tector, should this prove to be the case. You remember I
authorized you to draw on me for twenty dollars to be remitted to Mr.
O'Reilly's family, and to keep the source from whence it was derived
secret. My object in writing is to ask if this was done, and, in case it
was, to request you to draw on me for that amount."

In an earlier letter to his brother he remarks philosophically: "Smith is
Smith yet and so likely to be, but I have become used to him and you
would be surprised to find how well oil and water appear to agree. There
must be crosses and the aim should be rather to bear them gracefully,
graciously, and patiently, than to have them removed."

While thus harassed on all sides by those who would filch from him his
good name as well as his purse, his reward was coming to him for the
patience and equanimity with which he was bearing his crosses. The
longing for a home of his own had been intense all through his life and
now, in the evening of his years, this dream was to be realized. He thus
announces to his brother the glorious news:--

POUGHKEEPSIE, NORTH RIVER,
July 30, 1847.

In my last I wrote you that I had been looking out for a farm in this
region, and gave you a diagram of a place which I fancied. Since then I
was informed of a place for sale south of this village 2 miles, on the
bank of the river, part of the old Livingston Manor, and far superior. _I
have this day concluded a bargain for it._ There are about one hundred
acres. I pay for it $17,500.

I am almost afraid to tell you of its beauties and advantages. It is just
such a place as in England could not be purchased for double the number
of pounds sterling. Its "capabilities," as the landscape gardeners would
say, are unequalled. There is every variety of surface, plain, hill,
dale, glens, running streams and fine forest, and every variety of
different prospect; the Fishkill Mountains towards the south and the
Catskills towards the north; the Hudson with its varieties of river
craft, steamboats of all kinds, sloops, etc., constantly showing a varied
scene.

[Illustration: HOUSE AT LOCUST GROVE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.]

I will not enlarge. I am congratulated by all in having made an excellent
purchase, and I find a most delightful neighborhood. Within a few miles
around, approached by excellent roads, are Mr. Lenox, General Talmadge,
Philip Van Rensselaer, etc., on one side; on the other, Harry Livingston,
Mrs. Smith Thomson (Judge Thomson's