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there-; the Pages were there, & Drs. Drake & Bayless, &
many of my friends -- I enjoyed the evening much -- I
escorted Miss Byrd Page to it -- We had great fun out of
a student who did not have half sense-; thought himself a
poet, & was always writing the most unsurpassable nonsense,
& reading it himself to all who would listen -- Some of
the students wrote him an invitation to this party as a hoax-,
which he did not suspect-, & he was there in all his glory --
His name was Anderson Crayton, from Mississippi -- I got
some of his verses & read them to a group of widely amused
listeners -- Some of them ran thus --

"When first I saw Miss Nancy
"Her I did very much fancy --
"And I was not slow in believing
"That she would soon be a leaving &c &c &c

and this --
"I would not write insincerely,
"Nor love thee too severely --
"I express a great deal --
"But not more than I feel -- &c &c

There were yards and yards of this stuff -- & the fellow
was such a consummate fool, that no amount of laughing or
shouting ridicule over his productions, would ruffle his
serene complacency in the least --

An amusing incident happened to me about this time --
Bob Smith, Edgar Summers & I constituted "the trio" as we