Mr. Davis's chief clerk and good friend, Colonel Archibald Campbell, used to remonstrate with him on the sums he gave to charity. "In anyone else," he said, "it would be a mere yielding to importunity, but after they have left Mr. Davis grieves over their suf fering, and it wears him very much."

He had never heard the poem of the "Babes in the Wood," or, strange to say, even the story; probably from his going away from home so early in his childhood he missed the heartrending histories repeated to the "babes" in the nursery. One day when he was ill, I was reading Percy's "Relics," and he asked me to read aloud. Hoping thus to put him to sleep I turned to the "Babes in the Wood' as an oft-told tale and began reading; when midway he grasped my hand and said, "Do stop, I cannot bear it--if it is the truth, it is a cruel thing to perpetuate the story; if it is a fabrication, you may rely on it the man was a rascal who invented such a horror."

And yet to this man, almost weakly merciful, has been attributed the wilful torture of prisoners at Andersonville and in other war prisons!

During Mr. Pierce's Administration the Holy Father, Pius IX., sent his Legate to America, and the Roman Catholic families were all anxious to receive him; notable

among these was Madame de Sartige, the very agreeable wife of Comte de Sartige, the French Minister. Her sister, Mrs. Rice, at a dinner party at the Legation, brought down her chubby baby in its little frilled night dress, and held it smiling up to Monseigneur the Legate, for his blessing. Mrs. Rice was a handsome young creature, and it was a lovely picture as she stood against the pale blue velvet hangings, and presented her little baby to the great dignitary. The baby, her only child, grew to manhood and was Thorndike Rice.

In this year, also, the Japanese princes and their suite came to Washington. They were lodged at Willard's Hotel. Their attendants, with their little teapots, braziers, low stools, and other paraphernalia, took up the whole wing of the hotel. The princes were very small, but their dignity of manner impressed all who were introduced to them. They looked as if they could say a world of wise and original things, if the confusion of tongues had never fallen upon mankind.

During Mr. Pierce's administration, Mr. Crampton, who was a well-bred man of some wit, a strong sense of humor, and sincerely liked by the society of Washington, was misled by his zeal for the interest of Great Britain, into conniving at the enlistment of Amer

icans and foreigners into America, for service in the Crimean war, to fill up the foreign legions authorized by Great Britain at that time. The President's whole Cabinet felt so kindly to him that they examined narrowly the evidence against Mr. Crampton, and would gladly have believed that he had been innocent of violating the neutrality of America toward the contending nations, but were at last unwillingly convinced of the fact. It was a grave matter that caused much acerbity between England and America; but, nevertheless, Mr. Crampton and three English consuls were given their congé as soon as the facts. were undoubtedly established.

The President was personally partial to Mr. Crampton, and it is difficult to perceive how, except from an irresponsible writer, ignorant of the truth, the Administration of President Pierce could have been accused of a desire to derive "popularity," or a new "tenure of office," from involving England and America in a war.

Mr. Crampton was socially very acceptable to the "American Statesman," but the preservation of good faith in our treaties with other countries outweighed personal regard.

Sometimes Captain Rodman came to see Mr. Davis at home; he was then perfecting his great gun. He was a rather thick-set,

quiet man, of pleasant address and very gen. tlemanly manner, which was peculiarly ac ceptable to Mr. Davis. They talked of smooth bores and rifled bores, but I soon gave up trying to understand heavy artillery, as too scientific for an unlearned listener.

Colonel Montgomery Meigs was charged with the extension of the Capitol, and was a frequent visitor. Mr. Davis detailed him for the work, and never had man a more generous, ardent defender than Colonel Meigs found in my husband throughout his whole term in the Cabinet and Senate; for there were many attacks made upon him which Mr. Davis always accepted and defended as personal, and he certainly merited a more grateful memory than General Meigs seemed to have retained. Mr. Davis also gave Colonel Meigs's son an appointment as cadet at West Point, and followed the course of the promising boy with anxious interest. He became an officer in the Federal Army and was killed in the usual course of war, not murdered, as alleged, and our house was very sorrowful when his death was announced; he was "little Johnnie Meigs" to us, a boy we had seen grow up, and for whose success we had many aspirations.

Just before the termination of Mr. Davis's service in the Cabinet our second son, Jeffer

son, was born, and I was ill unto death for many weeks. This was the "year of the snow," when it drifted against the houses and in the streets to six feet in some places. On F Street it was so deep that Mrs. Henry Wayne, a dear friend and opposite neighbor, could not cross the street without the assistance of men to beat down the snow, and these could not be procured. Mr. Pierce was nearly an hour getting a square and a half, to inquire for me; he would not send a servant, for, said he, they have no personal interest to urge them on, and would never have made their way this far. He reached our house exhausted, having sunk above his waist several times.

Mr. Seward heard that I was at the point of death, and that the lady, a near neighbor of his, who was nursing me with Mrs. Wayne, could not get a carriage to bring her to our door at the corner of F and Fourteenth Street. Though he did not know us, he had his own fine horses harnessed to a sleigh, and brought Mrs. Hetzel to me-but with broken harness and at some peril. This service introduced him to us, and after all those long years of bitter feuds, I thank him as sincerely as my husband did to the last hour of his life.

Mr. Davis's construction of his stewardship