f a huge turkey, in
which he had put his carving fork, I would take. I knew only one point
of manners for such occasions, dear Alice,--that I must specify some
part, and as ill luck would have it, the side-bone came first into my
head, and 'Side-bone, sir,' I said. Oh what a lecture I got when we
got home, the wretched little chit that compelled a gentleman to cut
up a whole turkey to serve her! I cried myself to sleep that night."
It was too bad to spoil that dinner party for the little girl.

Her mother died when Miss Sedgwick was seventeen; her father when she
was twenty-three. All her brothers and sisters were married and
living, three of them in New York city, one in Albany, and one, her
youngest brother, in Lenox. With this brother in Lenox, Miss Sedgwick
for many happy years, had her home, at least her summer home, having
five rooms in an annex to his house built for her, into which she
gathered her household gods and where she dispensed hospitality to
her friends. For many years, New York city was generally her winter
home.

Theoretically, we have arrived with this maiden at the age of
twenty-three, but we must go back and read from one or two early
letters. She is ten years old when, under date of 1800, she writes her
father: "My dear papa,--Last week I received a letter from you which
gave me inexpressible pleasure." This is the child's prattle of a girl
of ten summers. She writes very circumspectly for her years of a new
brother-in-law: "I see--indeed I think I see in Mr. Watson everything
that is amiable. I am very much pleased with him; indeed we all are."
The following is dated 1801, when she is eleven: "You say in your last
letters that the time will soon come when you will take leave of
Congress forever. That day shall I, in my own mind, celebrate forever;
yes, as long as I live I shall reflect upon the dear time when my dear
papa left a public life to live in a retired one with his dear wife
and children; then you will have the pleasure to think, when you quit
the doors of the House, that you are going to join your family
forever; but, my dear papa, I cannot feel as you will when looking
back on your past life in Congress. You will remember how much you
have exerted yourself in order to save your country."

There was something in the relations of this Sedgwick family, not
perhaps without parallel, but very beautiful. These brothers and
sisters write to each other like lovers. To her brother Robert, M