a short time the late col thomas of was one of our and � so that major s household embraced not less than twenty white persons to these there was a constant addition by to the young people of the it was in fact an active merry noisy family always in motion and often in commotion to me it was painfully contrasted with the small quiet affectionate vol i � early acquaintances � establishment of mrs love there i had been the child and supreme object of attention here i was lost in the multitude unnoticed of and left to make my way and take care of myself as well as i could my hair which under the discipline of mrs love s daughters was as clean and soft as silk now lost its beauty i had been spoiled by indulgence and was really unfit to take care of myself i did not know how to go about it yet there was no one to take care of me or who showed any interest in me except harry the miller s son young as i was i had reflection enough to compare the two scenes in which i had lived to feel my present desolation and to sigh over the past the tune of castle never to my memory without filling my eyes with tears there was another circumstance which my residence at mr s one of my companions was ill tempered and i do not know by what i became the peculiar object of his tyranny there was that in my situation which would have a generous temper i was a small feebly grown delicate boy an orphan and a poor one too but these circumstances seemed rather to invite than to the hostility of this fierce young man during the two years that it was my misfortune to be a in the house and his i suffered a wanton that so degraded and my spirit that i wonder i have ever recovered from it in this large family he was however my only the rest were content to let me alone and i became at length well content to be so i can recall here the first experience i had of the refuge and comfort of solitude often have i gone to bed long before i was sleepy and long before any other member of the household that i might enjoy in silence and to myself the hopes which my imagination never failed to set before me these rest on my memory with the distinctness of yesterday i looked forward to tho time when i should be a young man and should have my own office of two rooms my own servant and the means of receiving and entertaining my friends with elegant liberality my horse and fine a rich wardrobe and these all recommended by such manners and accomplishments as should again restore me to such favour and a� intercourse as i had known at mrs s i never chap l music of any other revenge on my than to him and reduce him to sue to me for friendship except these waking dreams which live so in my remembrance there are out few pleasant incidents to connect my recollections with those two years there are a few one was the gratification i took in the visits of company to the house sometimes the young folks played cards and i was not forbidden to sit in the room and see what was going on one of these is a gentleman i believe now living � charles jones although a very small boy i recollect distinctly the for which he is even yet so much distinguished and with which he used then to set the tables in a roar our latin � and the only popular i have ever known � was another of the and a great with me there were two other whom i saw only once each at the major s but whose visits led to one of my small accomplishments doctor charles of brought up his and the ladies one evening in the garden with his music a mr a or a teacher of music in also came up on one occasion when there was a great effort to get a musical instrument for him to play on the house afforded nothing better than a wretched fiddle � on which major m used to play for his children the only tune he knew with these words � � three or four wrong sides cut them down cut them down cut them down and tan them there waa besides a cracked from which no one of the had ever been able to draw a note mr the fiddle but with the aid of a little bees wax to stop the crack and a little water to wash and wet the bore he made the discourse most eloquent music � what a strange thing is memory i can see the man at this moment and hear him strike up the white � for this was the first tune he played and he threw it off with a spirit and animation of which dr had given me no idea thereafter whenever the room was empty i used to steal to the in which that old was kept and whispering in the a fox hunt � � for i could not blow and dared not if i could � try to finger tones as i knew in this way i learned to play several tunes of which yankee was the chief before i could fill the with a single note on one occasion dr smith of � the of the very respectable family of that name now at that place came up to major m s with two or three other gentlemen bringing with him a large pack of hounds in preparation for a fox chase this was a new incident to me and full of the interest 