ifted.

It was on the 14th of February, 1825, that Poe entered the University;
inscribing on the matriculation book the date of his birth as January
19, 1809, making him sixteen years of age, when he was really seventeen
(born in 1808). This date, it will be observed, agrees with no other
that he has given.

Of his course at the University his biographers have informed us, on the
authority of professors and students, some of whom credit him with
almost every vice of dissipation, while others defend him from such
imputation. But when he returned home, at the end of the first year,
with a brilliant scholastic record, it became known that Mr. Allan had
been called upon to pay his gambling and other debts, amounting on the
whole to over two thousand dollars. Mr. Allan went on to Charlottesville
to investigate the matter, and scrupulously paid all that he considered
honest debts, refusing to notice the gambling debts.

Poe, having paid little attention to his personal affairs, was almost as
much surprised as was Mr. Allan at the amount of his indebtedness. He
appeared truly penitent, and frankly so expressed himself to Mr. Allan,
offering to repay the latter by his services in his counting-house. It
was agreed that after the Christmas holidays he should take his place in
the office as clerk.

This was the beginning of the declension of Poe's social and personal
reputation. By his elders he was severely condemned, while the good
little boys who had formerly looked doubtfully upon the robber of
orchards and turnip-patches now passed him by with sidelong glances and
pursed-up lips. And yet, good cause though Mr. Allan had to be angry--as
he was--we have the following account of Edgar's reception at home when
he returned from the University for the Christmas holidays, a reception
for which he was doubtless indebted to his devoted foster-mother:

A former schoolmate of his, Charles Bolling, writes to the editor of a
Richmond paper that Mr. Allan, when on a visit to the country, having
given him a cordial invitation to call on him when in Richmond, he, one
evening, near Christmas, went to his house, where he was kindly
received. After sitting awhile, he perceived certain signs as of
preparation for the entertainment of company, and at once rose to leave,
but his host insisted upon his remaining, saying that Edgar had just
come home from the University, and some of his young friends had been
invited to meet him. Bolling replie