56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



the time of our transaction, walking to and from, but 

 always keeping at a distance from us. He was a very 

 eminent man, by his individuality, being connected 

 with the Hudson River R. R. and IS". Y. Central R. 

 Road, and besides a member of congress ; so he had to 

 take care of himself, and he did. It was plain to me 

 that his two young copartners tried to get him out of 

 his centre of gravity ! but so far had failed ; for I 

 have never known how they reached Albany, but I had 

 good reasons to think when they got in the city our dis- 

 ciple of Aristotle did not continue his exercise of peri- 

 patetic in walking in the streets of Albany, as the fol- 

 lowers of Aristotle did, in the Lyceum ot Athens. I 

 learned the day after that Mr. Corning had been to his 

 farm at Kenwood to see Mr. Grey, his gardener, and 

 let him know that he had stuck the Frenchman in buy- 

 ing a plant that he would not sell, etc. When our 

 friend Grey came, after he had shaken my hand, he 

 asked me if it was true, that I had sold my unique 

 Yanda to Mr. Corning, for $20 or $25 ; for I am not 

 sure. I have said somewhere that I could never learn 

 arithmetic, and it would be no wonder if I have con- 

 founded three or four for four and five. Grey told me, 

 you must have been out of your mind or drunk 

 when you made such a silly bargain, for a few 

 months before I had offered you $40 for it, and as much 

 for an ^Erides crispa majus, and you would not sell 



