On page 155 of “The Cooperstown Centennial” there appears “A new glimpse of Cooper”—­caught and kept by yet another little girl who firmly believed the author to be “a genuine lover of children.”  She writes that to meet him on the street “was always a pleasure.  His eye twinkled, his face beamed, and his cane pointed at you with a smile and a greeting of some forthcoming humor.  When I happened to be passing the gates of the old Hall, and he and Mrs. Cooper were driving home from his farm, I often ran to open the gate for him, which trifling act he always acknowledged with old-time courtesy.  His fine garden joined my father’s, and once, being in the vicinity of the fence, he tossed me several muskmelons to catch, which at that time were quite rare.”  In 1844 Mr. Cooper sent this youthful miss a picture-book, “The Young American’s Library.”  “The Primer” came with a note “written on large paper, with a large seal.”  It was a reprint from an English copy, and kept for sixty years, it is still thought “delightful reading.”  In part the accompanying note reads:  “Hall, Cooperstown, April 22, 1844.  Mr. Fenimore Cooper begs Miss Alice Worthington will do him the favor to accept the accompanying book (which was written expressly for Princess Alice of Great Britain).

“Mr. Cooper felt quite distressed for Miss Worthington’s muff during the late hot weather, and begs to offer her the use of his new ice-house should the muff complain.”  Miss Alice and her cousin were out walking a very warm April day, with their “precious muffs, which gave him the merry thought about the ice-house.”

[Illustration:  Miss ALICE TRUMBULL WORTHINGTON.]

Four years later Miss Worthington received another letter from Mr. Cooper, in acknowledgment of her sending to him a newspaper clipping about one of his books.  Of this letter is noted:  “His handwriting was fine, beautifully clear, and very distinguished.”  The note reads: 

     OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, Feb. 12, 1848.

MY DEAR MISS ALICE WORTHINGTON,—­I have received your letter with the most profound sentiments of gratitude.  The compliments from the newspapers did not make half the impression that was made by your letter; but the attentions of a young lady of your tender years, to an old man, who is old enough to be her grandfather, are not so easily overlooked.  Nor must you mistake the value I attach to the passage cut from the paper, for, even that coming through your little hands is far sweeter than would have been two candy-horns filled with sugar-plums.

I hope that you and I and John will have an opportunity of visiting the blackberry bushes next summer.  I now invite you to select your party—­of as many little girls, and boys, too, if you can find those you like, to go to my farm.  It shall be your party, and the invitations must go out in your name.  You can have your school if you like.  I shall ask only one guest myself, and that will be John, who knows the road.

     With highest consideration,