204 Fred Wilbur Powell
far from pachydermatous in his feelings; and his hurts were faithfully recorded, whether it was an injured little finger or a plan that was unjustly assailed. The only exception seems to be his dismissal from the Boston schools. His domestic relations were clearly reflected in the title chosen for his letters to Mrs. Kelley: "Letters From An Afflicted Husband To An Astranged Wife." He was the afflicted one, he would have us believe! But there are those who will have little difficulty in aligning themselves upon the side of that un- fortunate woman. Who can read of that farewell scene at Bradford without sympathizing with her? She "looked sober, it appears, "and probably felt sad," and well she might; for her home had been broken up because of a vision.
Late in life Kelley undertook to analyze his character and his conduct, and we find in his writings many such statements as these :
"I have testified against the powerful worldlings belonging to the British and American Fur Companies, and the East India Merchants doing business on the N. W. Coast; and so testifying, have incurred the implacable hatred of those men. Their policy, then, as now, was to represent me as stupid, ignorant and crazy. The friends of my late bosom companion, prior to my visit to Oregon — to turn from, and against me, the loved ones of my household, called me an idler arid a spendthrift; as one spending his time foolishly, and his money for that which is naught, and as having neither mind nor means to do an3rthing.
"I do not believe these evil sayings of my enemies. I am not, nor have I ever been, an ignorant or crazy man, an idler or an idle schemer. My worics, and the fruit of the spirit, tes- tify to what I am. I do believe that I have as much as an ordinary understanding. I have at the present, now in old age, when 'waxen in decay,* as much as when fifty years ago, I conceived and planned the settlement of Oregon, as when, thirty-five or forty years ago, I planned so largely for internal improvements and the founding of benevolent institutions, and,
