At the approach of the following year we were surprised by a visit from the wife of Mr. Charles McMeekin, my wife's brother, who then resided at Cincinnati, Ohio. His wife brought with her two children, a boy and a girl, she herself being something of an invalid. It was very difficult at that time, as it has been ever since, to obtain competent domestic help, and after entertaining this lady and her two children for several months I found it necessary to notify my brother-in-law that situated as I was it was no longer convenient for me to entertain his family, and they accordingly left us and went to live at a boarding house kept by Mrs. Washburn on Fourth street. The next summer, at the request of my wife, I consented to take one of the sons of her sister Eliza, and I furnished the means for his transportation from Newport, Kentucky, to Des Moines. I tried to give this boy instructions in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but found him not inclined to study, and especially disinclined to afford any help or assistance about the house. He had been raised under the shadow of a peculiar institution and had imbibed a strong prejudice against anything like work. After worrying with him for three or four months and being unable to make anything out of him, I sent him home to his mother. In 1849 I purchased two lots on the northeast corner of Center and Fifth streets and removed my old buildings from my place on Fourth street to the lots so purchased, making some improvements on the buildings. These lots and buildings I afterwards sold and built a new house on the old place on Fourth street.