to Letty's family, who are here yet, we had the Rev. Dr. Tucker's, from Jackson (wife and three children), Mrs. Sidway and three children and nurse, Nanny, my brother's wife, Martha, Kate Nelson, a Miss Coffey (a friend of Tom's, from New Orleans), and callers constantly coming in. The tables had to be set diagonally and sometimes three to four had to sit at a side-table."
In the fall of 1881 Thomas was in New Orleans when the great-grandsons of General Lafayette were received by the city. They were informed that he wished to be presented to them, and they gave him an audience of an hour before the opening of the ball which was given in their honor by the people of New Orleans. He knew no French, and these young gentlemen knew no English. Two of Colonel Dabney's daughters acted as interpreters. The French gentlemen said to him on this occasion that he was the only person whom they had met in their tour through the United States who had seen their great-grandfather, the marquis, when he was in this country. Thomas gave them an account of the dinner at Yorktown given to General Lafayette, which he had attended. He amused them very much by saying that the champagne drunk on that day laid many an American on the floor, but the French guests were not affected by it, though they drank quite as much as their entertainers.
In December he went to Bonham, Texas, to spend a few months with his son Benjamin and his family.
T. S. D. TO HIS DAUGHTER IDA.
. . . "I have seen a rabbit-hunt, and found it to be very exciting, even under the disadvantage of being in a buggy, and therefore incapable of joining in the chase. But we (Ben and I) kept pretty well along, as the scene was an open prairie, without obstruction to the vision for many miles. There were fourteen huntsmen and eight greyhounds, who run by sight alone, as you probably know. When the quarry gets out of
