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Rh a romantic flavor to records of the Dunbar family by recalling the intimate friendship which once existed between Daniel Webster and Mrs. Thoreau's sister, Louisa Dunbar. The latter was a gay, attractive school-teacher at Boscawen when Webster prepared there for college. David Dunbar, for whom Thoreau was named, died soon after his nephew's birth. "Uncle Charles" was a roving, debonnair character, somewhat of a juggler and wrestler and the delight of the children because of his geniality and conjuring tricks. He was a source of amusement and education to Henry Thoreau, as chance allusions evidence; from him, in turn, the poet-naturalist learned some simple necromancy which delighted his many children friends. When lassitude at times threatened him he recalled with humor the proneness of this uncle to "cat-naps" and his ability to "go to sleep shaving himself."

Mrs. Thoreau tempered the gayety and keen wit of the Dunbars with the more delicate, kindly traits of her maternal family, the Joneses of Weston. Perhaps too much emphasis has been laid upon her lively, assertive temper and her agile tongue; a family guest recently admitted that "she was an incessant talker." Her conversation, however, was not limited to gossip or harangue, as has been covertly hinted. Mr. Irving Allen,