1835 September 5, Haverford, to Dear Uncle, Philadelphia

              Haverford 9th mo 5th/ 35Dear Uncle,Thee must not expect me to write a very long letter in reply to thine of 8 mo 24th which came duly to hand; if thee was in my place I do not think thee would do so; for we are all so busy in preparing ourselves for the examination which is but a few days off. Thee usually fills up about one side of thy sheet with scolding for not writing longer letters; now if I was to write a long letter thee would have nothing to scold about and consequently thy letter would be very considerably shorter; so that thee sees that there would be great disadvantages attending my writing a long letter. This excuse is to answer, or rather is intended to answer for the past, the excuse which I gave first to answer for the present. I will not say any thing about the future for perhaps it may need none, at least if thee continues to do thy part as well as thee had done hitherto. I will endeavour to do my part better. This I mean to apply to next session.John Gummere gave us a very interesting account of Halley’s comet which has been seen at New Haven. He intends trying whether he can succeed in finding it by means of his telescope some night soon. It is now at the immense distance of 200 millions of miles from the earth and is very feint even when viewed by a very good telescope. It will be most distinctly seen on the 6th of 10th month next when it will be at the distance of twenty three millions of miles from the earth; it will then be seen distinctly with the naked eye, and will be nearer to the earth than at any other time. It is seventy five years in moving in its orbit, and I suppose that in the course