THE BEDMINSTER HOUSE COMPLETED.

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altar; nor, that at the close of this all-important day, with a heart overflowing with thankfulness, and a voice choked with emotion, Johannes' devout prayers of praise and dedication, borne on the wings of faith, ascended to the Most High; to that kind Providence who had guarded and guided him and his, through the vicissitudes of all the year since leaving Germany, bringing them at last in safety to the repose of a happy home on this peaceful Bedminster hillside.

CHAPTER XII.

Johannes Goes to the Post Office - Bedminster and the Adjacent Townships in 1752.

Just here it may be well to survey the appearance presented by Somerset county and East New Jersey at the time the Moelichs took possession of the "Old Farm." In no better way can we do this than by-in fancy-accompanying Johannes to Perth Amboy, thirty miles away. He is going to see if John Fox, the postmaster, has a letter for him from the old country; for be it known that in the year of grace, 1752, the province boasts of but three post offices-one at Amboy, one at Trenton, and one at Burlington. Letters were left at those places by the Philadelphia mail carrier, weekly in summer and once in two weeks during the winter; rather meagre facilities for the people, but they had to be contented until 1754, when the service was considerably increased. In December, 1733, the following notice appeared in the Philadelphia "Weekly Mercury": "There are a number of letters in the post office at Perth Amboy for persons living in Somerset, Monmouth and Essex counties."

To us of the present day, Johannes would have presented a striking appearance, as, mounted on a stout cob, he clattered down the incline upon which he had built the new stone house, and turned west up the long hill. He is now over fifty years of age, with a figure not tall, but robust, having a high color, blue eyes, and, had the fashion of the day allowed, the whole would have been supplemented by an abundant reddish brown beard. His German origin is still readily recognized, though many of his foreign characteristics have been lost. He speaks English, but not with the facility of the mother tongue, and his dress is that of a well-to-do colonial yeoman. A coarse grey coat with