blanket, and slept all night in their midst, under one of the travelling wagons.
One of the first nights on the road was spent at the house of Thomas's cousin, Mr. Thornton, of King William County. The cousins had never met, but Mr. Thornton, hearing that the moving families were to pass by his gate, sent to beg that his kinspeople would stop in their journey for a day or two and refresh themselves under his roof. Thomas sent Mr. and Mrs. Hill and Sophia and the children to accept this hospitality, feeling unwilling himself to leave the large number of negroes under his care for even one night. Those who were entertained by Mr. Thornton greatly enjoyed it. It was a regret to Thomas not to meet this kinsman of his father's. This regret was greatly increased when, during the Confederate war, he learned of the death in his country's cause of a noble scion of this house, the lamented Colonel Thornton, known and beloved as "Jack Thornton."
My dear father was very fond of recounting anecdotes and incidents, especially in his table-talk, of brave and generous and honorable deeds. At such times his eye kindled, and his whole face glowed with the intensity of his feeling. It was quite impossible for a young person to look at him, and to hear his words and tones, without an aspiration to be worthy of such commendation.
The stern incorruptibility of his wife's father was a theme on which he had talked with earnest enthusiasm to his children. lie was very fond of relating an occurrence that took place on the journey from Virginia to Mississippi. Somewhere in the mountains of Tennessee one of my grandfather Hill's carriage-horses had fallen ill, and was quite incapable of proceeding farther. Thomas set about to look for a substitute; meanwhile trying such remedies as he could think of for the ailing horse. While he was standing by the beast, a country-man rode up on a fine, powerful horse. At once Thomas inquired if he would sell him. To his surprise, the man answered immediately that he would exchange his horse for the sick one, if ten dollars were added. The bar--
