Returned to town bringing Abby with me as far as Charlestown. The weather which looked threatening in the morning became more so until we were deluged with torrents of rain. I employed the morning in drawing up my accounts for the month and also in making some disposition of a few loose things which trouble me. I am continually finding such. I got rid of a dunning Note to Mr. Alden Bradford,1 and dispatched a letter to John, enclosing a Note of one Williams who has gone to Baltimore and may be caught there. In 411the afternoon, I went to Hancock Street to see Miss Oliver who sent for me without any definite reason but to beg more repairs, rather unreasonably as I thought, so I left her immediately. Then to Dr. Welsh’s where I was engaged all the rest of the afternoon in making a disposition of George’s books. Then to Quincy. It rained again during the evening. My father seemed dull and out of spirits. He complained of headach, and seemed more discouraged than I have yet seen him.

Morning to town in a shower of rain, the weather being exceedingly changeable. It cleared up warm for the rest of the day. Morning passed at the Office in finishing my Account for the month for my father, and in destroying the papers accumulated by my brother. He had always the inclination to preserve and this has placed upon me much trouble for I feel unwilling to commit them without ceremony to the flames. Much of my time is in this way consumed. Afternoon at Dr. Welsh’s where I completed the division between the books I retain and those I intend to try to sell. But I was so fully occupied that I went to Quincy late. Found there, Mr. J. H. Foster Jr., his wife and sister1 who went directly however. Miss Elizabeth and her brother Thomas Adams with Mr. Marston and his son Ward were all at the House in the evening. My father appeared much overcome by the heat. Conversation with him, the advantages and disadvantages of land. He holds to the first, and there we disagree. This led us to a comparison of life in City and Country where we agreed as little. But how natural this is. He is now beyond ambition. I am just arriving at it. Life is therefore seen by us in different phases. It grew cooler in the night.