

1 LIFE OF WILSON. 



" I am at present engaged in drawing the two birds which I 

 brought from the Mohawk; and, if I can finish them to your 

 approbation, I intend to transmit them to our excellent presi- 

 dent, as the child of an amiable parent presents to its affection- 

 ate father some little token of its esteem." 



TO MR. WM. DUNCAN. 



Gray's Ferry , March 26, 1805. 



"I received your letter of January 1, sometime about the 

 beginning of February; and wrote the same evening very fully; 

 but have heard nothing in return. Col. S. desires me to tell 

 you to be in no uneasiness, nor part with the place to a disad- 

 vantage on his account. His son has been with me since Ja- 

 nuary. I told you in my last of the thinness of my school: it 

 produced me the last quarter only twenty-six scholars; and the 

 sum of fifteen dollars was all the money I could raise from 

 them at the end of the term. I immediately called the trustees 

 together, and, stating the affair to them, proposed giving up the 

 school. Two of them on the spot offered to subscribe between 

 them one hundred dollars a-year, rather than permit me to go; 

 and it was agreed to call a meeting of the people: the result was 

 honourable to me, for forty-eight scholars were instantly sub- 

 scribed for; so that the ensuing six months my school will be 

 worth pretty near two hundred dollars. So much for my af- 

 fairs. * * * * 



" I have never had a scrap from Scotland since last summer; 

 but I am much more anxious to hear from you. I hope you 

 have weathered this terrible winter; and that your heart and 

 your limbs are as sound as ever. I also most devoutly wish that 

 matters could be managed so that we could be together. This 

 farm must either be sold, or let; it must not for ever be a great 

 gulf between us. I have spent most of my leisure hours this 

 winter in writing the "Foresters," a poem descriptive of our 

 journey. I have brought it up only to my shooting expedition 

 at the head of the Seneca Lake; and it amounts already to 

 twelve hundred lines. I hope that when you and I meet,, it 



