y other Southern child, had his negro "mammy" to
attend to him until he went to England, to whom and the other servants
he was as much attached as they to him. Indeed, a marked trait of his
character was his liking for negroes, the effect of early association,
and to the end of his life he delighted in talking with them and in
their quaint and kindly humor and odd modes of thought and expression.

Edgar had been about three years with the Allans when he was again
deprived of a home and sent among strangers. Mr. Allan went on a
business trip to England and Scotland, accompanied by his wife, Miss
Valentine and Edgar; the latter of whom was put to school in London,
where he must have felt his loneliness and isolation. Still, he came to
the Allans in holiday times, and was with them in Scotland for some
months previous to their return to Virginia. Little is known of them
during this absence of five years.

CHAPTER IV.

POE'S BOYHOOD.

The Allans returned to Richmond in June, 1820, Edgar being then twelve
years old. Having no house ready for their reception they were invited
by Mr. Ellis, Mr. Allan's business partner, to his home on Franklin,
then as now the fashionable street of the city.

Mr. Allan at once put Edgar to Professor Clarke's classical school,
where he was in intimate association with boys of the best city
families.

At the end of this year the Allans removed to a plain cottage-like
dwelling at the corner of Clay and Fifth streets, in a quiet and
out-of-the-way neighborhood. It consisted of but five rooms on the
ground floor and a half story above; and here for some years they
resided.

Of Poe as a schoolboy various accounts have been given by former
schoolmates, with most of whom he was very popular, while others
represent him as reserved and not generally liked. All, however, agree
that he was a remarkably bright pupil, with, in the higher classes, but
one rival, and that he was high-spirited and the leader in all sorts of
fun and frolic.

Mrs. Mackenzie's eldest son, John, or "Jack," two years older than
Edgar, though not mentioned by any of Poe's biographers, was the most
intimate and trusted of all his lifelong friends. The two were playmates
in childhood, and schoolmates and companions up to the time of Poe's
departure for the University. Poe always called Mrs. Mackenzie "Ma," and
was almost as much at home in her house as was his sister.

I remember Mr. John Mackenzie as a portly, jol