I 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
“ I am at present engaged in drawing the two birds which 1 
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 tw'enty-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 
