June, 1836. "At quarrying stone we come on poorly. The stones are poor, the masons poorer; and were we not in extremity, I would not employ them. But, though the 'Old Serpent' send twenty hard Harts and hard rocks to annoy me, he shall not win the battle, nor move one hair of my patience. I am too well, strong, and content with whatever befalls, to willingly believe his Satanic Majesty can use me up more than I have used up the rocks."

6

"As to the name of our estate, let it be as you please. Cedar Cliffs' is pretty enough, but rather too high-sounding, and false, besides. Now, if I had remained a lawyer, I should not mind lying, but I don't think it becoming a miller. The commonness of Grapery' is the very recommendation of the name to me; for, being but a common place, and having but commonplace owners, I think a commonplace name most suitable. As for Rock Dale,' I would as soon call it Rock Cod,' which would be much more appropriate, as we shall have cod-fish, but 'devil a bit of a dale. Upon the whole, I think the name had better remain in suspense for a time."

July, 1836. "I came to Ohio dreaming of a wife, a quiet home by the river, a small estate, a mill, it is true, while at sea, I dreamt for hours of being a mill-owner in Ohio, some literary name, and a library. It has pleased the Shaper of our fortunes to give me at least in near prospect all that I wished, and more, for I never dreamt of you, nor of a country life with the society we may have here. But above all, in my visions for the future I never looked forward to so great a change of character as you have wrought in me; may God bless you for it!"

"The worst of the business, however, is the deception, want of punctuality, and want of care, among workmen. I

have avoided much trouble by my constant presence and inspection, otherwise few things would be done well. What a mistake it is to get out of humor about matters; I have a teamster working for me that has not been good-humored one moment since he came; he 's always in a passion, darning,' and 'swowing,' and 'by Gosh-ing,' and would be worth some money to a large dealer in bonny-clapper, he looks so perennially sour. I pity such people, for I once belonged to the same class."

July, 1836.

"It seems as if Satan had mustered strongly to disquiet me. My stone-mason is laid up, and my teamster is on his back; the horses have the distemper, and the work that should be cannot be done; then steps down last evening, and says that he should not be much surprised if the knoll on which I am building should one day slip or settle into the hollow, and our house be 'knocked into a cocked hat.' Hurrying to my labors again, a man tells me the river is rising rapidly, and will sweep my 100,000 shingles to New Orleans before morning; and, to comfort me under these prospects, I can look back upon what think you? —a half-quarrel with — in the afternoon! It hap pened thus. When the mill was finished, he was to have the masons, but as he had made no preparation for them, and I wanted some few stone to finish our cellar, I took them for a day. Well, in the afternoon came up to where we were working, and asked me, with abruptness, when I should be done hauling stone.' It was the first salutation. I said, I suppose, with still greater abruptness, but without the least consciousness of it, When I get enough.' This gave offence, as I soon saw, and he was departing in anger; but I took his arm, led him into the shade, and half laughed, half reasoned him into good-humor again. This adventure taught me to beware of my own bad humors, and to think of the characters of those I have to deal with. . . . . .

.....

"But, despite all the Enemy's endeavours, I am little moved. What God wills, be it the destruction of all our plans and hopes here, or whatever it be, to that I think I can resign myself, though it may cost a struggle to do so. As regards, I was to blame, but I redeemed my error by a sacrifice of my pride, and that was all I could do. . . . . "Mr. B's letter I was very glad to receive, and shall write him again whenever I have leisure; but even in that there was one trial in what he says touching my writing for the Examiner, and Mr. W's opinion. It pained me, because I know that Mr. B's estimate of my intellect and character is very wrong, and wholly exaggerated, and in his warm praise of me to others I hear what will raise expectations that must be disappointed."

August, 1836. "I have become badly poisoned, probably with ivy, in clearing up our place. Yesterday morning the humor broke out more or less all over me, and from that time to this I have been really in agony from the intolerable itching of face, hands, and body. Dr. has prescribed an ointment of lard and sugar of lead, with which agreeable mixture I am now well basted. The worst of the matter is, that I have some twenty men to be looked to and directed, and am forced to hobble to and fro, feeling as if I were one vast mosquito-bite. I am glad, however, my dear wife, that you are not with me; you could do nothing for me; I am fidgety and cross, and I should probably poison you. fore you read this it will all be over, a matter of history to be talked of and laughed at. Even now, while in full virulence, I can improve it to my good, and cultivate patience and resignation as readily, and in as rank a soil, as I hope by and by to cultivate melons and cucumbers in."

Pomeroy, September, 1837. "Our worldly walkings and workings here have produced no fruit but certain potatoes

and cauliflowers, together with a small modicum of wisdom. Some four thousand silver dollars have dwindled, under the united influence of bad times and worse management, to four hundred, paper currency, ragged and very greasy. Our house just built here, under the shade of sugarmaples and oaks, with the Ohio a few hundred feet before us, and the mighty sand-cliffs, that whisk us back into past eternity, behind- - we are forced to sell at half cost; and having but just unpacked and settled, as we thought, must pack up again and take up our march for another corner of the 'Garden of Eden,' as we think it best to call this earth, in order that she may have no cause of quarrel. Whither we shall go is somewhat uncertain, but most probably on to a small farm of ten to twenty acres, somewhere in the vicin ity of Cincinnati, there to raise potatoes and fruit-trees, and write articles that might as well not be written.

"I have always had a standard with respect to daily employments, that I have been trying, so far without success, to live up to. I want hard bodily labor enough to keep me in health; enough of business to exercise my order, activity, and perceptive powers, and leisure enough for reading and writing to keep me from petrifying into a thorough man of business. Having weak eyes yet, I am forced to find daylight enough for all these things, and this, as society is now constituted, is no easy matter. In coming here I thought I had attained my end, but bad advice as to cost of building, bad management on my own part, and somewhat unlooked for mishaps, have disappointed me. I now propose to try the experiment on a smaller scale, content myself with a log-cabin, literally, and make a bold push for independence on an income of $150 per annum! Such is a chart of my proposed course in a worldly way. "Spiritually, I fear I have done scarce as well as in business. I have met some hard rubs, and my skin was too thin to stand them. However, I believe, all things consid

ered, that both my outer and inner tumbles of the year past will help me in finally gaining the prize I am after, and that more speedily and certainly than an easier journey would have done. A great deal of latent selfishness still pervades my frame, and it wants a heavy pressure to force it out; and if that which has been on me has sometimes expelled it in explosive quantities, still so much of it is gone, which is a great comfort.”

Returning to Cincinnati for the winter of 1837 - 38, Mr. Perkins at once set about fulfilling the humble plan sketched briefly in the last letter. He bought a few acres of ground, which seemed to present a good site for a nursery, on the Hamilton road, about six miles from Cincinnati, and made arrangements for building a cottage of dimensions as moderate as his hopes. Meanwhile, he occupied himself in visiting the schools, lecturing, preparing articles for magazines, and arranging a volume for publication. "I have just been writing," he says, "an essay on the new views of Zöology, which make the whole animated world one, and attempt to demonstrate its laws, as Newton demonstrated those of the inanimate world. The subject is a most interesting one. I propose, also, to publish two volumes, one containing the Constitutional Opinions of Judge Marshall,' the other 'Reminiscences of the St. Domingo Insurrection,' by my father, who was there during the whole. These I shall get printed when I go on to the eastward to learn my new business, the management of fruit-trees. By means of these works I hope, at least, to pay our way on and back, if nothing more. They may serve as an introduction, too, to such acquaintances as will hereafter enable me to earn something by my pen, for though