138 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



"His daughters often served as his amanuenses, and 

 sometimes he dictated to two at once, while one of the 

 little ones would balance herself on the rounds of his 

 chair, and curl his back hair over the red-and-blue 

 pencil he always used. Sometimes he would walk up 

 and down the two parlors wrapped in a light blue silk 

 Japanese dressing-gown, quilted with eider down, which 

 was a present from Captain Jansen, the long ribbons, 

 which should have been fastened around his waist, trail- 

 ing behind him, or gathered up like reins in the hands of 

 one of the little ones, who trotted after him, backwards 

 and forwards, calling out 'Gee, woa!' or 'Back, sir!' — 

 he paying not the slightest attention, but dictating 

 gravely. 



"He used to say he was the youngest of the family 

 except the baby, and it was his habit, when dressing in 

 the morning, to seat the youngest (the little two-year- 

 old) upon the bureau, to hold the soap while he was 

 shaving; while the rest would stand around, one to hold 

 or receive the razor, one the brush, one the towel, and 

 one or two the papers on which to wipe the razor ; and we 

 all would eagerly watch the pile of lather which he made 

 with the soap and hot water in his shaving-can. He 

 brushed his bald head with two immense brushes at the 

 same time, one in each hand. 'For', he assured us 

 gravely, 'you see, if I only use one at a time, it will turn 

 me round and round like one oar in a boat'. And we 

 believed that that was the only way to brush hair. Then 

 he would tell us stories and anecdotes about his brothers 

 and himself — what they did and what they said in 

 Tennessee, and of his home life there. These stories he 

 would tell over and over again, fitting them to the com- 

 prehension of the 'two-year-old', as she or he would come 



