There is likely to be an exciting time in the colonies, and you are not the lad I take you for, if you dawdle away your time in the towns, instead of seeing what is going on in the forest." These letters filled James with delight, and, without an hour's delay, he sat down to answer them.

In his letter to the squire he thanked him most warmly for his kindness, and said that, above all things, he should like a commission in the army.

He wrote a very tender and affectionate letter to his mother, telling her how much he felt her goodness in so promptly relinquishing her own plans, and in allowing him to choose the life he liked.
"Thank Aggie," he concluded, "for the message she sent by you.

Give her my love, and don't let her forget me." To the old soldier he wrote a gossipping account of his voyage.
"It was impossible," he said, "for the news of my discharge to have come at a better moment.

Thirty sailors from the fleet are going with General Braddock's force, and everyone else is envying their good luck--I among them.