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Northfield, Mass. Nov. 5th. 1848 Dear Sister Anne Your letter dated at Buffalo, N.Y., I received in due season some time ago, - one Saturday. I then intended to write to you again immediately, and direct to Racine so that my letter might be the first one to reach you on your arrival at your new home. You see I did not do as I intended; and the circumstances of which I have been, form perhaps my best excuse for the delay. The night I received your letter I had just come from Springfield. By the way, you are yet to learn how near I came to being in Alabama instead of Old Massachusetts. There is a great Railroad to be built from Mobile to the Mouth of the Ohio River. Capt John Childe of Springfield Mass. is appointed Chief Engineer - to begin the surveys of location immediately; He was desirous of taking out with him a large party of Assistants from here. He sent up an express to J.L. Leonard, a co worker of mine on the unclear Mass., and a former pupil of Capt. C's, to see him at Springfield the next morning, and offering him a situation. The opening appeared to me a very favorable one - the longest projected Rail Road in the Country - good salaries & permanent employment for five or six years at least. I could be well recommended to Capt. Childe, and as I expected then to be through here in a month or two, I thought it best to go down and see. I found however the numbers all made up at once; though the Capt Childe appeared to like my appearance, and held out the prospect of a favorable situation there sometime in the future. So I did not go to Alabama, and returned to unclear Mass.