ies
to support, and can get nothing to do.... I feel rejoiced that things
have come to such a crisis in Charlestown that our family will be
released from that region of trouble so soon.

"Keep up your spirits, mother, the Lord will show you good days according
to those in which you have seen evil....

"I am glad Lucretia and the dear little Susan intend meeting me at New
Haven. I think this by far the best plan; it will save me a great deal of
time, which, as I said before, is money.

"I shall have to spend some time in New Haven getting settled, and I wish
to commence painting as soon as possible, for I have more than a summer's
work before me in the President's portrait and Mrs. Ball's.

"As soon as the cash comes in, mother, it shall all be remitted except
what I immediately want. You may depend upon it that nothing shall be
left undone on my part to help you and the rest of us from that hole of
vipers.

"I think it very probable I shall return by the middle of May; it will
depend much on circumstances, however. I wish very much to be with my
dear wife and daughter. I must contrive to bring them with me next season
to Charleston, though it may be more expensive, yet I do not think that
should be a consideration. I think that a man should be separated from
his family but very seldom, and then under cases of absolute necessity,
as I consider the case to be at present with me: that is, I think they
should not be separated for any length of time. If I know my own
disposition I am of a domestic habit, formed to this habit, probably, by
the circumstances that have been so peculiar to our family in
Charlestown. I by no means regret having such a habit if it can be
properly regulated; I think it may be carried to excess, and shut us from
the opportunities of doing good by mixing with our fellow men."

This pronouncement was very characteristic of the man. He was always, all
through his long life, happiest when at home surrounded by all his
family, and yet he never shirked the duty of absenting himself from home,
even for a prolonged period, when by so doing he could accomplish some
great or good work.

That a portrait-painter's lot is not always a happy one may be
illustrated by the following extracts from letters of Morse to the Mrs.
Ball whom he mentions in the foregoing letter to his mother, and who
seems to have been a most capricious person, insisting on continual
alterations, and one day pleased and the next al