partridge was sent him, and he ordered it to be let go, because he would
not suffer a life to be taken to supply him with a single meal. This
tenderness has always been characteristic of the old soldier. His
birthplace was within a few miles of this spot,--the son and descendant
of husbandmen,--and character and fortune together have made him a man
of history.

This is a most hospitable family, and they live in a style of plain
abundance, rural, but with traits of more refined modes. Many domestics,
both for farm and household work. Two unmarried daughters; an old maiden
aunt; an elderly lady, Mrs. C. of Newburyport, visiting; a young girl of
fifteen, a connection of the family, also visiting, and now confined to
her chamber by illness. Ney, a spaniel of easy and affable address, is a
prominent personage, and generally lies in the parlor or sits beside the
General's chair; always ready, too, to walk out with anybody so
inclined. Flora, a little black pony, is another four-footed favorite.
In the warm weather, the family dine in a large room on one side of the
house, rough and rustic looking, with rude beams overhead. There were
evergreens hanging on the walls, and the figures 1776, also in
evergreen, and a national flag suspended in one corner,--the blue being
made out of old homespun garments, the red stripes out of some of the
General's flannel wrappings, and the eagle copied from the figure on a
half-dollar,--all being the handiwork of the ladies, on occasion of the
last Fourth of July. It is quite a pleasant dining-hall; and while we
were eating fruit, the deer, which is of a small and peculiar breed from
the South, came and thrust its head into the open window, looking at us
with beautiful and intelligent eyes. It had smelt the fruit, and wished
to put in its claim for a share.

Tuesday morning, before breakfast, E---- and I drove three or four