.NTI.MTQwNA

I am afraid if you return home prematurely, you will regret it, that it will not seem to you as you expect, + that when you have been round to see all your friends, time will hang heavily upon you, + you will wish yourself back to Boston. It is on this account, I wish you to visit home[underlined], + stay a few weeks before you make [all underlined] a final decision about continuing where you are. If you intend to be a merchant in the City[underlined], no doubt your present chance to qualify yourself for that calling is an uncommonly[underlined] good one. You are in a firm, respectable, regular + growing house. You begin on favorable terms, as to pay. You can avail yourself justly by the friendly aid of your Cousin John Addison who is one of the best, + most promising[underlined] young men in Boston, + who, in my opinion, if he lives, will be second [illegible] few merchants in the city. If your desire to be a merchant you can grow[underlined] up with him ["with him" underlined], + succeed well, I have no doubt. But, my son, if you think you will never be a city man of business, ["never be a city man of business" underlined] if you can[underlined] have, + will[underlined] have, no ambition for it, then we must try to get up something else for you. You must[underlined] not, you wish[underlined] not, to be idle[underlined]. If you come home we must try to find something[underlined] for you to do. Do not think, Zadoc, that I dont want you with us. It is so much otherwise ["much otherwise" underlined], that if you stay away I think seriously of moving where you may be. It is all for your sake that I am concerned.