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Miss Bettie Pope's father, who had become widowed-, was an assistant teacher in the school-; and Miss Louisa Scholes, from Covington, Ky. - of whom I have already spoken, was also a teacher in the preparatory department --
A remarkable instance of somnembulism occurred with Miss Scholes during her stay with us-; she slept up stairs in one of the large sleeping apartments, with a number of other young ladies in the same room -- a very steep flight of steps ran down from the door of her room to a back stoop, and another from there to the back yard. On one pleasant spring morning, she was missing-; the room door was standing open, and her clothing was lying where she had placed it the night before; the tracks of her bare feet were plainly followed from the foot of the steps, round through the back and front yards, through the front gate, across the dusty road, and were lost in the grass beyond. What had happened could not be imagined-; there was great excitement, and search in all directions. The mystery was solved about breakfast time -- by the arrival of a Mr. McKinney, who had a large tanyard, about a mile from Locust Dell, on the road to Cypress Creek, whither father often took the young ladies and us boys on fishing excursions on Saturdays. Mrs. McKinney came in the carriage with Miss S. It was plain that she had gotten up in her sleep about day break, and gone forth in her night dress and walked all that distance before she awoke-; a smart shower of rain fell when she was opposite the tan yard, and Mr. McK. happening to see her, got his wife
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to take her in charge. It was certainly one of the most remarkable cases of somnambulism that I ever heard of. It mortified this lady exceedlingly-; I think that she soon afterwards left us, and returned to Ky.
The fishing excursions mentioned above, to Cypress Creek, and to Cox's Creek on the Coffee plantation, were amongst the happiest events of my boyhood-; the Cypress creek was quite a large and beautiful stream, flowing through a lovely forest-; which abounded in springtime, with lovely flowers, where, amonst the rocky glens, botanizing was carried on most charmingly-; there were famous places and holes for fishing along this stream-; Martin & Casaday's Mill-; the bridge-; the Gunnels -- (gunwales) -- the Blue Hole &c &c. father generally took me & brother Thaddy to Cox's creek or some other place suitable for small fry, on Friday afternoons-, when we would catch large bait buckets full of live bait, -- and by keeping them supplied by frequent changes of fresh water, & letting the buckets down in the well when we got home, we kept alive enough bait for our Saturday's sport -- the fishing was splendid generally, and the enjoyment of these happy days is green still in my memory --
One of the famous fishing places on Cypress creek, had a tragic incident connected with it-; Isaac Simpson, a boy a few yrs. older than I, -- brother to John & Bill S. whom I have spoken of as my class mates, was bathing there once, & getting beyond his depth, was drowned-; I well remember how awfully my imagination was impressed by the event-; the cannon
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was carried there, to see if its firing might not cause it to rise to the surface-; the distant booming had a fearful effect on me.
During the winter, when there was no fishing, father took me & brother Thaddy hunting often-, he shooting & we carrying the game -- the birds, squirrels &c.; for he did not intrust us with a gun until we were large boys-; he was always afraid of accidents -- more frequently he took us on bug hunting expeditions-; he was an enthusiastic naturalist, and from going so much with him, we became eager bug hunters too-; he took a hatchet on these trips, for the purpose of turning up the bark of dead trees in quest of insects-; we were all equipped with vials of alcohol, for preserving specimens-; & glass tubes for spiders. These were happy expeditions for us. Father had an immense collection of insects-; cabinet cases of drawers some 3 inches deep, bottomed with cornstalk pith with paper pasted over it-; on which were rows of insects, stuck through with long pins made for the purpose-; all arranged in order -- the different genera & species. There were thousands of insects thus arranged in these cabinet cases;he sold them all, during our stay in Florence, to the Boston Society of Natural History for $500.
Father devoted most of his attention of leisure hours, to the study of spiders-; these cannot be preserved like other insects; he painted them immediately after capture; during his life he thus painted & described some 250 different species,
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divided amongst some 24 different genera-; these were printed in the proceedings of the Boston Society of Nat. Hist-; and published in book form, after his death-; I have now the original paintings of these spiders-; when they were sent off to the Society for publication, we made a duplicate copy of them for safety-; & from these I colored the engravings in a copy of the book sent to me by the Society --
Besides our place in Florence father owned a farm some 3 miles in the country-; with a good dwelling place on it-; on which he had crops of corn, fodder -- potatoes &c. made by an old negro man named Uncle Young, whom he hired for many years, with his old wife Aunt Judy-; we had a pretty pair of bay horses, named Pete and Van Buren-; when hitched up for work in our wagon, the blind one Pete always reared & plunged on starting off -- in an alarming manner --
Our peach orchard yielded an abundance of fruit-; and every summer, we dried great quantities in the sun-; scaffolds were made, and all of us, with volunteers from amongst our boarders peeled & sliced the delightful fruit for the purpose. Besides mother preserved a great many, and made jam &c. &c. Apples came in from the country by the wagon load,- we bought them thus at about 37 1/2 cts. per bushel, & had them stored in our cool cellar -- Blackberries grew to great perfection-; and were abundant, close to us, all over the "hill" in front of our house -- I had a pet coon once that some one gave me-; it was gentle when I kept it fastened by a little chain-; one night though it broke
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its chain & got loose on a rampage, and played fearful havoc in the pantry, amongst mother's preserve department -- every jar was turned over, and the paper covering broken in, and the contents spread & scattered every where -- my pet was summarily condemned to banishment.
My father & mother were members of the Presbyterian Church-; they both united themselves with it after a revival of tremendous power under the preaching of Rev. Danl. Baker, of which I have spoken (page 13)- the preacher, during the whole of our residence in Florence was Rev. Jas Glass, a small, bald headed, venerable little man with strong Scotch accent-; giving out his evening appointments for "airly candle light." I say he was our minister during the whole of our stay there-; he died before we left, and was buried immediately behind the church-; and I do not now remember the name of his successor-; he had a brother Joseph, who was the chief tailor of the place-; & who was a badly dissipated man-; he had some nice daughters who were mother's pupils. Letitia & Ann Eliza.
We children were always sent regularly & punctually to Sunday School-; the Superintendent was a large man of solemn speech, named Joseph Biggar-; the chief jeweller in the place. He had a routine of set phrases that he always used in his closing exhortations. "Children -- remember that Your life is but as a vapor, that will soon vanish away, & be no more-; the places that know you now, will soon know you no more forever-; the clods of the valley will lie over you, and you will be no more--" My teacher was Mr. James Glass -- a son