House he will attend some evening school (It is not easy to get a place Mr Hallowell has not yet been able to get a place for his son William nor has Mr Webster got a place for his——) I cannot have the advantage of an answer from you prior to putting the boy in a Company Counting house but this will not prevent me from getting him to the North if possible or purchasing a Commission for him. I do not know his age. I wrote last Spring to your sister and sent her 25£ which I though sufficient to defray the expense of your daughter at the Nunnery for a Year, but your sister really astonished me by sending me an account of 80£ for a year.[1] I wrote her that I thought it highly exorbitant, I have since referred her to Mr Simpson, and refused to sanction the system she follows the Girl cannot be a nun on account of her birth & her education is above the sphere that Society seems to have prescribed for her it is calculated to make her miserable she is by all reports a fine Girl, I think she ought to be sent to your Mother I am Dear Nephew
Your Affectionate
Simon Fraser
Dr. John McLoughlin to John Fraser
Fort Vancouver 4th March 1828
My Dear Cousin
I have before me your note attached to my Uncles Letter I see you have improved in your writing—take pains my Dear Cousin and you will learn your improvement now depends on your own Exertions and unless you exert yourself you will not learn but if you do Exert yourself you must and will Learn. You are now of that age that if you do not make the progress you ought people will lay it to your fault—recollect the more a person knows the better he is able to make his way through the World and if his conduct is worthy and proper the more he is respected consider their are only two characters given to young
people by the World—a Bad or a Good one—as to the first they will say this young man takes no pains to learn-he is lazy, care-
- ↑ The bill Dr. Fraser received on account of Eliza was for board, schooling and music from May 16, 1825 to May 15, 1826; see letter from Sister Henry to Dr. Fraser, May 18, 1826, original (written in French) at McLoughlin House; copy in Oregon Historical Society.
