t because so concise. 'A German woman would have used more
words.'

"Humboldt asked me if they could apply photography to the small
stars--to the eighth or ninth magnitude. I had asked the same question
of Professor Bond, of Cambridge, and he had replied, 'Give me $500,000,
and we can do it; but it is very expensive.'

"Humboldt spoke of the fifty-three small planets, and gave his opinion
that they could not be grouped together; that there was no apparent
connection.

"Having lost all his teeth, Humboldt's articulation was indistinct--he
talked very rapidly. His hair was thin and very white, his eyes very
blue, his nose too broad and too flat; yet he was a handsome man. He
wore a white necktie, a black dress-coat, buttoned up, but not so much
so that it hid a figured dark-blue and white waistcoat. He was a little
deaf. He told me that he was eighty-nine years old, and that he and
Bonpland, alone, were living of those who in early life were on
expeditions together; that Bonpland was eighty-five, and much the more
vigorous of the two.

"He said that we had gone backwards, morally, in America since he was
there,--that then there were strong men there: Jefferson, and Hamilton,
and Madison; that the three months he spent in America were spent almost
wholly with Jefferson.

"In the course of conversation he told me that the fifth volume of
'Cosmos' was in preparation. He urged me to go to see Argelander on my
way to London; he followed me out, still urging me to do this, and at
the same time assured me that Kansas would go all right.

"It was singular that Humboldt should advise me to use the sextant; it
was the first instrument that I ever used, and it is a very difficult
one. No young aspirant in science ever left Humboldt's presence
uncheered, and no petty animosities come out in his record. You never
heard of Humboldt's complaining that any one had stolen his thunder,--he
knew that no one could lift his bolts.

"When I came away, he thanked me again for the visit, followed me into
the anteroom, and made a low bow."

In 1855 Mrs. Mitchell was taken suddenly ill, and although partial
recovery followed, her illness lasted for six years, during which time
Maria was her constant nurse. For most of the six years her mother's
condition was such that merely a general care was needed, but it used to
be said that Maria's eyes were always upon her. When the opportunity to
go to Europe came, an older sister came with her fa