The garden-book lying before me shows the interest which he took in all gardening and farming operations. This book, in which he began to make entries as early as the year 1766, and which he continued to keep all through life, except when from home, has every thing jotted down in it, from the date of the earliest peach-blossom to the day when his wheat was ready for the sickle. His personal, household, and farm accounts were kept with the precision of the most rigid accountant, and he was a rare instance of a man of enlarged views and wide range of thought, being fond of details. The price of his horses, the fee paid to a ferryman, his little gifts to servants, his charities--whether great or small--from the penny dropped into the church-box to the handsome donation given for the erection of a church--all found a place in his account-book. In 1772 his eldest child, Martha, was born; his second daughter, Jane Randolph, died in the fall of 1775, when eighteen months old. He was most unfortunate in his children--out of six that he had, only two, Martha and Mary, surviving the period of infancy. In the year 1775 Jefferson went to Philadelphia as a member of the first Congress.[11] In the year 1776 he made the following entry in his little pocket account-book: "_March 31._ My mother died about eight o'clock this morning, in the 57th year of her age." Thus she did not live to see the great day with whose glory her son's name is indissolubly connected.[12] [11] A gentleman who had been a frequent visitor at Monticello during Mr. Jefferson's life gave Mr. Randall (Jefferson's biographer) the following amusing incident concerning this venerated body and Declaration of Independence: "While the question of Independence was before Congress, it had its meetings near a livery-stable. The members wore short breeches and silk stockings, and, with handkerchief in hand, they were diligently employed in lashing the flies from their legs. So very vexatious was this annoyance, and to so great an impatience did it arouse the sufferers, that it hastened, if it did not aid, in inducing them to promptly affix their signatures to the great document which gave birth to an empire republic. "This anecdote I had from Mr. Jefferson at Monticello, who seemed to enjoy it very much, as well as to give great credit to the influence of the flies. He told it with much glee, and seemed to retain a vivid recollection of an attack, from which the only relief was signing the paper and flying from the scene." [12] On the opposite page is given a fac-simile of a portion of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence; the greater portion of this paragraph was omitted in the document as finally adopted. The interlineations in this portion are in the handwriting of John Adams.