Clear and cold. At the Office as usual and busy collecting more Money. The whole does not make up what I want. But we push along by all kinds of contrivances. I paid some Accounts and passed my whole Morning in such things. Am now in Treaty for a Horse and Chaise with Mr. Forbes, this involves a considerable outlay and a little risk. But my expense on this Account has been so great in past years that I think I shall in the end save money by it. My system has been heretofore of great caution, and I have done well by it. I hope that no change will take place in my character with the improvement of my fortune.

On returning home, found that I. H. Adams had gone to Quincy and I was quite surprised at the difference his absence seemed to make.1 He says little, but there is something in the presence of a human being which you don’t understand either when one is with you, or when you never have it, but which becomes perceptible when one to whom you have become accustomed leaves you. I read Spanish and Italian as usual. In the evening, to my Wife, Eugene Aram.