It is next incumbent to speak of Marble.  He passed an entire month at Clawbonny, during which time he and Neb rigged the Grace and Lucy, seven different ways, coming back to that in which they found her, as the only rig in which she would sail; no bad illustration, by the way, of what is too often the winding up of experiments in overdone political movements.  Moses tried shooting, which he had heard belonged to a country life; and he had a sort of design to set up as a fourth or fifth class country gentleman; but his legs were too short to clamber over high rail-fences with any comfort, and he gave up the amusement in despair.  In the course of a trial of ten days, he brought in three robins, a small squirrel, and a crow; maintaining that he had also wounded a pigeon, and frightened a whole flock of quails.  I have often bagged ten brace of woodcocks of a morning, in the shooting-grounds of Clawbonny, and as many quails in their season.

Six weeks after our marriage, Lucy and I paid Willow Cove a visit, where we passed a very pleasant week.  To my surprise, I received a visit from Squire Van Tassel, who seemed to bear no malice.  Marble made peace with him, as soon as he paid back the amount of his father’s bond, principal and interest, though he always spoke of him contemptuously to me in private.  I must confess I was astonished at the seemingly forgiving temper of the old usurer; but I was then too young to understand that there are two principles that govern men’s conduct as regards their associations; the one proceeding from humility and Christian forgiveness, and the other from an indifference to what is right.  I am afraid the last produces more of what is called a forgiving temper than the first; men being often called vindictive, when they are merely honest.

Marble lost his mother about a twelvemonth after we returned from our unfortunate voyage in the Dawn.  A month or two earlier, he lost his niece, little Kitty, by a marriage with the son of ‘neighbour Bright.’  After this, he passed much of his time at Clawbonny, making occasional visits to us, in Chamber street, in the winter.  I say in Chamber street, as trade soon drove us out of Lucy’s town residence in Wall street.  The lot on which the last once stood is still her property, and is a small fortune of itself.  I purchased and built in Chamber street, in 1805, making an excellent investment.  In 1825, we went into Bleecker street, a mile higher up town, in order to keep in the beau quartier; and I took advantage of the scarcity of money and low prices of 1839, to take up new ground in Union Place, very nearly a league from the point where Lucy commenced as a house-keeper in the good and growing town of Manhattan.