Miss Fuller's cow hooks the other cows, and has made herself ruler of the
herd, and behaves in a very tyrannical manner. . . . . I shall make an
excellent husbandman,--I feel the original Adam reviving within me.


April 16th.--. . . . Since I last wrote, there has been an addition to
our community of four gentlemen in sables, who promise to be among our
most useful and respectable members. They arrived yesterday about noon.
Mr. Ripley had proposed to them to join us, no longer ago than that very
morning. I had some conversation with them in the afternoon, and was
glad to hear them express much satisfaction with their new abode and all
the arrangements. They do not appear to be very communicative, however,
--or perhaps it may be merely an external reserve, like my own, to shield
their delicacy. Several of their prominent characteristics, as well as
their black attire, lead me to believe that they are members of the
clerical profession; but I have not yet ascertained from their own lips
what has been the nature of their past lives. I trust to have much
pleasure in their society, and, sooner or later, that we shall all of us
derive great strength from our intercourse with them. I cannot too
highly applaud the readiness with which these four gentlemen in black
have thrown aside all the fopperies and flummeries which have their
origin in a false state of society. When I last saw them, they looked as
heroically regardless of the stains and soils incident to our profession
as I did when I emerged from the gold-mine. . . . .

I have milked a cow!!! . . . . The herd has rebelled against the
usurpation of Miss Fuller's heifer; and, whenever they are turned out of
the barn, she is compelled to take refuge under our protection. So much
did she impede my labors by keeping close to me, that I found it