs. Bacon is a sister to Mrs. Baugh, wife of the Rev. John M. Baugh, who has been a popular minister in the Presbyterian Church of Oskaloosa for more than twenty years.

Mr. Baugh is a cultured gentleman of fine mind and manners, and has fine social qualities, though in his boyhood he knew what plowing corn and living in log cabins meant. He relates in an amusing way the experiences of his boyhood. There were several of the Baugh brothers, and all attained prominence in one way or another. George Baugh has been many times elected mayor of Oskaloosa. Thomas Baugh, another brother, was a physician in high standing, and when his death occurred a few years ago many of Oskaloosa's citizens felt that an honored citizen, a useful and good man had been taken from us.

Rev. John Baugh and his excellent family own and occupy one of the most charming homes on East First Avenue, one of the prettiest streets in town. Who that has an eye for the beautiful does not linger and gaze with-delight when passing that charming, vine-covered home?

I realize that my story of reminiscences is assuming great length, much greater than I dreamed of in the beginning, but there are so many nice people whose characters I admire and who have shown me great kindness, I want to tell about them. It is hard to find a stopping place. The house just across the street west of mine was built by Dr. J.Y. Hopkins during the war of the rebellion, or rather by Mrs. Hopkins, who was a woman of much executive ability. The doctor went to the war and Mrs. Hopkins built that house while he was gone. Dr. Hopkins was counted among Oskaloosa's most learned and successful practitioners. In 1868 the Hopkinses sold that substantial and commodious home to Mr. D. M. Walton, who with his excellent wife occupy that home today. They came from Waynesburg, Penn. The Waltons are well-to-do; are excellent neighbors. Mr. Waltop is a gentleman of the old school, always kind and polite. Mrs. Walton's girlhood home was in Canton, Ohio. She is a charming lady, full of benevolence, and can interest one by the hour. Mr. Walton has been an invalid for many years and her kindness and tender care of him through it all has won for her the respect and admiration of all her neighbors. Mr. Walton's eyesight failed many years ago. He was compelled to retire from active business: has borne his great affliction with patience and Christian resignation. I can remember when he was tall, erect and capable of holding his own with the best business man in the country. But now he is aged and feeble, being several years past four score, and is frequently prostrated with the infirmities of age. His faithful wife reads to him, cheers him with words of kindness and nurses him back to his usual health. Mrs. Walton is a handsome woman as well as charming in manner. I told Mr. Walton one day I was sorry he couldn't see her, for as the years go by she grows handsomer.

Mrs. Col. Pond, a sister of Mrs. Walton's, makes her an extended visit occasionally. Her visits are hailed with delight by the neighbors. Mrs. Pond, too, was brought up in the town of Canton, Ohio, where she was a teacher many years. She once chaperoned a bevy of girls on a tour through Europe, Miss Ida Saxton, who is now the wife of President McKinley, among the rest. Mrs. Pond is a lady of fine mind, great good sense and charming manners. Her society is delightful, her conversation entertaining and instructive. She has traveled much, has met and become acquainted with many prominent people besides President McKinley and his-family, who were her near neighbors and intimate friends. Mrs. Pond is exceedingly well informed; is dignified without a particle of haughtiness. To have the privilege of the, society of a lady like Mrs. Pond is a pleasure indeed.

Mr. and Mrs. Eli Ketner lived just across the street from me twenty-nine years ago, and they live there today. They have a very comfortable and cozy home, where they sit in their easy chairs, read their newspapers, and wait for the change which will soon come to us all. When we first became such near neighbors each family had two sons-strong, robust young men, full of life and bright expectations. Will and Charlie Ketner were in school in Iowa University. Charlie's health failed, he left school and went into business in Minnesota, but before long he came home to his father's house, and after lingering for months in great pain he died- in peace and was laid to rest in Forest Cemetery. Will finished a full course in school, graduated in medicine, then took Miss Mary Pearson, a splendid young woman, for his wife. Their home is in Colorado, where I hear they are prospering, and have a pleasant home, brightened by two splendid sons and two splendid daughters, and presided over by a gentle, intelligent, Christian mother.

Mr. and Mrs. Ketner have always been well-to-do, and have provided for the proverbial rainy day. They attend strictly to their own, and very little to other people's business. They, like the rest of us, know what it is to have their home made desolate by the hand of death. Only a few months ago their beloved and only daughter, Mrs. Mary Smith, while seemingly in the prime of life, was suddenly called to join the great majority. I think it has been six years since Mr. and Mrs. Ketner passed the fiftieth anniversary of their journey together.

In the next, house but one below the Ketner place live Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Stevens, who invited their friends, neighbors and kin folks to their home to celebrate with them their golden wedding in the month of May, 1893, and yet on any pleasant Sabbath morning Mr. and Mrs. Stevens can be seen walking side by side, their faces turned toward the Presbyterian Church. They, like Mr. and Mrs. Ketner, live alone and are still able to take care of themselves. Both the Ketners and the Stevenses came from Ohio to Oskaloosa away back in the fifties.

As I have already remarked, this is a neighborhood of old folks. I don't think another can be found in Oskaloosa where so many men and women are living in two blocks of each other who have passed the three score and ten mark. There are lots of great grandfathers and great grandmothers in the two square limit. Mr. Walton has seen the fourth generation long ago. Dr. and Mrs. Clark's babies, Anna Lois and George Hadley, not only have a grandfather and a grandmother Hadley, but a great grandfather Hadley, all living so near together that one cannot tell where the Dr. Clark lawn ends and the Hadley lawn begins.

Mrs. Thomas Newell, who has a cozy home and a nicely-kept lawn which is bright with flowers every Summer, is great grandmother to little Dorris Brewster, granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Lacey.

Mrs. Norris, who is away past ninety, lives only a block from me. She is a sweet-spirited, saintly woman, retains her mental faculties, and is ready to depart when the Master calls. No mother was ever blessed with a more devoted daughter than is Mrs. Norris. Mary Norris is a model of affectionate tenderness-an interesting, intelligent woman. Their cozy cottage is the abode of peace, and that mother and daughter are all the world to each other.

Oskaloosa was founded by superior people and has always held her own in that respect. Several of them are dwelling in my two-block limit. I am afraid I am not going to have time and space to say all that I want to say about them. There is Mr. Frank E. Smith and his bright and handsome wife, who have a family of bright chrldren. Lena, the oldest, is a capable business girl and has gentle manners. Nye, their first born son, was a member of the 51st Iowa regiment, crossed the mighty Pacific to fight Spaniards and Filipinos. Nye acquitted himself with credit and his parents, brothers and sisters, had the joy of seeing him come home safe and sound. Mr. Frank E. Smith has been known by Mahaska's people ever since he was a boy. Everybody around thought him a tip-top boy, and since arriving at man's estate he has had the confidence of all who knew him. He has been many times elected to fill important offices and was never known to betray the trust placed in him. Mr. Smith is an honorable, capable, obliging business man; an unassuming, manly man; a gentleman; all of which I can testify to from personal knowledge.

Dr. Pardun and his wife have been my neighbors for many years. They have one of the prettiest places in Oskaloosa. Their house is elegant. Their walks, their lawn, their flowers, their trees, everything about their premises, is in the best order it could be. Mrs. Pardun has the reputation all over this end of town of being the most scrupulously orderly person to be found anywhere. She is a nice neighbor and an intelligent woman. The doctor has an infirmary and is what is called a magnetic healer. He is an honest, upright man, has no evil to say of anybody, but attends strictly to his own business. Dr. Pardun bas an extensive practice, not only among our own citizens but many come to him to be treated from abroad.

Doctors are numerous in my neighborhood, there are already four in less than two blocks, and I am told that another is soon to be my next door neighbor, Dr. Ripley Hoffman, son and partner of Dr. D. A. Hoffman, who has been a successful physician in Oskaloosa and all over Mahaska County for nearly forty years. He had a good practice from the first and still has the confidence of hundreds of our citizens. Though the weight of years is beginning to tell, the "Old Dr.," as he is called, can be seen almost any day, wrapped and tucked up in his buggy, striking out in the country to see some patient who thinks that no other doctor can relieve their aches and pains as readily as Dr. Hoffman.

Dr. Hoffman, with his wife and four children, came from Ohio and located in Oskaloosa in 1861. They were a remarkably fine-looking couple. The Dr. was a tall, manly-looking man, with broad shoulders and a strong face. Mrs. Hoffman has always had scores of friends, was an elegant-looking lady forty years ago and is an elegant-looking lady to-day. Dr. Ripley, "Rip," as he is usually called, the one who is going to be my neighbor, is about as popular a doctor as his father is. Dr. Hoffman Sr. and his wife have a home on First Avenue East, a complete, pleasant home, surrounded by one of Oskaloosa's typical lawns, which in Summer is bright with roses. That home is also the home of their widowed daughter, Mrs. Effie Hoffman Rogers, a lady possessed of many admirable qualities, among which are kindness, self-reliance and unaffected manners. Mrs. Rogers has been county superintendent of public schools, which responsible position she filled with credit to herself and satisfaction to her constituents.

Edgar, Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman's oldest son, is a tiller of the soil, preferred farming to a profession. He and his worthy wife and bright children occupy and cultivate a fine farm four or five miles west of Oskaloosa. John, the next son, is a lawyer, practicing his chosen profession in Great Falls, Montana. Ripley, as I have before stated, is the doctor. The Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman are grandparents many times over and, I have heard it said, have a bevy of mighty smart grandchildren.

Edgar, married the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. MeCabe, who came from the, city of Dublin, Ireland, and located in Mahaska, County nearly half a century ago. Both having been bred and. brought up in the higher walks of life, were highly accomplished and exceedingly, well educated. The doctor, who died several years ago, was said to be very learned in his profession, and not only that, but was wont to be styled a "walking enclyclopedia." In addition to his literary attainments, Dr. McCabe was a distinguished looking gentleman. Mrs. McCabe is a lady possessed of many and varied accomplishinents; scholarly, exceedingly well informed in both ancient and modern history, literature of the day and poetry of the long ago, brilliant in reparte, a fine performer on the piano, writes and speaks French like a native (it is said by those who know.) Her faculty for conversing in the purest English is not surpassed. I told her one day that I had never known but one except herself that had the faculty of expressing every shadow of a thought in the purest English, and that other was Henry Ward Beecher. Mrs. Swalm uttered a truth when she said, "In all the wide, wide world, there is but one Mary McCabe." The Dr., and Mrs. McCabe have some interesting, bright and witty sons and daughters. Maggie is a superior young lady in many respects and Will has the reputation of being a young man of honor, who was never known to do a mean thing nor say a flat one. Francis, another son, is engaged on the staff of the New York World. Louis, another son, fine looking and gentlemanly in manner, is filling a responsible and lucrative
position as train dispatcher in the city of Fort Worth, Texas.

Mrs. Baker is another of my old neighbors not counted among the "old set", though she is a grandmother. Her daughter and only child, Margery, married Mr. Rominger, a young attorney of Bloomfield, Iowa, who is said to be a young man of ability and moral character. Mrs. Baker spared neither pains nor money in giving her daughter the advantages of an education. Margery attained quite a reputation as an elocutionist. Mrs. Baker has been a widow many years. Her husband, Erwin Baker, was a scholar and much esteemed citizen. Has filled the position of county superintendant; was what is called an educator. Mr. Baker provided bountifully for his family and left them in comfortable.circumstances. Mrs. Baker has a comfortable, well furnished home, has many valuable books, is a reader, retains what she reads and is interesting in conversation. Mrs. Baker's home is on South First Street, only a block from mine, where she has lived more than a quarter of a century. Margery was born there and there she was married.

Immediately across the street to the east of Mrs. Baker's place is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hostetter, one of the very nicest places in the town. Their house is a model house. Their lawn is beautiful and always kept in perfect trim. The Hostetters are not old folks but they have a charming way of greeting we old folks when we chance to meet them.

Mrs. Rhinehart's fine home is close by and she, too, has a nice lawn, all of which I can see from my window. In looking over these homes of architectural beauty, with their vine-covered verandas surrounded with plats of velvety grass and bright flowers, my mind sometimes goes back to a time half a century ago when those lovely lawns, cement walks, paved streets with little green parks along their sides, was John Montgomery's cornfield, surrounded by a great high staked and ridered rail fence.

Among the young people of my neighborhood, are Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kent. They both come from good families and are scholarly. Mr Kent was at one time principal of Oskaloosa's public schools, and was elected to the office of county superintendent and served one term. I never heard that he did not fill both places satisfactorily. Mr. and Mrs. Kent have a little son whom they call Forest. It is not often that one has seen six generations of one family, but I have seen and known six generations of that family. I have seen little Forest's great great great grandmother.

The Neagle young people live in my neighborhood - Will and Jim and Lizzie. They have lived in Oskaloosa nearly all their lives. Lizzie keeps house for her brothers, who are business men of untarnished reputation. They are fine-looking young men and have faultless manners. Lizzie Neagle is a charming, girl, tall and handsome, with the manners of a well-bred lady. The parents of these worthy young people have long been sleeping in Forest Cemetery. I used to know their mother, who was one of the loveliest ladies I ever met. As these stately sons and daughter pass my door I often think, how proud their mother would have been to see them as I see them.

I see John Montgomery mowing his lawn; he has been cleaning up his garden and lawn for two or three days. This is April 26th, 1900. Every spring for many years I have seen Mr. Montgomery employed in the same way. As I watch him feebly pushing that lawnmower I think of a time fifty-six years ago when he was a strong, energetic, stalwart young man, holding the handles of a great prairie plow which was being drawn by four yoke of oxen. He was one of the company of four or five who staked out their claims at The Narrows so early in the morning of May first. 1843.

Mr. Montgomery is the only man living of that eager group, and the only man that I can think of in Oskaloosa or in miles around (unless, possibly, William B. Campbell, who lives three or four miles east of town, was one) who was on the ground in the beginning.

Those pioneers are nearly all gone. Their places of burial are as diversified as were their homes before they found this garden spot of Iowa. John White was the only one who lived and died and was buried on the land they took possession of on that memorable first of May. Mr. Canfield started to Oregon in 1846 or 1847. I heard that he was killed by Indians and his wife and daughter Ellen taken captives. Felix Gessford died not long ago at Bentonsport, Iowa.

A. G. Phillips went to California in 1852 and all that is mortal of one who was so prominent a factor in Oskaloosa's start in life lies buried in Calaveras Co., California. When I introduced the Phillipses to the reader, there were nine sons and daughters in that family; their ages ranging from twenty-six down to baby Ella, who now is the wife of Capt. J. R. C. Hunter, an honorable man and a gentleman. Their home is in Webster City, Iowa. They are grandparents many times over. Sinclair, the next older, married Flora Collins, sister to Mrs. Shara, Mrs. Washburn and Miss Myra Collins, who have been engaged in Oskaloosa's schools for many years. They are all highly cultured ladies. Sinclair died in 1885 in Audubon, Co., Iowa, leaving a wife and several children. Hazel, who lives with her aunts, the Collins ladies, is Sinclair's daughter. We are all proud of Hazel; she is well educated, has nice manners and is a first-class girl generally. Her aunts have given her opportunities and shown her great kindness.

James, the next, lives in Oklahoma. I have already mentioned Mrs. Jackson (Jo). Sam, the next older than Joan, was a handsome and smart boy. When he was only seventeen years old, in 1852, he went to California, where he died and was buried at San Jose. Rachel, the next, was a girl of superior mind and developed into an intellectual, superior, tactful woman, full of resources and charming in manners. Rachel married Mr. Robert Tomlinson, who died years ago. Rachel's home for many
years has been in Washington, D. C. Martha, who was an excellent young lady, married Dr. A. C. Cunningham in 1848. They settled in Knoxville when that town was very new. Martha died in 1868 leaving three little daughters. Florence, who is the wife of Mr. William Gamble, is an intelligent and interesting woman. Alice is the wife of a Mr. Culver, a fine business man of Knoxville and Lola is now Mrs. Phelps, of the same place. All are superior women.

Watson, the next older than Martha, married Lois Ramey. They went to California thirty years ago, located in Calaveras County, where in 1899 Watson died and was buried. His wife Lois and two daughters survive him. Gorrell was next, and the eldest son in the Phillips family. Elizabeth, who is the oldest of that family, was the wife of Nathaniel Lindsay, and was married before the Phillipses came to Iowa. She still lives near the place where she and her husband went to housekeeping; she is eighty years old and has been a widow nearly forty years. Watson and Lois were married in in 1846, the same year that Gorrell and I were married. We all went to housekeeping at nearly the same time, Watson and Lois on a forty joining ours on the east; how happy and light-hearted we were. I don't think anything more serious happened to mar our happiness than a little jealousy on my part because Lois' tomatoes would ripen before mine did, and she always had better luck with chickens.

Watson sold his beautiful lands-part of it being the forty acres where Mr. Kalbach's fine home, the Mattisons, the Kemble greenhouse, and so many other fine places are now-to the Majors brothers, Jacob and John. P., the same Majorses I have already mentioned. And just here I want to say that the Phillips family all thought Jacob Majors was greatly wronged in a difficulty he had with some parties in the early days regarding a claim. A frenzied mob went to his home, destroyed his stock and growing crops and shamefully abused him. I don't suppose there was one in ten of that mob knew what the grievance was, and yet some parties about twenty years ago compiled a book called "A History of Mahaska County", in which they treated in a flippant manner that savage and brutal outrage on a good citizen and a decent man.

Amos Gorrell Phillips was born near Chillicothe, Ohio, October 6th, 1796. His parents, Thomas and Martha Gorrell Phillips, emigrated to that new place from near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1795. Amos was the youngest of twelve children. The family moved to Kentucky when he was a boy, where in 1819 he was married to Hannah Sinclair, who was the mother of all the ten children I have mentioned. Mrs. Phillips died November 19th, 1847. They had four children when they left Kentucky and settled in Morgan County, Illinois, in 1832. They lived there twelve years, then came to this place, and purchased all those broad acres I have so often mentioned, thinking there was enough for all his boys. Not one of them own a rod of that fine land, save a little square plot in Forest Cemetery, where my precious dead are sleeping.