the plantation were a sad hindrance to his intellectual progress. One night he was delving along on the abstruse subject while Prentiss was also reading by his side. Tom's attention was attracted by the marvellous rapidity with which Prentiss turned the pages of the book, which was the very interesting commentary of my Lord Coke on Lyttleton. While he, Thomas, was mastering one page, Prentiss glided over ten or twelve.

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Prentiss," he asked, "what are you doing?"

"Don't you see? I'm reading law."

"You don't pretend to say that you've been studying it, do you ?"

"Suppose you try me."

With that he handed over the book,-that Book the very mention of which is apt to give a law student the back-ache. Tom began his examination on the portion that the other had so rapidly glanced over; to his utter amazement Prentiss answered the queries clearly, distinctly, and accurately. From this it appears he did not acquire a knowledge of law by intuition, as some have supposed, but by the marvellous rapidity with which he learned.

Occasionally he would ride out to patrol at night. On one of these occasions his natural exuberance of spirits, slightly stimulated, perhaps, carried him to an excess of hilarity. When they all got home and were seated in the attic chamber, Tom felt it to be his duty to give him a lecture, so he began, in a very patronizing way,

"Prentiss, you must remember you are a teacher of youth and that your example must influence them, and I must say you were too uproarious to-night, sir.”

"I should like to know, sir, what right you have to speak to me in that imperious way, sir?" retorted Prentiss.

Just as Tom's sentence had proceeded thus far Prentiss saw the delicacy of the crisis; it would never do to hinge a quarrel on such a cause; so, quick as thought, he choked off the rest of the coming sentence.

"Oh, well, if you beg my pardon there's an end of it."

"But stop," said Tom; "I didn't mean to beg your pardon; I meant

"That makes no difference," chimed in Prentiss; "if you beg my pardon that's all a gentleman can ask."

This was said with such irresistible drollery that Tom's homily exploded in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. This was the only approach to a quarrel that ever occurred between Prentiss and any under that roof.

It was one of the delights of the boys to bathe in the swimming-holes of Fairchild's Creek. These "holes" were deep and narrow, but the water therein was pellucid and of very pleasant temperature. One of the swimmers was a square-built man and had a large, broad foot; strange to say, he was proud of this, always contending that the base ought to be broad enough for the superstructure. In dressing, after swimming was over, he prided himself upon being able to stand longer than any one else on one foot. He would pull on his drawers on one leg, then his pants, and then his socks, without a tremor, all the while standing on one leg as firm as an obelisk on its pedestal. Proud of the achievement, he would banter us crowd of youngsters and say, "I'll bet not one of you can do it."

"If you'll allow me to bring a goose into the ring, I'll take the bet," said Prentiss.

The wit was probably borrowed from the old Latin story of two thousand years ago, but it was so happy that we all shouted, and Tom among the rest, for he was one of those good-humored souls who enjoyed a joke, even though it might be at his own

expense.

Prentiss, with three of the boys, occupied the up-stairs room at "Rokeby," this was their sleeping apartment as well as studio. Sometimes they were annoyed by mosquitoes, the cozening insects of this southern clime, and they resorted to a slow way to dispose of them. The ceiling was low and hipped, and they would watch the mosquito as he lit and stealthily slip up, apply the candle, and singe it to death. • It is more than probable that, like the palmlicist theory of De Quincey, if the modern paint was scraped from the old ceiling, here and there could be found the smoky epitaph of many a victim to this then new process of cremation.

Prentiss's mind was ever active and inquisitive, and he liked

to probe the working of things to the very bottom, regardless of cost. As an illustration of this, I remember he once had a common silver watch. Most boys would have prized it highly, common as it was, but he one day took it all to pieces in order to study out its internal workings; he succeeded in satisfactorily exploring its mysteries, but when he came to endeavor to readjust its parts, it was "no go"; it sank from a speaking to a dumb watch, and was thrown away. The knowledge he thus acquired was afterwards turned to a good account, as we shall see hereafter.

He who marks the course of a genius must follow it sometimes in its erratic flights. I once asked the question of an eminent divine how it so often happened that men of talents were prone to recklessness and excess. His reply was, "Great minds are like big ships; it requires strong passions to move the one, and heavy winds to move the other." Their activity is such. that they require corresponding relaxation.

The most pleasing and refining safeguard is found in the society of ladies. But Prentiss, in his early life in Mississippi, in consequence of his physical infirmity and sensitiveness on account of it, shrunk from the effect of seeking ladies' society. True, his handsome face and fascinating manners could have won his way, but he did not think so, and therefore did not seek it. He had an exalted estimate of the gentler sex; with such a mother and such sisters as he had it could not have been otherwise. But he could not dance attendance upon the ladies on festive occasions and scatter the airy triflings that flitter for a moment in the sunbeams of pleasure, and he was too diffident at other times to obtrude himself upon their society, therefore he was forced to seek relaxation in the society of gentlemen only.

Unfortunately, at this era card-playing was one of the venial faults of the age. It was not confined to this latitude alone, it was the habit of some of America's greatest statesmen, as well as of England's too, but it is not necessary to mention their names. It need not be disguised that in early life Prentiss became a victim to this mysterious and singular infatuation; it was not from the love of lucre, but the wild excitement of the hazard and the pleasure of exhibiting great skill in the game.

Bearing in mind the above observations, the reader will throw the mantle of extenuation over the following incident in his early career. In the prosecution of his legal studies he made it a point to attend the session of the Circuit Court at Fayette, in Jefferson County, to see and learn the routine of practice. On one of these visits, after the adjournment of the court for the day, as usual, a game of brag was proposed, and the neophyte invited "to take a hand." The peculiar feature of this game is that, no matter how small the amount of the "ante,”—that is, the amount each player is required to put up at the beginning of the game, yet thousands may be won and lost at a single sitting. Its name indicates its character, for a player with a weaker may bluff off and win from another with a stronger hand. This is done by staking a heavy sum, which the timid player is afraid to meet; he failing to do so, the bragger wins, and takes the pile upon the table. As in everything that Prentiss undertook, so here also he showed himself a master. His coolness and nerve never deserted him, while his quickness and perception of memory gave him skill.

The play progressed, and to his astonishment, when he rose from the table, he was winner to the amount of several hundred dollars. Was he elated? or did the monitor within him whisper some note of warning and reproof? The dénouement will best answer the question. A few days afterwards he rode into Natchez, went to the first jeweller in the city, selected the finest watch in the establishment, and paid two hundred and fifty dollars for it. He took it to "Rokeby," and, in spite of protestations, presented it to his favorite pupil, with the solemn injunction that he was never to throw a card in gambling, and upon the condition that if he did so the watch was to be forfeited. That pupil wore it forty-five years, and until he went to join his old friend in the spirit-land. To-day it is an heirloom in his family, and his initial letters engraved on the back— S. S. P. to G. B. S.-are as distinct as though cut but yesterday. The watch itself still faithfully notes the fleeting hours as they pass, a memento of the solemn injunction and of its having been faithfully obeyed.

About three miles east of "Rokeby" there once stood a plain

wooden country church upon a spot called "Pleasant Hill." It was on the high ridge separating the waters of Fairchild from those of Cole's Creek, on what was called the old "Natchez Trace," the main track engineered by the Indians through the territory of their nation. The trace was adopted as a road by the whites, and three dead towns, like shrivelled fruit, still hang upon its line in close proximity,-"Selser Town," "Pleasant Hill," and "Union Town." The church itself rested in the fork where the road branches off from the old trace and trends to Church Hill. Having been built by the joint contributions of the Protestant denominations, it was named "Union Chapel" in commemoration of that fact. It was never formally consecrated, and the neighbors therefore felt at liberty to use it for moral purposes and to hold their meetings therein. The pulpit stood at the gable end, and rude benches were the substitute for pews.

At the era of which I write the gentlemen of the neighborhood conceived the idea that it would be an improvement, both morally and intellectually, to the young gentry to form a debating society, and they selected Union Chapel as the most convenient place of meeting. Joseph Dunbar, locally speaking clarum et venerabile nomen, was its first president, and the society was composed of the leading men of the vicinage. Saturday was its regular day of meeting. Questions were propounded at each sitting, to be discussed at the next, and speakers were appointed respectively on the affirmative and negative sides. Essayists and declaimers were also appointed. The society flourished, and during its ephemeral existence enkindled a literary spirit and mental activity.

A mile or so east of Union Chapel there then lived in the family of Mr. Thomas Hall a young teacher by the name of James Alden. He and Prentiss became members of the society, and it was in that sylvan forum that the boy orators first, in Mississippi at least, displayed their wonderful powers before their enraptured audiences.

A stirring occasion, coupled with surrounding circumstances, may of itself inspire eloquence, but it requires extraordinary intellectual power to inject with eloquence a mere abstract question