NEW WFE IN A NEW LAND 59 



him somewhat in the nature of a rehef, though 

 teaching was not pleasant to him anywhere. He 

 loved to be out in the open, drinking in the fresh air, 

 following the birds through the forest — in short, as 

 it seemed then, playing truant to the world and its 

 work-a-day problems ; and anything which shut him 

 up indoors, whether it were weaving or teaching, 

 was a thing to be hated. On the 25th of February, 

 1802, he resumed his teaching, having given up his 

 school at Bloomfield some time before this. The 

 Gray's Ferry school paid him one hundred dollars 

 per quarter, and not more than fifty scholars were 

 to be admitted. The discipline here before he came 

 had been disgracefully lax, but with his usual rigid 

 severity — for Wilson believed in the old "spare the 

 rod and spoil the child" adage — he soon brought 

 things into order. Gray's Ferry was to give him 

 the most pleasant years of his life. As early as July 

 of this summer he declared that his harp was "new 

 strung," and his old sanguine aspirations after fame 

 returned. "My heart swells," he said; "my soul 

 rises to an elevation I cannot express, and I think 

 I may yet produce some of these glowing wilds of 

 rural scenery — some new Paties, Rogers, Glauds 

 and Simons,* that will rank with these favorites of 

 my country when their author has mixed with the 

 kindred clay." The dream was still haunting him 

 that he might follow in the steps of Allan Ramsay 

 and sing his way to fame as Burns had done. The 

 later vision that was to reveal the path of fame to 



* He refers to Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd," of which he was very 

 fond. 



