CHAPTER XVII.
Now he weighs time, Even to the utmost grain.
KING HENRY V.
"Mannahatta, Dec.

-- 1813.
"My dear friends at home, "I am as well and as happy as I can be anywhere away from you.
That to be sure is but a modicum of happiness and good condition -- very far from the full perfection which I have known is possible; but you will all be contented, will you not, to hear that I have so much, and _that I have no more ?_ I don't know -- I think of your dear circle at home -- and though I cannot wish the heaven over your heads to be a whit less bright, I cannot help wishing that you may miss one constellation.

You can't have any more than that from poor human nature -- selfish in the midst of its best generosity.
And yet, mother and Winifred, your faces rise up to shame me; and I must correct my speech and say _man's_ nature; I do believe that some at least of your side of the world are made of better stuff than mine.
"'All are not such.' "But you want to hear of me rather than of yourselves, and I come back to where I began.
"I went to see Mr.De Wort the day after I reached here.

I like him very well.

He received me politely, and very handsomely waived the customary fee ($250) and admitted me to the privileges of his office upon working terms.