Knowing the whimsicality of his friend, and trusting not at all in his judgment of affairs, Franklin none the less believed implicitly in the genuineness of his friendship, and counted upon his comradeship as a rallying point for his beginning life in the new land which he felt with strange conviction was to be his future abiding place.

He read again and again the letter Battersleigh had written him, which, in its somewhat formal diction and informal orthography, was as follows: "_To Capt.Edw.Franklin, Bloomsbury, Ill._ "MY DEAR NED: I have the honour to state to you that I am safely arrived and well-established at this place, Ellisville, and am fully disposed to remain.

At present the Railway is built no further than this point, and the Labourers under charge of the Company Engineers make the most of the population.

There is yet but one considerable building completed, a most surprising thing to be seen in this wild Region.

It is of stone and built as if to last forever.