In the fall of 1807 Finley Morse returned to college accompanied by his next younger brother, Sidney Edwards.  In a letter of March 6, 1808, he says:  “Edwards and myself are very well and I believe we are doing well, but you will learn more of that from our instructors.”

In this same letter he says:—­

“I find it impossible to live in college without spending money.  At one time a letter is to be paid for, then comes up a great tax from the class or society, which keeps me constantly running after money.  When I have money in my hand I feel as though I had stolen it, and it is with the greatest pain that I part with it.  I think every minute I shall receive a letter from home blaming me for not being more economical, and thus I am kept in distress all the time.

“The amount of my expenses for the last term was fifteen dollars, expended in the following manner:—­

Dols.  Cts. 
“Postage                        $2.05
Oil                               .50
Taxes, fines, etc.               3.00
Oysters                           .50
Washbowl                          .37-1/2
Skillet                           .33
Axe $1.33 Catalogues .12         1.45
Powder and shot                  1.12-1/2
Cakes, etc. etc. etc.            1.75
Wine, Thanks. day                 .20
Toll on bridge                    .15
Grinding axe                      .08
Museum                            .25
Poor man                          .14
Carriage for trunk               1.00
Pitcher                           .41                 14.75-1/2
Sharpening skates                 .37-1/2   Paid for
Circ.  Library                     .25     cutting wood  .25
Post papers                       .57
Lent never to be returned         .25

$14.75-1/2 15.00-1/2

“In my expenses I do not include my wood, tuition bills, board or washing bills.”

How characteristic of all boys of all times the “etc., etc., etc.,” tacked on to the “cakes” item, and how many boys of the present day would bewail the extravagance of fifteen dollars spent in one term on extras?  In a postscript in this same letter he says:  “The students are very fond of raising balloons at present.  I will (with your leave) when I return home make one.  They are pleasant sights.”

College terms were very different in those days from what they are at present, for September 5 finds the boys still in New Haven, and Finley says, “There is but three and a half weeks to Commencement.”

In this same letter he gives utterance to these filial sentiments:  “I now make those only my companions who are the most religious and moral, and I hope sincerely that it will have a good effect in changing that thoughtless disposition which has ever been a striking trait in my character.  As I grow older, I begin to think better of what you have always told me when I was small.  I begin to know by experience that man is born to trouble, and that temptations to do evil are as countless as the stars, but I hope I shall be enabled to shun them.”