he winter has been very moderate and the heavens clear and serene.
The situation is much more agreeable than I imagined it would be last
fall, before I set out from Connecticut. The number of the students in
the college and school is about thirty. I have at present the care of
the Grammar School, and I find no small pleasure in 'teaching the
young idea how to shoot.' Heaven has remarkably smiled upon the
generous and pious design of the Reverend Doctor, and supported it
amidst numberless difficulties and embarrassments, and it affords a
prospect of being in time a great and extensive blessing to this part
of the world and to the tawny inhabitants of our continent."

The first Commencement, in August, 1771, attracted a large audience,
including many from a distance, among them Governor Wentworth. Dr.
Langdon had previously manifested his deep interest in the college by
a personal visit.

In his "Narrative," for the period from May, 1771, to September, 1772,
President Wheelock says:

"I have now finished (so far as to render comfortable and decent) the
building to accommodate my students, of eighty by thirty-two feet, and
have done it in the plainest and cheapest manner, which furnishes
sixteen comfortable rooms, besides a kitchen, hall, and store-room. I
have also built a saw-mill and grist-mill, which appear to be well
done, and are the property of the school, and will likely afford a
pretty annual income to it. I have also built two barns, one of
twenty-eight by thirty-two feet, the other of fifty-five by forty, and
fifteen feet post. I have also raised, and expect to finish, within a
few days, a malt-house of thirty feet square, and several other lesser
buildings which were found necessary. I have cleared, and in a good
measure fitted for improvement, about seventy or eighty acres of land,
and seeded with English grain about twenty acres, from which I have
taken at the late harvest, what was esteemed a good crop, considering
the land was so lately laid open to the sun. I have cut what is judged
to be equal to fourteen or fifteen tons of good hay, which I stacked,
by which the expense of supporting a team and cows the ensuing winter
may be considerably lessened. I have also about eighteen acres of
Indian corn now on the ground, which promises a good crop. My laborers
are preparing more lands for improvement; some to sow with English
grain this fall, and others for pasturing, which sad experience has
taught me the ne