LIFE OF WILSON. xxiii 



free and plentiful country, after so many years of painful separation, where the 

 bare necejisaries of life were all that incessant drudgery could procure, and 

 even that but barely ! Should even sickness visit you, which God forbid, each 

 of you is surrounded by almost all the friends you have in the world, to nurse 

 you, and pity and console you ; and surely it is not the least sad comfort of a 

 death-bed, to be attended by affectionate relatives. Write me positively by 

 post, two or three times. My best love to my sister, to Isabella, Alexander, 

 John, the two Maries, James, Jeany, little Annie. God Almighty bless you 

 all. 



" Your ever affectionate friend, 



" Alex. Wilson." 



To Alexander Duncan. 



" October 31st, 1802. 

 " Dear Alexander. 



" I have laughed on every perusal of your letter. I have now deciphered 

 the whole, except the blots, but I fancy they are only by the way of half 

 mourning for your doleful captivity in the backwoods, where there is nothing 

 but wheat and butter, eggs and gammon, for hagging down trees. Deplorable ! 

 what must be done ? It is a good place, you say, for a man who has a parcel 

 of weans /***** 



"But forgive this "joking. I thank you, most heartily, for this your Jirst 

 letter to me ; and I hope you will follow it up with many more. I shall always 

 reply to them with real pleasure. I am glad that your chief objection to the 

 country is want of money. No place is without its inconveniences. Want of 

 the necessaries of life would be a much greater grievance. If you can, in 

 your present situation, procure sufficient of these, though attended with par- 

 ticular di^dvantages, I would recommend you to persevere where you are. I 

 would wish you and William to give your joint labors to putting the place in 

 as good order as possible. A farm of such land, in good cultivation, is highly 

 valuable ; it will repay all the labor bestowed upon it a hundred-fold ; and 

 contains within it all the powers of plenty and independence. These it only 

 requires industry to bring forth, and a small stock of money to begin with. 

 The money I doubt not of being able to procure, next summer, for a year or 

 two, on interest, independent of two hundred dollars of my own, which I hope 

 to possess on or before the middle of March next. C. S. is very much at- 

 tached to both your brother and me ; and has the means in his power to assist 

 us — and I know he will. In the meantime, if you and William unite in the 

 undertaking, I promise you as far as I am concerned, to make it the best plan 

 you could pursue. 



"Accustom yourself, as much as you can, to working out. Don't despise 

 hagging down trees. It is hard work, no doubt ; but taken moderately, it 

 strengthens the whole sinews; and is a manly and independent employment. 

 An old weaver is a poor, emaciated, helpless being, shivering over rotten yarn, 

 and groaning over his empty flour barrel. An old farmer sits in his armchair 

 before his jolly fire, while his joists are crowded with hung beef and gammons, 

 and the boanties of heaven are pouring into his barns. Even the article of 



