ut did not succeed, so that I could distinguish his words.
He loves to sit amidst the bustle of his family, and is dimly amused by
what is going forward; is pleased, also, to look out of the open window
and see the poultry--a guinea-hen, turkeys, a peacock, a tame deer,
etc.--which feed there. His mind sometimes wanders, and he hardly knows
where he is; will not be convinced that he is anywhere but at Salem,
until they drag his chair to a window from which he can see a great
elm-tree of which he is very fond, standing in front of the house. Then
he acknowledges that he must be at the farm, because, he says, they
never could have transplanted that tree. He is pleased with flowers,
which they bring him,--a kind-hearted old man. The other day a live
partridge was sent him, and he ordered it to be let go, because he would
not suffer a life to be taken to supply him with a single meal. This
tenderness has always been characteristic of the old soldier. His
birthplace was within a few miles of this spot,--the son and descendant
of husbandmen,--and character and fortune together have made him a man
of history.

This is a most hospitable family, and they live in a style of plain
abundance, rural, but with traits of more refined modes. Many domestics,
both for farm and household work. Two unmarried daughters; an old maiden
aunt; an elderly lady, Mrs. C. of Newburyport, visiting; a young girl of
fifteen, a connection of the family, also visiting, and now confined to
her chamber by illness. Ney, a spaniel of easy and affable address, is a
prominent personage, and generally lies in the parlor or sits beside the
General's chair; always ready, too, to walk out with anybody so
inclined. Flora, a little black pony, is another four-footed favorite.
In the warm weather, the family dine in a large room on one side of the
house, rough and rustic looking, with rude beams overhead. There were
evergreens hanging on the walls, and the figures 1776, also in
evergreen, and a national flag suspended in one corner,--the blue being
made out of old homespun garments, the red stripes out of some of the
General's flannel wrappings, and the eagle copied from the figure on a
half-dollar,--all being the handiwork of the ladies, on occasion of the
last Fourth of July. It is quite a pleasant dining-hall; and while we
were eating fruit, the deer, which is of a small and peculiar breed from
the South, came and thrust its head into the open window, looking at u