The house at Judiville, into which I had now moved my family, was a very handsome building. It was not then so large as it is now, the two wings having been added in the course of the year after. The store below was also noble and capacious, and the warehouses behind had not their match then in all the Genesee country. The whole premises have, no doubt, been long since surpassed in appearance by many other edificial structures; but there has not yet been any building erected in Judiville, which, for conveniencies within, and a judicious situation, can compare with the premises of Hoskins and Todd.

The progress of the town has been very wonderful. In less than five years from the date of “The festivaul,” it contained upwards of two thousand seven hundred inhabitants; and at this present writing, the population exceeds ten thousand souls. Mr. Hoskins is one of the richest men in many counties; and when the instalments are paid up on my twenty thousand acres, which were all settled for in the five years, I shall have no cause to grumble at the reward vouchsafed for my courage in that speculation. But let me not brag.

At the era of my arrival for a permanent purpose at Judiville, though the world was then, as it has ever since been, blithe towards me, there was a worm in my heart—the misconduct of my first-born, which neither riches nor honours could appease.

The post, on the day after my arrival, brought letters from New York, which, to a certain extent, were salutary to my spirits. They informed us, that the young man, who had fallen in the duel, had been pronounced out of danger, and that it had been ascertained my son's companion had not sailed in the ship for England, he having been seen in Baltimore, which afforded just reason to think that Robin also had not quitted America. It may, therefore, be said that I took up my abode at Judiville under favourable auspices, though my anxieties for the unfortunate and ill-guided lad were still very sharp, and filled my uneasy pillow with thorns.