Received a letter from my father this morning, at Philadelphia.1 He gives notice of his intention of arriving here by the first of next month. Not a preparation made. What is to be done?

My No. 5 appeared this morning with a laudatory editorial which may excite inquiry and bring upon me attack. Well! I must be prepared for the thing which will produce the very effect I wish.

I walked with Louisa who does not seem well, then to the end of the town in quest of a man to look at a Pump after which, I sat down and wrote another number of Political Speculation. This took me until dinner. The afternoon I went out to see Mrs. Kirk about a woman to go to Quincy, then to see Mr. Hallett and give him my number, then home when I made up my lost hour of Juvenal. But this took up the whole time.

Evening quiet at home. My anxieties at present numerous, by the singular conjunction of my Wife’s probable confinement and the arrival of my father’s family.