was at least a quarter of a mile from the house. Mother turned to
father and said: 'Now, John, you go after my share of father's truck,
and go quick.' He did as she bid him: everybody about the house did
that. Well, he was gone three weeks, and came home with six thousand
dollars, which he had taken for mother's share; but she said she knew
he had been cheated.

"Every dollar of that money remained in the house until I got married
and came off here. I got two thousand of it, one negro, and two hundred
head of cattle. I had promised my wife's people that I would come and
live with them. I am glad I did. I was twenty-one years old when I
learned my letters. I have been lucky; have educated my children, and
they have educated me, and are talking about running me for Congress.
Well, my friend, I believe I could be elected; but that is a small part
of the business. I should be of no service to the State, and only show
my own ignorance. Come, Sue, can't you give the gentleman some music?
Give me my fiddle, and I will help you."

Sue was a beautiful and interesting girl of nineteen, only a short time
returned from a four-years residence at the famous Patapsco Institute.
She had music in her soul, and the art to pour it out through her
fingers' ends. It was an inheritance from her extraordinary father, as
any judge of music would have said, who had heard the notes melting
from that old black violin, on that rainy night in December. There are
not many such instances of men springing from such humble origin in
Eastern Mississippi; but this is not a solitary case.

There emigrated from different States, North and South, at a remote
period in the brief history of this new country, several young men of
talent and great energy, who not only distinguished themselves, but
shed lustre upon the State. Among the first of these was George
Poindexter, from Virginia; Rankin, from Georgia, (but born in
Virginia;) Thomas B. Reid, from Kentucky; Stephen Duncan, and James
Campbell Wilkins, from Pennsylvania. The most remarkable of these was
George Poindexter. He was a lawyer by profession and a Jeffersonian
Republican in politics. Very early in life he became the leader of that
party in the State, and was sent to Congress as its sole
representative. Very soon he obtained an enviable reputation in that
body as a statesman and a powerful debater. His mind was logical and
strong; his conception was quick and acute; his powers of combination
and