8 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



bye and turned his back, — it is said, not so much in anger 

 as in sorrow at his leaving home. No doubt the lad's 

 heart was saddened by this circumstance as well as by 

 the parting from the rest of the family, especially from 

 his favorite brother Richard, only two years his senior, 

 who had always been his inseparable companion. But 

 he put on a brave front, mounted his ''snow white 

 steed", and set forth on the long lonesome ride to Vir- 

 ginia, whence he was to make his way to Washington 

 and there embark on his new career. 



The second or third day from home at an inn in East 

 Tennessee, the young traveler fell in with two merchants. 

 Read and Echols, from Huntsville, Alabama, on their 

 way to Baltimore to purchase goods, and in company 

 with these gentlemen he traveled as far as Fincastle, 

 Virginia. Though he greatly enjoyed their company, 

 he was much concerned lest they find out his financial 

 condition, suspect his poverty, and humiliate him by 

 offering him money. His resources were indeed sadly 

 depleted on crossing over into Virginia, where his money 

 had to be exchanged for coin of that state at a ruinous 

 discount of twenty per cent, and when, after a journey 

 of two weeks, he reached the home of his Cousin Reuben 

 Maury near Charlottesville, he had but fifty cents left. 



Here a special entertainment was given in his honor, 

 and Maury had his first experience with the society man- 

 ners of the East which were somewhat more refined than 

 those of the Tennessee frontier. When the negro ser- 

 vant passed him a saucer of ice-cream and a spoon, he 

 very modestly placed only a spoonful in his plate and 

 left the remainder to be passed to the others, thinking 

 that it was some kind of strange sauce. From this place 

 he proceeded to the home of his Uncle Edward Herndon, 



