Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/351

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LETTERS OF PETER FONTAINE.
343

comfortably, which, no doubt, is in great plenty, if once discovered.

Have not room to say a word or two about Brother Frank's family and Molly Claiborne, but shall refer you to Moses' particular letter, having no more than is necessary to assure you that I am,

Your affectionate brother and servant,

Peter Fontaine.

Virginia, 17th April, 1754.

Dear Brother Moses:—'Tis kind in you to send me a line, though brother John's ample letter might have satisfied a moderate appetite that way.

The first thing I look at is the name at the bottom, and having found all things right, I read the rest with pleasure, more especially when yours to me are sealed with black wax.

Though my brother's loss is great in being deprived of his only daughter, in the bloom of her years, yet your two precious lives, and that of my sister, are of much more consequence towards directing and providing for the four hopeful boys under your management, who as yet are but young, and beginning to launch out into the world, an ocean full of rocks and shoals; to the inexperienced and unwary most dangerous.

May God preserve your lives, that you may have the comfort to see the youngest of them well settled in the world, and all of them in a fair way to provide for themselves.

I always correspond with all the family who will be so kind as to answer my letters, and have endeavored to instil the same maxim in my son Peter, and my nephews James Maury and Frank Fontaine, and I reap no small benefit from