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THE KENTUCKY WIDOW.

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acre, a thousand acres of much better farming land, where he now resides, to which he has since made additions, until he now has about four thousand acres. This, with a large amount of most valuable stock, and (as his neighbors tell me) a good many thousand dollars at interest, make a fortune so ample as to leave very little room for reasonable regret in regard to his decision at St. Louis.

Moreover, there were potent reasons for that decision. Gov. Clarke, in his prophetic portraiture of the brilliant future that was before St. Louis, and in all his other earnest and eloquent persua sives, was opposed by pleadings that he wot not of. He was engaged in an unequal contest.

Capt. Bacon was a widower. His wife had died in Kentucky. Kentucky, so famed as "the dark and bloody ground," is not less famed for the unerring execution of other than Indian archers. Many a passing traveller has received their darts,has been taken captive. Capt. Bacon had seen a Kentucky widow. He shall tell the rest.

We were sitting around his large old-fashioned fireplace, as was our wont. Mrs. Bacon, who at seventy-six is hale and hearty, and as active as most ladies at thirty or forty, was sitting in one "corner" by her window, busy with her knitting, and absorbed with the conversation. Capt. Bacon was near her, his face all aglow with his own

reminiscences of long-gone years, and the writer was in the other corner, with pencil and note-book in hand. With a smile that indicated the most perfect satisfaction with the whole result, Capt. Bacon gave the following "explanation" of his failure to make the St. Louis purchase:

"The fact is, sir," said he, "I believe I should have bought in St. Louis, if it had not been for the old lady here. I had seen her. The last night I was in St. Louis, I determined I would go back and marry her, if possible, and settle here. We have now lived together nearly forty years, and I believe neither of us is tired of the union, or anxious to secede."

CHAPTER III.

MONTICELLO.

THE MOUNTAIN, MANSION, GROUNDS, FLOWERS, SHRUBBERY, TERRACED GARDEN -FRUIT, VEGETABLES-LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS FROM WASHINGTON IN REGARD TO STOCK, CROPS, ACCOUNTS, SHRUBBERY, ETC.-THE ESTATE-DIFFERENT PLANTATIONS-PREMIUMS TO OVERSEERS AND SERVANTS-COPY OF MR. JEFFERSON'S INSTRUCTIONS ON LEAVING HOME FOR WASHINGTON.

CAPT. BACON says:-"Monticello is quite a high mountain, in the shape of a sugar-loaf. A winding road led up to the mansion. On the very top of the mountain the forest trees were cut down, and ten acres were cleared and levelled off. This was done before I went to live with Mr. Jefferson. The house in the picture that you showed me, (Frontispiece,) is upon the highest point. That picture is perfectly natural. I knew every room in that house. Under the house and the terraces that surrounded it, were his cisterns, ice-house, cellar, kitchen, and rooms for all sorts of for all sorts of purposes. His servants' rooms were on one side. They were very comfortable, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Then there were rooms for vegetables,

fruit, cider, wood, and every other purpose. There were no negro and other out-houses around the mansion, as you generally see on plantations. The grounds around the house were most beautifully ornamented with flowers and shrubbery. There were walks, and borders, and flowers, that I have never seen or heard of anywhere else. Some of them were in bloom from early in the spring until late in the winter. A good many of them were foreign. Back of the house was a beautiful lawn of two or three acres, where his grandchildren used to play a great deal. His garden was on the side of the mountain. I had it built mostly while he was President. It took a great deal of labor. We had to blow out the rock for the walls for the dif ferent terraces, and then make the soil. I have some of the instructions that Mr. Jefferson sent me from Washington now. It was a fine garden. There were vegetables of all kinds, grapes, figs, and the greatest variety of fruit. I have never seen such a place for fruit. It was so high that it never failed. Mr. Jefferson sent home a great many kinds of trees and shrubbery from Washington. I used to send a servant there with a great many fine things from Monticello for his table, and he would send back the cart loaded with shrubbery from a nur sery near Georgetown, that belonged to a man named Maine, and he would always send me direc

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS.

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tions what to do with it. He always knew all about every thing in every part of his grounds and garden. He knew the name of every tree, and just where one was dead or missing. Here is a letter that he sent me from Washington:

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"SIR,-Davy has been detained till now, the earth having been so frozen that the plants could not be dug up. On the next leaf are instructions what to do with them, in addition to which I inclose Mr. Maine's instructions as to the thorns. He brings a couple of Guinea pigs, which I wish you to take great care of, as I propose to get this kind into the place of those we have now, as I greatly prefer their size and form. I think you had better keep them in some inclosure near your house till spring. I hope my sheep are driven up every night, and carefully attended to. The finishing every thing about the mill, is what I wish always to have a preference to every kind of work. Next to that, my heart is most set on finishing the gar den. I have promised Mr. Craven that nothing shall run next year in the meadow inclosure, where his clearing will be. This is necessary for ourselves, that we may mow the clover and feed it green. I have hired the same negroes for another year, and am promised them as long as I want

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