CHAPTER VI.

MR. JEFFERSON'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND HABITS.

MR. JEFFERSON'S HEIGHT" STRAIGHT AS A GUN-BARREL”.

STRAIGHT AS A GUN-BARREL"-HEALTH, STRENGTH, COMPLEXION, SELF-POSSESSION-ANECDOTE-PERSONAL HABITS-EARLY RISING HIS FIRE-TOBACCO-CARDS-DIET-—INGENUITY-EXERCISE-ATTENDANCE ON PREACHING-ANECDOTE-THE BAPTIST PREACHER-KINDNESS TO THE POOR-FROST OF 1816-ANECDOTE-THE OLD WOMAN AND THE MULE DOLPHIN-BUSINESS HABITS-A WRITTEN ACCOUNT OF EVERY THING-CROP ACCOUNT-CONTRACT FOR WOOD-CONTRACT WITH CARPENTER-WRITTEN

CONTRACTS PREVENTED DIFFICULTIES.

"MR. JEFFERSON was six feet two and a half inches high, well proportioned, and straight as a gunbarrel. He was like a fine horse-he had no surplus flesh. He had an iron constitution, and was very strong. He had a machine for measuring strength. There were very few men that I have seen try it, that were as strong in the arms as his son-in-law, Col. Thomas Mann Randolph ; but Mr. Jefferson was stronger than he. He always enjoyed the best of health. I don't think he was ever really sick, until his last sickness. His skin was very clear and pure-just like he was in principle. He had blue eyes. His countenance was always mild

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and pleasant. You never saw it ruffled. No odds what happened, it always maintained the same ex‐ pression. When I was sometimes very much fret ted and disturbed, his countenance was perfectly unmoved. I remember one case in particular. We had about eleven thousand bushels of wheat in the mill, and coopers and every thing else employed. There was a big freshet-the first after the dam was finished. It was raining powerfully. I got up early in the morning, and went up to the dam. While I stood there, it began to break, and I stood and saw the freshet sweep it all away. I never felt worse. I did not know what we should do. I went up to see Mr. Jefferson. He had just come from breakfast. Well, sir,' said he, have you heard from the river?' I said, 'Yes, sir; I have just come from there with very bad news. The milldam is all swept away.' 'Well, sir,' said he, just as calm and quiet as though nothing had happened, 'we can't make a new dam this summer, but we will get Lewis' ferry-boat, with our own, and get the hands from all the quarters, and boat in rock enough in place of the dam, to answer for the present and next summer. I will send to Balti more and get ship-bolts, and we will make a dam that the freshet can't wash away.' He then went on and explained to me in detail just how he would have the dam built. We repaired the dam

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as he suggested, and the next summer we made a new dam, that I reckon must be there yet.

"Mr. Jefferson was always an early riser-arose at daybreak, or before. The sun never found him in bed. I used sometimes to think, when I went up there very early in the morning, that I would find him in bed; but there he would be before me, walking on the terrace.

"He never had a servant make a fire in his room in the morning, or at any other time, when he was at home. He always had a box filled with nice dry wood in his room, and when he wanted fire he would open it and put on the wood. He would always have a good many ashes in his fireplace, and when he went out he would cover up his fire very carefully, and when he came back he would uncov er the coals and make on a fire for himself.

"He did not use tobacco in any form. He never used a profane word or any thing like it. He never played cards. I never saw a card in the house at Monticello, and I had particular orders from him to suppress card-playing among the negroes, who, you know, are generally very fond of it. I never saw any dancing in his house, and if there had been any there during the twenty years I was with him I should certainly have known it. He was never a great eater, but what he did eat he wanted to be very choice. He never eat much

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hog-meat. He often told me, as I was giving out meat for the servants, that what I gave one of them for a week would be more than he would use in six months. When he was coming home from Washington I generally knew it, and got ready for him, and waited at the house to give him the keys. Af ter saying, "How are all?" and talking awhile, he would say, "What have you got that is good?" I knew mighty well what suited him. He was especially fond of Guinea fowls; and for meat he preferred good beef, mutton, and lambs. Those broadtailed sheep I told you about made the finest mutton I ever saw. Merriweather Lewis' mother made very nice hams, and every year I used to get a few from her for his special use. He was very fond of vegetables and fruit, and raised every variety of them. He was very ingenious. He invented a plough that was considered a great improvement on any that had ever been used. He got a great many premiums and medals for it. He planned his own carriage, buildings, garden, fences, and a good many other things. He was nearly always busy upon some plan or model.

"Every day, just as regularly as the day came, unless the weather was very bad, he would have his horse brought out and take his ride. The boy who took care of his horse knew what time he started, and would bring him out for him, and hitch

him in his place. He generally started about nine o'clock. He was an uncommonly fine rider-sat easily upon his horse, and always had him in the most perfect control. After he returned from Washington he generally rode Brimmer or Tecumseh until I bought Eagle for him of Capt. John Graves, of Louisa Co., just before I left him.

"He was always very neat in his dress, wore short breeches and bright shoe buckles. When he rode on horseback he had a pair of overalls that he always put on.

"Mr. Jefferson never debarred himself from hearing any preacher that came along. There was a Mr. Hiter, a Baptist preacher, that used to preach occasionally at the Charlottesville Court House. He had no regular church, but was a kind of missionary-rode all over the country and preached. He wasn't much of a preacher, was uneducated, but he was a good man. Everybody had confidence in him, and they went to hear him on that account. Mr. Jefferson's nephews Peter Carr, Sam. Carr, and Dabney Carr thought a great deal of him. I have often heard them talk about him. Mr. Jefferson nearly always went to hear him when he came around. I remember his being there one day in particular. His servant came with him and brought a seat-a kind of camp stool, upon which he sat. After Mr. Jefferson got old and feeble, a