50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



he said, it does not matter, they suit me and will take 

 the whole of them. How much do you want and what 

 money, gold or bank bills ? As you please. He paid me 

 in gold. Then asked me if I had any children ? Yes, 

 sir ; I have a fair collection of both sexes, and in pairs ; 

 four boys and four girls. Do you want to buy some 

 (he had none) ? They are not for sale. No, he said ; 

 / have ~been wishing some but I did not want to l>uy 

 them. The reason I ask you is, that children are as 

 fond of candies as we are fond of Heaths. So he 

 called one of the young ladies attending the retail 

 store to give me three or four pounds of the best can- 

 dies. Then he shook my hand, telling me, Mr. Menand, 

 when you get some more of such plants as you have 

 brought me I will take them. I have never sent him 

 any, but the same year or maybe the year after, he and 

 his wife came to Albany to see the State Fair. It was- 

 very warm and he could not find anything fit for him 

 to drink on the Fair ground, when he remembered that 

 I was living on the Troy and Albany road, he inquired 

 and he found that I lived close by, so they came. He 

 no sooner saw me that he said, " we are perishing for 

 want of a drink ; can't you give us some, a Frenchman 

 must have claret ; have you not got any ? Yes, I have ; 

 but it is not Scotch Wine ! He laughed and said, no- 

 matter, it will do ; so I took them in the house and 

 went for a bottle of Burgundy or Bordeaux wine, I for- 



