L I F E 0 F W I L S 0 N. ' ' xix 
"I have had four letters from home, all of which I have answered. Tlieir 
news are — Dull trade — provisions most exorbitantly high — R.'s sister dead — 
the Seedhills mill burnt to the ground — and some other things of less conse- 
quence. 
t. * * ^ ' * * 
" I doubt much if stills could be got up in time to do anything at the dis- 
tilling business this winter. Perhaps it might be a safer way to take them up, 
in the spring, by the Susquehanna. But if you are determined, and think 
that we should engage in the business, I shall be able to send them up either 
way. P. tells me that his two stills cost about forty pounds. I want to hear 
more decisively from you before I determine. Sooner than live in a country 
exposed to the ague, I would reuuiin where I am. 
" 0. comes out to stay with mc two months, to learn surveying, algebra, &e. 
I have been employed in several places about this summer to survey, and have 
acquitted myself with credit and to niy own satisfaction. I should not be 
afraid to engage in any job with the instruments I have. * * 
" S. continues to increase in bulk, money and respectability; a continual 
current of eleven-penny hits pouring in, and but few running out. * * 
" We are very anxious to hear how you got up ; and well pleased that you 
played the Horse Jockey so luckily. If you are fixed in the design of distil- 
ling, you will write me, by the first opportunity, before winter sets in, so that 
I may arrange matters in time. 
" I have got the schoolhouse enlarged, by contributions among the neigh- 
bors. In summer the school is, in reality, not much ; but in winter I shall be 
able to teach with both pleasure and profit. 
^ ^ :it ;|i 
" When I told R. of his sister's death, ' I expected so,' said Jamie, 'any 
other news that's curious?' So completely does long absence blunt the 
strongest feelings of affection and friendship. May it never be so with you 
and me, if we should never meet again. On my part it is impossible, except 
God, in his wrath, should deprive me of my present soul, and animate me with 
some other." 
Wilson next changed his residence for one in the village of Bloomfield, New 
Jersey, where he again opened a school. But being advised of a more agree- 
able and lucrative situation, he solicited, and received, an engagement from 
the trustees of Union School, situated in the township of Kingsess or King- 
sessing, a short distance from Grray's Ferry, on the river Schuylkill, and about 
four miles from Philadelphia. 
This removal constituted an important era in the life of Wilson. His 
school-house and residence being but a short distance from Bartram's Botanic 
Grarden, situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill,— a sequestered spot, 
possessing attractions of no ordinary kind, — an acquaintance was soon con- 
tracted with that venerable naturalist, Mr. William Bartram,* which grew into 
*The author of " Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West 
Florida," &c. This excellent gentleman closed his long and useful life on the 22d July, 
1823, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 
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