Thanks to a kind Providence who has preserved me through all dangers, I have at length arrived in my native land. I send this just to prepare you, I shall be with you as soon as I can possibly get on shore. We have had 58 days passage long, boisterous, and dangerous, but more when I see you. Pray tell me by the bearer if I shall find all well. Your very affectionate Son, Samuel B. Morse October 18, 1875] CHAPTER X APRIL 10, 1816--OCTOBER 5, 1818 Very little success at home.--Portrait of ex-President John Adams.-- Letter to Allston on sale of his "Dead Man restored to Life."--Also apologizes for hasty temper.--Reassured by Allston.--Humorous letter from Leslie.--Goes to New Hampshire to paint portraits.--Concord.--Meets Miss Lucretia Walker.--Letters to his parents concerning her.--His parents reply.--Engaged to Miss Walker.--His parents approve.--Many portraits painted.--Miss Walker's parents consent.--Success in Portsmouth.--Morse and his brother invent a pump.--Highly endorsed by President Day and Eli Whitney.--Miss Walker visits Charlestown.--Morse's religious convictions.--More success in New Hampshire.--Winter in Charleston, South Carolina.--John A. Alston.--Success.--Returns north.--Letter from his uncle Dr. Finley.--Marriage. There is no record of the meeting of the parents and the long-absent son, but it is easy to picture the joy of that occasion, and to imagine the many heart-to-heart conversations when all differences, political and otherwise, were smoothed over. He remained at home that winter, but seems to have met with but slight success in his profession. His "Judgment of Jupiter" was much admired, but found no purchaser, nor did he receive any commissions for such large historical paintings as it was his ambition to produce. He was asked by a certain Mr. Joseph Delaplaine, of Philadelphia, to paint a portrait of ex-President John Adams for _half_ price, the portrait to be engraved and included in "Delaplaine's Repository of the Lives and Portraits of Distinguished American Characters," and, from letters of a later date, I believe that Morse consented to this. It appears that he must also have received but few, if any, orders for portraits, for, in the following summer, he started on a painting tour through New Hampshire, which proved to be of great moment to him in more ways than one. Before we follow him on that tour, however, I shall quote from a letter written by him to his friend Washington Allston:-- Boston, April 10, 1816. MY DEAR SIR,--I have but one moment to write you by a vessel which sails to-morrow morning. I wrote Leslie by New Packet some months since and am hourly expecting an answer. I congratulate you, my dear sir, on the sale of your picture of the "Dead Man." I suppose you will have received notice, before this reaches you, that the Philadelphia Academy of Arts have purchased it for the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars. Bravo for our country!