the
Chippewa language. From inquiries I think the former is of Carib origin,
and the latter Mohegan. The Chippewa equivalents are in the order
stated, Cheman and Agakwut.

_26th_. In going out to dinner at 3 o'clock, a sheet of paper containing
conjugations of verbs, which had cost me much time and questioning, had
fallen from my table. On returning in the evening, I found my dog,
Ponty, a young pet, had torn my care-bought conjugations into small
pieces. What was to be done? It was useless to whip the dog, and I
scarcely had the courage to commence the labor anew. I consequently did
neither; but gathering up the fragments, carefully soaked the gnawed and
mutilated parts in warm water, and re-arranged and sealed them together.
And before bedtime I had restored the manuscript so as to be
intelligibly read. I imposed this task upon myself, but, had it been
imposed by another, I would have been ready to pronounce him a madman.

_27th_. I devoted the day and evening in transcribing words into my
"Ojibwa Vocabulary." This is a labor requiring great caution. The
language is so concrete, that often, when I have supposed a word had
been dissected and traced to its root, subsequent attention has proved
it to be a compound. Thus verbs have been inserted with pronouns, or
with particles, indicating negation, or the past or future tense, when
it has been supposed they had been divested of these appendages. I am
now going over the work the third time. The simplest forms of the verb
seem to be the first and third persons singular of the imperative mood.

Ennui, in situations like the present, being isolated and shut up as it
were from the world, requires to be guarded against. The surest
preventive of it is employment, and diversity in employment. It has been
determined to-day to get up a periodical sheet, or _jeu d'esprit_
newspaper, to be circulated from family to family, commencing on the
first of January. Mrs. Thompson asked me for a name. I suggested the
"Northern Light." It was finally determined to put this into Latin, and
call it Aurora Borealis.

_28th_. Visits make up a part of the winter's amusements. We owe this
duty to society; but, like other duties, which are largely connected
with enjoyment, there is a constant danger that more time be given up to
it than is profitable. Conversation is the true index of feeling. We
read wise and grave books, but are not a whit better by them, than as
they introduce and fix in our