Well! my old colleague and my new, friend of the past and of the future, I look forward with interest when we shall again work together for the good of North Carolina at her once famous University. May it be our good fortune to put an end to the common exclamation concerning it, "Quantum mutatus ab illo." We have a great work before us, a work of patience, of energy, and of tact. I rejoice that it has been committed to a Faculty in which the public says it has confidence. The wheel of time turns up unexpected phenomena. You & I will have to take counsel from Geo. Winston and Ralph Graves, the Fresh of 1866-67!! But now they are energetic young men, well equipped with every thing but experience. Graves is at the North looking into institutions wherehis own department is at present well developed. I thank you for the confidence you reposed in me by giving a carte blanche as to your representation in our late conference in Raleigh. What we said & did was clouded with darkness and entirely provisional. We resolved to work as they do in the Univ. of V a. by departments, called Colleges, so that there might be an Agricultural College, to satisfy the law which gives us the scrip. A student may if he fills his time properly study what he pleases. But there are to be four courses for diplomas—A.B., A.M., Bach. of Science, & Bach. of Agric. Your work is be mainly with this last course of three years. What it is to be in detail we have yet to settle. I hope that your varied experience will furnish you with very definite notions on this subject. The requisites for admission into the Agricult. Coll. are to be only a competent knowledge of English, Geogr. & Arthim.I liked the looks and talk of our future colleagues very well. They seem to be in earnest, and likely to work with all sincerity, and with vigour wherever they can do good. The chief schools of the country, e.g. Buphaw's & Horner's & Faucetle's express a readiness to cooperate with us heartily. Prof. Redd, with whom you will have the most to do, is by birth a Virginian, a pupil of Horner's, an eleve of the V a. Mil. Inst., & a student of the Univ. of V a. His people (the Baptists) are satisfied with him. All everyway down & up, I met hearty congratulations on the rehabilitation of the Univ. The good people of C. Hill who have hardly smiled since we left have faces full of light. Carpenters & Masons and Painters are busy repairing our residences and the college buildings. They assigned your old quarters to you, Hepburn 's to Redd, my father's to Prof. Mangum, & Gov Swain's to me, Prof. Hooper over to Judge Battle's . The Bachelors are to take rooms in the Old South , "Wilts." Swain asks for your help in reinstating him as your man of all work. I am busy packing up & shall move to C. Hill as soon as I learn that my house is habitable. My own residence is occupied by my mother & sister. You will find some old faces among the C. Hill folks, e.g. Lem Yancey's & Lee illegible. But many there will be strange to us. Nevertheless all will greet us heartily. Mr. Mitchell is to be our Bursar & Bookseller. He will do for you anything he can as I would were I there. We ought to get to C. Hill as soon as possible to determine our future operations in detail: that there be no appearance of work by novices at the old Univ. of N.C. We shall have the hearty cooperation of the Trustees & but little interference from them. We shall be crippled for the want of money (for a while at least). But if we commend ourselves to the public this too will come in. My wife sends her greetings to Mrs. K. as does your faithfully

It will be a fortnight at least before I leave my present home.