Part 2 (2/2)

_Question._ How old are you?

_Answer._ Nineteen in June.

_Q._ Indeed! I would have taken you to be thirty-five or six. Where were you born?

_A._ In Missouri.

_Q._ When did you begin to write?

_A._ In 1836.

_Q._ Why, how could that be, if you are only nineteen now?

_A._ I don't know. It does seem curious, somehow.

_Q._ It does indeed. Whom do you consider the most remarkable man you ever met?

_A._ Aaron Burr.

_Q._ But you never could have met Aaron Burr, if you are only nineteen years----

_A._ Now, if you know more about me than I do, what do you ask me for?

_Q._ Well, it was only a suggestion; nothing more. How did you happen to meet Burr?

_A._ Well, I happened to be at his funeral one day; and he asked me to make less noise, and----

_Q._ But, good heavens! If you were at his funeral, he must have been dead; and, if he was dead, how could he care whether you made a noise or not?

_A._ I don't know. He was always a particular kind of a man that way.

_Q._ Still, I don't understand it at all. You say he spoke to you, and that he was dead?

_A._ I didn't say he was dead.

_Q._ But wasn't he dead?

_A._ Well, some said he was, some said he wasn't.

_Q._ What do _you_ think?

_A._ Oh, it was none of my business! It wasn't any of my funeral.

_Q._ Did you--However we can never get this matter straight. Let me ask about something else. What was the date of your birth?

_A._ Monday, October 31, 1693.

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