this year was a dreary time at the cottage at Fordham.
The resources of the family, which had been generously contributed to,
mostly by strangers and anonymously, were now exhausted, and Poe, still
ill and in wretched spirits, was not capable of the exertion necessary
to replenish them. In the preceding summer he had by a severe criticism
of Thomas Dunn English aroused the ire of that gentleman, who revenged
himself in an article for which Poe brought a suit of libel, recovering
damages to the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars--a welcome boon
in a time of need. He remained at home, applying himself to his writing,
and, mindful of Mrs. Shew's advice, abstained from stimulants and took
regular exercise on the country roads about Fordham. His frequent
companion in these walks was a priest of St. John's College, near
Fordham, who, being an educated and intellectual man, must have proven
a most congenial and welcome acquaintance. This priest, who seems to
have known Poe well, declares that he "made a superhuman struggle
against starvation," and speaks of him as a gentle and amiable man,
easily influenced by a kind word or act.

Most of his time, said Mrs. Clemm, was passed out of doors. He did not
like the loneliness of the house, and would not remain alone in the room
in which Virginia had died. When he chose to write at night, as was
sometimes the case, and was particularly absorbed in his subject, he
would have his devoted mother-in-law sit beside him, "dozing in her
chair" and at intervals supplying him with hot coffee, or Catalina, his
wife's old pet, perched upon his knee or shoulder, cheering him with her
gentle purring. Virginia's death seemed to have drawn these three more
closely together. They could thenceforth often be seen walking up and
down the garden-walk, Poe and his mother, arm-in-arm, or with their arms
about each other's waists, and Catalina staidly keeping pace with them,
rubbing and purring. Mrs. Clemm told Stoddard how, when Poe was about
this time writing "_Eureka_," he would walk at night up and down the
veranda explaining his views and dragging her along with him, "until her
teeth chattered and she was nearly frozen." It is to be feared that he
was not always sufficiently considerate of his indulgent mother-in-law.

Poe soon experienced the benefits of his restful and temperate life.
Health and spirits improved, and he began to take an interest in the
everyday things about him. As spring adva