ly, middle-aged gentleman
with a florid face and a hearty laugh. This is what he said of Poe after
the latter's death:

"I never saw in him as boy or man a sign of morbidness or melancholy;
unless," he added, "it was when Mrs. Stanard died, when he appeared for
some time grieving and depressed. At all other times he was bright and
full of fun and high spirits. He delighted in playing practical jokes,
masquerading, and making raids on orchards and turnip-patches. Oh, yes;
every schoolboy liked a sweet, tender, juicy turnip; and many a time
after the apple crop had been gathered in, we might have been seen, a
half dozen of us, seated on a rail-fence like so many crows, munching
turnips. We didn't object to a raw sweet potato at times--anything that
had the relish of being stolen. On Saturdays we had fish-fries by the
river, or tramped into the woods for wild grapes and chinquepins. It was
not always that Mr. Allan would allow Edgar to go on these excursions,
and more than once he would steal off and join us, though knowing that
he would be punished for it."

"Mr. Allan was a good man in his way," added Mr. Mackenzie, "but Edgar
was not fond of him. He was sharp and exacting, and with his long,
hooked nose and small keen eyes looking from under his shaggy eyebrows,
always reminded me of a hawk. I know that often, when angry with Edgar,
he would threaten to turn him adrift, and that he never allowed him to
lose sight of his dependence on his charity."

Edgar, he said, was allowed a liberal weekly supply of pocket money, but
being of a generous disposition and giving treats of taffy and hot
gingerbread to his schoolmates at recess, besides being generally
extravagant, this supply was always exhausted before the week was out,
when he would borrow, and so be kept constantly in debt. He was,
however, very prompt in paying off his debts.

Mr. Robert Sully, nephew of the distinguished artist, Thomas Sully, and
himself an artist, was through life one of Poe's firmest friends. A boy
of delicate physique and a disposition so sensitive and irritable that
few could keep on good terms with him, he was always in difficulties. "I
was a dull boy at school," he said to me; "and Edgar, when he knew that
I had an unusually hard lesson, would help me out with it. He would
never allow the big boys to teaze me, and was kind to me in every way. I
used to admire and in a way envy him, he was so bright, clever and
handsome.

"He lived not fa