(a desire, of course, _inter nos_) to get rid of controversy with him."

Further on in this letter, referring to another cause for anxiety, he
says: "Law is expensive, and we must look it in the face and expect to
pay roundly for it.... It is a delicate task to dispute a professional
man's charges, and, though it may be an evil to find ourselves bled so
freely by lawyers, it is, perhaps, the least of evils to submit to it as
gracefully as we can."

But, while he could not escape the common lot of man in having to bear
many and severe trials, there were compensatory blessings which he
appreciated to the full. His home life was happy and, in the main,
serene; his farm was a source of never-ending pleasure to him; he was
honored at home and abroad by those whose opinion he most valued; and he
was almost daily in receipt of the news of the extension of the "Morse
system" throughout the world. Even from far-off Australia came the news
of his triumph. A letter was sent to him, written from Melbourne on
December 3, 1853, by a Mr. Samuel McGowan to a friend in New York, which
contains the following gratifying intelligence:--

"Since the date of my last to you matters with me have undergone a
material change. I have come off conqueror in my hard fought battle. The
contract has been awarded to me in the faces of the representatives of
Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke, Brett and other telegraphic luminaries,
much to their chagrin, as I afterwards ascertained; several of them, it
appears, having been leagued together in order, as they stated, to thwart
a speculating Yankee. However, matters were not so ordained, and I am as
well satisfied. I hope they will all live to be the same."

In spite of his financial difficulties, caused by bad management of some