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 Which would indicate that Dr. Moore was very far from being the dry, humorless pedant he is sometimes pictured. It shows, too, that he was very fond of his children—indeed he wrote more than one set of verses for them, though, it must be confessed, more often to instruct than to amuse!

He seems never to have suspected that his authorship of any of these poems would be questioned, and so made no effort to authenticate it. Nor, so far as known, was the original manuscript of any of them preserved. The only record of any direct statement by him as to the circumstances of the composition of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" is contained in a letter written in 1862, the year before his death.

In that year, the librarian of the New York Historical Society, wishing to secure an autograph copy of the poem to be preserved in the society's archives, received the following response to his request:

George H. Moore, Esq., Librarian of the New York Historical Society.



I have the pleasure to inform you that Dr. Clement C. Moore has been so kind as to comply with my request (made at your suggestion) to furnish for the Archives of our Society an autograph copy of his