Some months later No. 28 South Barracks, West Point, was the despair
of the worthy inspector who spent his days and nights in unsuccessful
efforts to keep order among the embryo protectors of his country. Poe,
the leader of the quartette that made life interesting in Number 28,
was destined never to evolve into patriotic completion. He soon
reached the limit of the endurance of the officials, that being, in
the absence of a pliant guardian, the only method by which a cadet
could be freed from the walls of the Academy.

Soon after leaving the military school Poe made a brief visit to
Richmond, the final break with Mr. Allan took place, and the poet went
to Baltimore.

Number 9 Front Street, Baltimore, is claimed as the birthplace of Poe.
There is a house in Norfolk that is likewise so distinguished. There
are other places, misty with passing generations, similarly known to
history. Poe, though not Homeric in his literary methods, had much the
same post-mortem experience as the Father of the Epicists.

At the time of the Poet-wanderer's return to Baltimore his aunt, Mrs.
Clemm, had her humble but neat and comfortable home on Eastern Avenue,
then Wilks Street, and here he found the first home he had known since
his childhood and, incidentally, his charming child cousin, Virginia,
who was to make his home bright with her devotion through the
remainder of her brief life.

In these early days no thought of any but a cousinly affection had
rippled the smooth surface of Virginia's childish mind, and she was
the willing messenger between Poe and his "Mary," who lived but a