ing tints, Captain Nairne set out from the
Manor House to join his regiment at Quebec. He had in mind a plan to go
back to Europe and to get to Spain or Portugal for a share in the
Peninsular War then raging. Fraser, now in his 79th year, writes on
October 10th, 1811, his advice that the young man "should continue on
full pay till he attains the rank of Major, by brevet or otherwise, and
then, if he chooses, he may exchange and retire on the half of whatever
full pay he holds at the time, and as soon as such exchange can be
accomplished with decency and propriety." War with the United States was
now impending, hardly a fitting time for a young man to withdraw from
the army, and Fraser points out that "in the present situation of public
affairs and at his age and fitness for service" Tom's retirement would
be hardly decent. "Next to my own nearest connections," he continues,
"my chief attention will be paid to Captain Nairne and the other
connections of his late Father with whom I had the happiness to live in
Friendship and intimacy from our first meeting (1757) till his Decease
(1802) and I trust we shall meet again in a future state."

The young man thus returned to his military duties with his old friend's
benediction and restored confidence. But to the family the plan for a
military career was a sore disappointment. His sister Christine, its
woman of the world, and the one most in touch with the Canadian society
of the time, was keen that Tom should live at Murray Bay. To her
entreaties he answers on October 6th, 1811, that there is no earthly use
for him at Murray Bay where everything is so well looked after that his
presence would do more harm than good. Time would hang heavy on his
hands if he were always employed in fishing, shooting and navigating the
river. It is better, he says, that he should continue in his present
position and he intends to withdraw his application for half pay. When
Christine returns to the charge and urges that Murray Bay is not to be
despised the young man retorts that he never said it was and answers her
with some dignity:

It will ill become me to despise the favourite residence of a
person for whom I have at all times testified the greatest love
esteem and respect. Indeed I think my behaviour hitherto might have
spared me such a severe remark.... You charge me with being
inconsistent and changeable, in which opinion you are not, I
believe, singular; but