tared
and cooked their supper, we came to the last battery but one, which lay
so far below that it was too late to visit it. We returned highly
delighted with what we had seen and our pleasant ride. It was late when
we got back, as altogether our ride had been some fifteen miles in
length. As soon as we could exchange our habits for our evening
dresses, we rejoined our guests at the supper-table, where none of us
wanted for an appetite except poor Captain Morrison, who could not be
tempted by the dishes we so much relished. After supper, Colonel Breaux
and I got into a discussion, rather, _he_ talked, while I listened with
eyes and ears, with all my soul.... What would I not give for such
knowledge! He knows everything, and can express it all in the clearest,
purest language, though he says he could not speak a word of English at
fourteen!

The discussion commenced by some remark I made about physiognomy; he
took it up, and passed on to phrenology--in which he is no great
believer. From there he touched on the mind, and I listened, entranced,
to him. Presently he asserted that I possessed reasoning faculties,
which I fear me I very rudely denied. You see, every moment the painful
conviction of my ignorance grew more painful still, until it was most
humiliating; and I repelled it rather as a mockery. He described for my
benefit the process of reasoning, the art of thinking. I listened more
attentively still, resolving to profit by his words.... Then he turned
the conversation on quite another theme. Health was the subject. He
delicately alluded to my fragile appearance, and spoke of the necessity
of a strong constitution to sustain a vigorous mind. If the mind
prevailed over the weak body, in its turn it became affected by decay,
and would eventually lose its powers. It was applicable to all cases;
he did not mean that I was sickly, but that my appearance bespoke one
who had not been used to the exercise that was most necessary for me.
Horseback rides, walks, fresh air were necessary to preserve health. No
man had greater disgust for a freckled face than he; but a fair face
could be preserved by the most ordinary precautions and even improved
by such exercise. He illustrated my case by showing the difference
between the flower growing in the sunshine and that growing in a
cellar. Father's own illustration and very words, when he so often
tried to impress on me the necessity of gaining a more robust frame
than nature had