My mind being made up to leave Judiville, I set about the necessary preparations, but not without some tugging at the heart before I could screw my resolution to the sticking point. With respect to worldly means, my elder family were all well provided; three of them, in their domestic condition, had as fair a prospect of felicity as commonly appertains to the state of man; but still I was loth to leave them, especially to leave my discreet and sagacious Charles, who had not yet found a conjugal helpmate.

I had also some anxiety concerning where to fix our place of rest; but, after due consultations, both my wife and I agreed that we ought to make our first domicile in London, where we could enjoy ourselves in our own way more unheeded than in the country; and that, as I had no cause of business pressing for haste, we should take our journey and the voyage at our leisure; as the song sings, said I, “Let us live by the way.”

It was soon known we were about to move; indeed, it had been expected from the time I retired from the responsibilities of business; and so far it was fortunate, for some rumour began to spread of Mr. Bell's wicked animosity; and, but for the previous opinion, it might have been thought I was fleeing from his hate; which would have been a woeful thing to have heard as causeway talk, considering the connection between our families, and that he was a minister of the Gospel. For myself, I did every thing in my power to arrest the rumour, and to pacify the feelings of the miserable man, by showing him all manner of outward respect. The reverence of the mind I could not give, and I was grieved at feeling myself so little of a Christian as to be so contumacious.

I suffered also sorrow at the thought of bidding old Mr. Hoskins and his peaceful wife farewell for ever. He had been to me a kind friend and a wise counsellor, and in all the oddities of his nature I had never found a knot. He was a bird's eye maple, full of specks and swirls, but firm and beautiful in the grain.