life. As
a boy he was quick at learning, and obtained a fair education, which, as
he grew older, he was at much pains to display by using very high-flown
language, which often bordered upon the flowery and sublime. I believe
in their younger days Aunt Lucinda used to allow "it fairly turned her
stomach to hear the fellow talk." He was a dashing, showy follow when
young, and was soon married to a delicate and lady-like girl, just the
reverse of what his wife should have been. A woman like Aunt Lucinda
would have given him an idea of the sober realities of life, but the
disposition of the wife he chose was something like his own, dreamy and
imaginative, with none of the energy necessary to face the trials and
difficulties which lie in the life-path of all, in a greater or less
degree. He had tried various kinds of business but grew weary of each
in its turn. At the time of his marriage his father set him up in a
dry-goods store, and, had he given proper attention to his business,
would probably have become a rich man. For a time things went on
swimmingly, but the novelty of the thing wore off, and he soon felt like
the clerk who told his employer "he only liked one part of the business
of store-keeping, and that was shutting the blinds at night." After
trying various kinds of business, with about equal success, he got
the idea, and a most absurd one it was, that farming "was his proper
vocation." His indulgent father again assisted him, by purchasing for
him a small farm, thinking he would now apply himself and make a living.
His father maintained a kind of oversight of matters during his
life-time, but in process of time he died, and Silas was left to his
own resources. His father's property was divided among the surviving
children, and it was found that Silas had already received nearly double
his share of the patrimony, so, of course, nothing remained for him at
the time of his father's death. Necessity at length drove him to
mortgage his home, and he never paid even the interest on the claim, and
when the above mentioned letter was written, the term of the mortgage
was nearly expired, and he must soon seek another home for his family.
Such was the idle whimsical being who now wrote to these relatives to
know what they thought of his removal to Canada, and only waited, as he
said, to see what encouragement they could give him adding that he was
willing to work and only asked them to assist him in getting his family
set