Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/22

8 or stone, and only men of wealth and enterprise solaced their self-respect, and recalled the memories of their Virginia homes, in residences of boards or brick.

The planter's life in that day was self-sustaining. The women, by an occasional visit to the village, purchased their ribbons and finery. These visits were few and brief; they broke the routine of the home life to the women, as hunting did to the men, and were usually made on horseback.

In the planter's homes there was plenty of poultry and beef, mutton, and Virginia hams, cured by immemorial recipes, best biscuit, light bread, battercakes, buckwheat, tea, and coffee. There was whiskey, also, to comfort and cheer the wayfarer, and in Tennessee "the latch string was always out," and has ever been so, even until now.

The day of obedient parents had not then dawned upon the young folks, and in the Maury household there was an unconscious repressive sway. Good and gentle were the parents, but the children became silent in their presence. Matthew's father was very exact in the religious training of his family, now numbering five sons and four daughters, viz., John Minor Maury, Mary Maury, Walker Maury, Matilda Maury, Betsy Maury, Richard Launcelot Maury, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Catherine Maury, and Charles Maury.

He would assemble the children night and morning to read the Psalter for the day, verse and verse about; and in this way, so familiar did this barefooted boy become with the Psalms of David, that later in life he could still cite a quotation, and give chapter and verse, as if he had the Bible open before him.

Surrounded by all these pure and simple influences, amidst the solitude and silence of the primeval forests, young Matthew Fontaine Maury passed his youth. The cotton field found him farm work, and a raccoon or bear hunt, with the negroes and hounds brought from Virginia, made up his field sports. These, and earnest attention to all the opportunities of learning at school, prepared him for the great works of his life.