prevented, I shall endeavour to procure some humble, but quiet abode
for your mother and sisters, where I hope they can be happy. As I
before said, I want to get in some grass country where the natural
product of the land will do much for my subsistence...."

Again in a letter to his son, dated October, 1865, after he had accepted
the presidency of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia:

"I should have selected a more quiet life and a more retired abode than
Lexington. I should have preferred a small farm, where I could have
earned my daily bread."

About this time I was given a gun of my own and was allowed to go
shooting by myself. My father, to give me an incentive, offered a
reward for every crow-scalp I could bring him, and, in order that I
might get to work at once, advanced a small sum with which to buy powder
and shot, this sum to be returned to him out of the first scalps
obtained. My industry and zeal were great, my hopes high, and by good
luck I did succeed in bagging two crows about the second time I went
out. I showed them with great pride to my father, intimating that I
should shortly be able to return him his loan, and that he must be
prepared to hand over to me very soon further rewards for my skill.
His eyes twinkled, and his smile showed that he had strong doubts of
my making an income by killing crows, and he was right, for I never
killed another, though I tried hard and long.

I saw but little of my father after we left West Point. He went to
Texas, as I have stated, in '55 and remained until the fall of '57,
the time of my grandfather's death. He was then at Arlington about
a year. Returning to his regiment, he remained in Texas until the