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 his malice. Mr. Birkbeck then offered peace, at least to Mr. Flower, sen.; "but," said Mr. Flower, "I could not take him by the hand now; it would be loss of character. I had done nothing to offend him, and why was I thus made to suffer? I am bound up with my family; their lives are precious in my sight." This was a part of his letter to Birkbeck, which he read to me, but when he came to that part, he burst into tears, and rushed out, putting it into my hands. I not being able to read it, Miss Flower concluded it. Neither Mr. R. Flower, nor Mr. G. Flower, have ever since met Mr. Birkbeck. "I avoid seeing him," says Mr. R. Flower, "because, if I came near, I must lay violent hands on him; I must knock him down. I will never see him, or speak to him more; a reconciliation is impossible, to me it would be a stain and loss of character." All the evil to both families, and to the settlement, they impute to Birkbeck. {295} They wonder why he should have so changed, when he had sanctioned the conduct of George Flower, and given him the lady in marriage. They deem it hypocrisy, of the first order, as well as the greatest impolicy; "but," say they, "he is now punished for it, being nearly in the situation of an embarrassed man." Mrs. G. Flower, however, more charitably, imputes nothing in Mr. Birkbeck's conduct to vile or corrupt motives, but all to love, and to that kind of revenge, which such a disappointment was likely to generate, when the mind was lonely and abandoned to its own feelings. They deem the event a great evil to themselves and to the settlement, because it happened at a time when the joint exertions of these two families were so necessary for its success. It deranged every thing; and all connected with, or who came nigh the prairies, wondered and felt the evil, because the secret was unknown.