Morse's work in art had been so much interrupted that he had but few pupils. The fees that these brought to him were small and irregular, and he was brought to the very verge of starvation. We are told of the call Morse made upon one pupil whose tuition was overdue because of a delay in the arrival of funds from his home. "Well, my boy," said the professor, "how are we off for money?" The student explained the situation, adding that he hoped to have the money the following week. "Next week!" exclaimed Morse. "I shall be dead by next week--dead of starvation." "Would ten dollars be of any service?" asked the student, astonished and distressed. "Ten dollars would save my life," was Morse's reply. The student paid the money--all he had--and they dined together, Morse remarking that it was his first meal for twenty-four hours. Morse's situation and feelings at this time are also illustrated by a letter he wrote to Smith late in 1841. I find myself [he wrote] without sympathy or help from any who are associated with me, whose interests, one would think, would impell them to at least inquire if they could render me some assistance. For nearly two years past I have devoted all my time and scanty means, living on a mere pittance, denying myself all pleasures and even necessary food, that I might have a sum, to put my telegraph into such a position before Congress as to insure success to the common enterprise. I am crushed for want of means, and means of so trifling a character, too, that they who know how to ask (which I do not) could obtain in a few hours.... As it is, although everything is favorable, although I have no competition and no opposition--on the contrary, although every member of Congress, so far as I can learn, is favorable--yet I fear all will fail because I am too poor to risk the trifling expense which my journey and residence in Washington will occasion me. I will not run in debt, if I lose the whole matter. No one can tell the days and months of anxiety and labor I have had in perfecting my telegraphic apparatus. For want of means I have been compelled to make with my own hands (and to labor for weeks) a piece of mechanism which could be made much better, and in a tenth the time, by a good mechanician, thus wasting time--time which I cannot recall and which seems double-winged to me. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." It is true, and I have known the full meaning of it. Nothing but the consciousness that I have an invention which is to mark an era in human civilization, and which is to contribute to the happiness of millions, would have sustained me through so many and such lengthened trials of patience in perfecting it.