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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Farmer Boy, and How He Became
+Commander-In-Chief, by Morrison Heady
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-Chief
+
+Author: Morrison Heady
+
+Editor: William M. Thayer
+
+Release Date: October 24, 2008 [EBook #27012]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FARMER BOY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Karen Dalrymple, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+[Illustration: The Farmer Boy
+
+BOSTON
+
+WALKER WISE & Co.]
+
+
+  THE
+  FARMER BOY,
+  AND
+  HOW HE BECAME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
+
+
+  BY UNCLE JUVINELL.
+
+
+  EDITED BY
+  WILLIAM M. THAYER,
+  AUTHOR OF "THE PIONEER BOY," ETC.
+
+
+  SEVENTH THOUSAND.
+
+
+  BOSTON:
+  WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,
+  245, WASHINGTON STREET.
+  1864.
+
+
+  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
+  WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,
+  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
+    of Massachusetts
+
+
+  BOSTON:
+  STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON.
+  No. 5, Water Street.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+BY REV. WILLIAM M. THAYER.
+
+
+The reader will remember, that, in the preface of "THE PRINTER BOY," I
+promised the next volume should be "THE FARMER BOY; OR, HOW GEORGE
+WASHINGTON BECAME PRESIDENT." That pledge has never been redeemed,
+though some labor has been performed with reference to it. And now
+Providence seems to direct the fulfilment of the promise by the pen of
+another, soon to be well known, I doubt not, to thousands of young
+readers;--"Uncle Juvinell."
+
+The advance sheets of a volume from his pen, upon the early life of
+Washington, have been placed in my hands for examination. I have
+carefully perused the work, and find it to be of so high a character,
+and so well adapted to the exigencies of the times, that I voluntarily
+abandon the idea of preparing the proposed volume myself, and most
+cordially recommend this work to the youth of our beloved land. I take
+this step with all the more readiness, when I learn that the author
+has persevered in his labors, though totally blind and almost deaf;
+and I gladly transfer the title which I proposed to give my own book
+to his excellent work, well satisfied that the act will prove a public
+benefit.
+
+The reader will find that Mr. Heady (Uncle Juvinell) has produced a
+very entertaining and instructive volume. It is written in a racy,
+sprightly style, that cannot fail to captivate the mind. Partaking
+himself of the buoyancy and good humor of boyhood, the author is able
+to write for the boys in a manner that is at once attractive and
+profitable. He has written a live book of one, who, "though dead, yet
+speaketh." It is replete with facts, and lessons of wisdom. The
+virtues are taught both by precept and example, and the vices are held
+up in all their deformity to warn and save. Religion, too, receives
+its just tribute, and wears the crown of glory.
+
+The appearance of this volume is timely. Adapted as it is to magnify
+the patriotic virtues, and the priceless worth of the government under
+which we live, it will prove a valuable contribution to the juvenile
+literature of the land. In this period of mighty struggles and issues,
+when our nation is groaning and travailing in pain to bring forth a
+future of surpassing renown and grandeur, it is important to inspire
+the hearts of American youth by the noblest examples of patriotism and
+virtue. And such is WASHINGTON, the "Father of his Country." It is
+best that the young of this battling age should study his character
+and emulate his deeds. His life was the richest legacy that he could
+leave to unborn generations, save the glorious Republic that he
+founded; and well will it be for the youth of our country when that
+life becomes to them the stimulus to exalted aims. Then loyalty will
+be free as air, and rebellions be unknown; then treason will hide its
+hydra-head, and our insulted flag wave in triumph where the last chain
+of slavery is broken.
+
+This volume will do its part to hasten this consummation of our
+patriot-hopes. Over its pleasant pages, then, we extend the right hand
+of fellowship to its author, though a stranger to us. Long may his
+able pen hold out! Widely may this his last work circulate! Blessed
+may be the fruits!
+
+  W. M. T.
+
+  FRANKLIN, MASS., October, 1863.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Our beloved country, my dear young readers, has passed through one
+great revolution; and it is now in the midst of another, which
+promises to prove even more momentous in its consequences.
+
+Knowing, therefore, the deep and lasting impression the great events
+of the day must needs produce upon your opening minds, the author of
+this book has been casting about him how he might contribute to your
+and the nation's good. As he is altogether bereft of sight, and nearly
+so of hearing, he is, of course, unable to lift a hand in his
+country's defence, or raise his voice in her justification. But she
+has a future; and for that he entertains an earnest hope, that through
+you, the rising generation, he may do something.
+
+To this end, therefore, he has written this volume, wherein he has
+endeavored to set forth, in a manner more calculated to attract and
+impress the youthful mind than has perhaps been heretofore attempted,
+the life and character of our good and great George Washington.
+
+By so doing, he hopes to awaken in your minds a desire to imitate the
+example and emulate the virtues of this greatest and wisest of
+Americans. For should he succeed in this, and thereby influence a
+thousand of you, when arrived at man's estate, to remain loyal to your
+country in her hour of peril (who might else have been tempted to turn
+their hand against her), then shall his humble pen have done more for
+her future welfare than he could have done for her present
+deliverance, had he the wielding of a thousand swords.
+
+And, should he ever have reason to suppose that such were really the
+case, far happier would he be, even in the dark and silent depths of
+his solitude, than the renowned victor of a hundred battle-fields, in
+all the blaze and noise of popular applause. Hoping that this little
+book may, for your sakes, fulfil the object for which it was written,
+and prove but the beginning of a long and pleasant acquaintance, he
+will conclude by begging to subscribe himself your true friend and
+well-wisher,
+
+  MORRISON HEADY.
+
+  ELK CREEK, SPENCER COUNTY, KY., 1863.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  _Introduction_                                                    17
+
+  WHEREIN IT WILL APPEAR WHO UNCLE JUVINELL IS, AND HOW HE CAME TO
+  WRITE THE LIFE OF "THE FARMER BOY" FOR THE LITTLE FOLKS.
+
+
+  I.
+
+  _George at School_                                                35
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BIRTH,
+  CHILDHOOD, AND EARLY EDUCATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AND THE
+  STORY OF HIS LITTLE HATCHET; FROM WHICH HE MAY DRAW A WHOLESOME
+  MORAL, IF HE BE DESIROUS OF GROWING IN VIRTUE; TOGETHER WITH
+  OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE HARDLY TO BE FOUND
+  ELSEWHERE.
+
+
+  II.
+
+  _The First Sorrow_                                                46
+
+  SHOWING HOW GEORGE MET WITH THE FIRST GREAT SORROW OF HIS LIFE
+  IN THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER; AND HOW HIS MOTHER WAS LEFT A YOUNG
+  WIDOW, WITH THE CARE OF A LARGE FAMILY; WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE
+  PRUDENCE AND WISDOM SUE DISPLAYED IN THE REARING OF HER
+  CHILDREN; TOGETHER WITH THE STORY OF THE SORREL COLT, WHICH
+  UNCLE JUVINELL INTRODUCES BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATING THE CHARACTERS
+  OF BOTH MOTHER AND SON.
+
+
+  III.
+
+  _Playing Soldier_                                                 54
+
+  WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND HOW GEORGE FIGURED AS A
+  LITTLE SOLDIER AT SCHOOL; WITH SOME REMARKS TOUCHING HIS
+  WONDERFUL STRENGTH AND ACTIVITY OF BODY, AND COURAGE OF SPIRIT;
+  AND HOW HE WOULD HAVE FIGURED AS A LITTLE SAILOR, HAD HE NOT
+  BEEN PREVENTED BY A MOTHER'S ANXIOUS LOVE; WHICH INFLUENCED NOT
+  ONLY THE WHOLE COURSE OF HIS FUTURE LIFE, BUT ALSO THE DESTINY
+  OF HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, AND, IT MAY BE, THAT OF THE WHOLE WORLD;
+  AS THE LITTLE READER WILL FIND OUT FOR HIMSELF. IF HE BUT HAVE
+  THE PATIENCE TO BEAR UNCLE JUVINELL COMPANY TO THE END OF THIS
+  INTERESTING HISTORY.
+
+
+  IV.
+
+  "_Rules of Behavior_"                                             61
+
+  AFFORDING TO THE READER ANOTHER AND HIS LAST GLIMPSE OF
+  WASHINGTON AS A SCHOOL-BOY. HERE HE WILL LEARN OF WASHINGTON'S
+  MANY INGENIOUS MODES OF GAINING AND RETAINING KNOWLEDGE, AND HIS
+  HABITS OF PUTTING IT TO PRACTICAL USES; AND WILL FIND HIS RULES
+  OF BEHAVIOR IN COMPANY AND IN CONVERSATION, WRITTEN AT THE AGE
+  OF THIRTEEN, WHICH UNCLE JUVINELL WOULD EARNESTLY RECOMMEND HIM,
+  AND, IN FACT, ALL HIS READERS, BE THEY BOYS OR GIRLS, MEN OR
+  WOMEN, TO STORE AWAY IN THEIR MEMORIES, IF THEY BE DESIROUS OF
+  GROWING IN VIRTUE. AND OF DEPORTING THEMSELVES IN SUCH A MANNER
+  AS TO GAIN THE GOOD-WILL AND ESTEEM, AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE
+  HAPPINESS, OF ALL AROUND THEM.
+
+
+  V.
+
+  _In the Wilderness_                                               70
+
+  IN WHICH WILL BE SEEN HOW GEORGE BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH OLD LORD
+  FAIRFAX, AND WAS EMPLOYED BY THIS GREAT NOBLEMAN TO ACT AS
+  SURVEYOR OF ALL HIS WILD LANDS; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE HE
+  LED IN THE WILDERNESS, AND A SOMEWHAT HIGHLY COLORED PICTURE OF
+  A WAR-DANCE PERFORMED BY A PARTY OF INDIANS FOR THE
+  ENTERTAINMENT OF HIM AND HIS FRIENDS.
+
+
+  VI.
+
+  _The Young Surveyor_                                              78
+
+  REVEALING STILL FURTHER GLIMPSES OF WASHINGTON AS A YOUNG
+  SURVEYOR,--IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE HOW THAT GREAT MAN
+  BROUGHT HIS LABORS IN THE WILDERNESS TO AN END; WITH SOME
+  REMARKS RESPECTING THE LOWLAND BEAUTY, AND HOW LITTLE IS KNOWN
+  OF HER.
+
+
+  VII.
+
+  _First Military Appointment_                                      89
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL LEARN HOW WASHINGTON, AT THE
+  EARLY AGE OF NINETEEN, BECAME ONE OF THE ADJUTANT-GENERALS OF
+  THE PROVINCE OF VIRGINIA; AND HOW HE WENT ON A VOYAGE TO THE
+  WEST INDIES IN COMPANY WITH HIS BROTHER LAWRENCE, WHO, BEING IN
+  QUEST OF HEALTH, AND FAILING TO FIND IT THERE, RETURNED HOME TO
+  DIE.
+
+
+  VIII.
+
+  _Important Explanations_                                          96
+
+  WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS TALK TOGETHER, IN A
+  PLEASING AND FAMILIAR STYLE OF CERTAIN MATTERS CONTAINED IN THE
+  FOREGOING PAGES; WHICH, BEING SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT OF
+  COMPREHENSION, NEED TO BE MORE FULLY AND CLEARLY EXPLAINED, THAT
+  THEY MAY THE BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT IS TO COME HEREAFTER IN THIS
+  INTERESTING HISTORY.
+
+
+  IX.
+
+  _Indian Troubles_                                                165
+
+  WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL GOES ON WITH HIS STORY, AND TELLS THE
+  LITTLE FOLKS ALL THAT IS NEEDFUL FOR THEM TO KNOW CONCERNING THE
+  CAUSES THAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE OLD FRENCH WAR; TO WHICH THE YOUNG
+  READER WILL DO WELL TO PAY VERY PARTICULAR ATTENTION.
+
+
+  X.
+
+  "_Big Talk" with "White Thunder_"                                115
+
+  EXPLAINING HOW MAJOR WASHINGTON CAME TO BE SENT BY GOVERNOR
+  DINWIDDIE ON A MISSION TO THE FRENCH, NEAR LAKE ERIE.--HOW HE
+  SET OUT.--WHAT BEFELL HIM BY THE WAY.--HOW HE STOPPED AT
+  LOGSTOWN TO HAVE A BIG TALK WITH THE HALF-KING, WHITE THUNDER,
+  AND OTHER INDIAN WORTHIES.--HOW HE AT LAST REACHED THE FRENCH
+  FORT, AND WHAT HE DID AFTER HE GOT THERE.
+
+
+  XI.
+
+  _Christmas in the Wilderness_                                    126
+
+  ENABLING THE YOUNG READER TO FOLLOW MAJOR WASHINGTON TO HIS
+  JOURNEY'S END, AND SEE HOW HE AND HIS PARTY SPENT THEIR
+  CHRISTMAS IN THE WILDERNESS.--HOW HE TWICE CAME NEAR LOSING HIS
+  LIFE, FIRST BY THE TREACHERY OF AN INDIAN GUIDE, AND THEN BY
+  DROWNING; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE INDIAN
+  PRINCESS, ALIQUIPPA.
+
+
+  XII.
+
+  _Washington's First Battle_                                      134
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER, AFTER GETTING A HINT OF THE
+  TREMENDOUS CONSEQUENCES THAT ENSUED FROM THE FRENCH GENERAL'S
+  LETTER, WILL FIND SO MUCH TO ENTERTAIN HIM, THAT HE WILL READILY
+  EXCUSE UNCLE JUVINELL FROM GIVING THE REMAINING HEADS OF THIS
+  CHAPTER; FURTHER THAN TO SAY, THAT IT WINDS UP WITH QUITE A
+  LIVELY AND SPIRITED ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLE.
+
+
+  XIII.
+
+  _Fort Necessity_                                                 146
+
+  WHAT BEFELL COLONEL WASHINGTON IN AND AROUND FORT NECESSITY, AND
+  HOW HE SUSTAINED HIS FIRST SIEGE; WHICH WILL BE FOUND EVEN MORE
+  ENTERTAINING THAN THE ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST BATTLE, NARRATED IN
+  THE LAST CHAPTER.
+
+
+  XIV.
+
+  _General Braddock_                                               158
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER AND COLONEL WASHINGTON FORM THE
+  ACQUAINTANCE OF GENERAL BRADDOCK, AND COME TO THE SAME CONCLUSIONS
+  REGARDING HIS CHARACTER; AND IN WHICH THE READER IS HONORED WITH A
+  SLIGHT INTRODUCTION TO THE GREAT DR. FRANKLIN, WHO GIVES SOME GOOD
+  ADVICE, WHICH BRADDOCK, TO HIS FINAL COST, FAILS TO FOLLOW; AND IS
+  ENTERTAINED WITH A FEW GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN CAMP.
+
+
+  XV.
+
+  _Rough Work_                                                     172
+
+  THE READER WILL SEE HOW GENERAL BRADDOCK AT LAST SET OUT ON HIS
+  MARCH TO FORT DUQUESNE.--HOW HE GOT ENTANGLED IN THE WILDERNESS,
+  AND WAS FORCED TO CALL UPON THE YOUNG PROVINCIAL COLONEL FOR
+  ADVICE. WHICH, THOUGH WISELY GIVEN, WAS NOT WISELY FOLLOWED.--HOW
+  CAPTAIN JACK MADE AN OFFER, FOR WHICH HE GOT BUT SORRY THANKS; AND
+  WILL FIND A SPRINKLING OF WAYSIDE ITEMS HERE AND THERE; WHICH
+  SAVES THIS CHAPTER FROM BEING CONSIDERED A DULL ONE.
+
+
+  XVI.
+
+  _Braddock's Defeat_                                              186
+
+  IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE BLOODIEST PAGE IN THE ANNALS OF AMERICA;
+  OR, TO EXPRESS IT OTHERWISE, AN ACCOUNT OF THE FAMOUS BATTLE OF
+  THE MONONGAHELA, COMMONLY CALLED BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT; WHICH, IT WILL
+  BE SEEN AT A GLANCE, MIGHT HAVE TURNED OUT A VICTORY AS WELL, HAD
+  WASHINGTON'S ADVICE BEEN FOLLOWED.
+
+
+  XVII.
+
+  _Explanations_                                                   200
+
+  WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS DISCOURSE TOGETHER, IN
+  A LIVELY AND ENTERTAINING STYLE, OF DIVERS MATTERS TO BE FOUND,
+  AND NOT TO BE FOUND, IN BOOK THURSDAY; WHICH MAY SEEM OF LITTLE
+  CONSEQUENCE TO THOSE ELDERLY PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO WISE TO BE AMUSED,
+  AND WHO WOULD, ANY TIME, RATHER SEE A FACT BROUGHT OUT STARK NAKED
+  THAN DRESSED HANDSOMELY. SUCH OWLS ARE REQUESTED TO PASS OVER THIS
+  CHAPTER, AND PERCH UPON BOOK FRIDAY, PORTIONS OF WHICH WILL, BE
+  FOUND QUITE AS DRY AS THEY COULD POSSIBLY DESIRE.
+
+
+  XVIII.
+
+  _Work in Earnest_                                                210
+
+  SHOWING HOW BRADDOCK'S ARMY CONTINUED ITS FLIGHT TO
+  PHILADELPHIA.--HOW WASHINGTON RETURNED TO MOUNT VERNON, AND WAS
+  SHORTLY AFTERWARDS MADE COMMANDER OF ALL THE FORCES OF VIRGINIA;
+  AND HOW HE WENT TO BOSTON, AND WHY; WITH OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST.
+
+
+  XIX.
+
+  _Dark Days_                                                      222
+
+  STILL FARTHER ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S TROUBLES WITH THE INDIANS
+  AND WITH HIS OWN MEN, AND NOTICE OF HIS MISUNDERSTANDING WITH
+  GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE; ALL OF WHICH, COMBINED, RENDER THIS THE
+  SADDEST AND THE GLOOMIEST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE.
+
+
+  XX.
+
+  _A New Enterprise_                                               233
+
+  CONTAINING GLIMPSES OUTSIDE OF THE DIRECT LINE OF OUR STORY, WITH
+  A MORE MINUTE AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF HOW WASHINGTON WOOED
+  AND WON A FAIR LADY THAN IS TO BE MET WITH ELSEWHERE; WITH SOME
+  PARTICULARS TOUCHING AN INTENDED EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE.
+
+
+  XXI.
+
+  _More Blundering_                                                244
+
+  SHOWING HOW BRADDOCK'S FOLLY WAS REPEATED BY MAJOR GRANT, AS
+  FOREBODED BY WASHINGTON; AND ALSO WHAT CAME OF THE EXPEDITION
+  AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE.
+
+
+  XXII.
+
+  _Washington at Home_                                             255
+
+  GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S MARRIAGE WITH MRS. CUSTIS.--HIS
+  RECEPTION BY THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BURGESSES.--HIS HABITS AS A MAN
+  OF BUSINESS.--HIS RURAL PURSUITS AND AMUSEMENTS.--HIS LOVE OF
+  SOCIAL PLEASURES.--HIS ADVENTURE WITH A POACHER; AND MANY OTHER
+  ITEMS; ALL OF WHICH, COMBINED, MAKE THIS CHAPTER ONE OF THE MOST
+  PLEASING AND ENTERTAINING OF THE WHOLE BOOK.
+
+
+  XXIII.
+
+  _A Family Quarrel_                                               269
+
+  WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND WHAT WILL BE EXPLAINED MORE TO
+  HIS SATISFACTION IN CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+  XXIV.
+
+  _The Cause of the Quarrel_                                       276
+
+  AFFORDING A MORE CLEAR, AND SATISFACTORY ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSES
+  THAT BROUGHT ABOUT OUR REVOLUTIONARY WAR THAN WAS GIVEN IN CHAPTER
+  XXIII; BUT CHAPTER XXV. MUST NEEDS BE READ, BEFORE A FULL AND
+  COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THESE MATTERS CAN BE ARRIVED AT.
+
+
+  XXV.
+
+  _Resistance to Tyranny_                                          288
+
+  ILLUSTRATING WHAT PART WASHINGTON TOOK IN THESE MEASURES OF
+  RESISTANCE TO BRITISH TYRANNY.--HOW HE BECAME A REPRESENTATIVE OF
+  VIRGINIA IN THE GREAT COLONIAL ASSEMBLY, OTHERWISE CALLED THE OLD
+  CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; AND HOW, UPON THE BREAKING-OUT OF
+  HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE COLONIES AND THE MOTHER-COUNTRY, HE WAS
+  MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF ALL THE FORCES OF THE UNITED COLONIES;
+  WITH OTHER ITEMS TOUCHING THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONTINENTAL
+  CONGRESS, AND PATRICK HENRY, THE GREAT VIRGINIA ORATOR.
+
+
+  XXVI.
+
+  _Conclusion_                                                     301
+
+  WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL BE ENTERTAINED WITH THE PLEASING AND
+  EDIFYING CONVERSATION WHICH TOOK PLACE BETWEEN UNCLE JUVINELL AND
+  THE LITTLE FOLKS, TOUCHING DIVERS MATTERS IN BOOK FRIDAY; WHICH
+  DEMAND FURTHER CONSIDERATION FOR A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF
+  OUR HISTORY, PAST AND TO COME.
+
+
+
+
+THE FARMER BOY.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Somewhere in green Kentucky, not a great many years ago, the ruddy
+light of a Christmas sunset, streaming in at the windows of an
+old-fashioned brick house, that stood on a gentle hillside, half
+hidden by evergreens, shone full and broad on a group of merry little
+youngsters there met together to spend the holiday with their Uncle
+Juvinell, a charming old bachelor of threescore and ten.
+
+What with "blind man's buff," "leap-frog," "hide-and-seek," "poor
+pussy wants a corner," Mother Goose, dominos, sky-rockets and squibs,
+and what with the roasting of big red apples and the munching of
+gingerbread elephants, the reading of beautiful story-books,--received
+that morning as Christmas presents from their Uncle Juvinell and other
+loving relatives,--these little folks had found this day the most
+delightful of their lives.
+
+Tired at last of play, and stuffed with Christmas knick-knacks till
+their jackets and breeches could hold no more, they had now betaken
+themselves to the library to await the return of their Uncle Juvinell,
+who had gone out to take his usual evening walk; and were now quietly
+seated round a blazing winter fire, that winked and blinked at them
+with its great bright eye, and went roaring right merrily up the wide
+chimney. Just as the last beam of the setting sun went out at the
+window, Uncle Juvinell, as if to fill its place, came in at the door,
+all brisk and ruddy from his tramp over the snow in the sharp bracing
+air, and was hailed with a joyous shout by the little folks, who,
+hastening to wheel his great arm-chair for him round to the fire,
+pushed and pulled him into it, and called upon him to tell one of his
+most charming stories, even before the tingling frost was out of his
+nose.
+
+As this worthy old gentleman has done much for the entertainment and
+instruction of the rising generations of the land, it is but due him
+that some mention, touching his many amiable traits of character and
+his accomplishments of mind and person, should be made in this place
+for the more complete satisfaction of those who may hereafter feel
+themselves indebted to him for some of the most pleasant moments of
+their lives.
+
+In person, Uncle Juvinell is stout and well-rounded. His legs are fat,
+and rather short; his body is fat, and rather long; his belly is snug
+and plump; his hands are plump and white; his hair is white and soft;
+his eyes are soft and blue; his coat is blue and sleek; and over his
+sleek and dimpled face, from his dimpled chin to the very crown of his
+head,--which, being bald, shines like sweet oil in a warm
+fire-light,--there beams one unbroken smile of fun, good-humor, and
+love, that fills one's heart with sunshine to behold. Indeed, to look
+at him, and be with him a while, you could hardly help half believing
+that he must be a twin-brother of Santa Claus, so closely does he
+resemble that far-famed personage, not only in appearance, but in
+character also; and more than once, having been met in his little
+sleigh by some belated school-boy, whistling homeward through the
+twilight of a Christmas or New Year's Eve, he has been mistaken for
+the jolly old saint himself. In short, his whole appearance is in the
+highest degree respectable; and there is even about him an air of
+old-fashioned elegance, which of course is owing chiefly to the
+natural sweetness and politeness of his manners, and yet perhaps a
+little heightened withal by the gold-bowed spectacles that he wears on
+his nose, the heavy gold bar that pins his snowy linen, the gold
+buttons that shine on his coat, his massive gold watch-chain (at the
+end of which hangs a great red seal as big as a baby's fist), and by
+his gold-headed ebony cane, that he always carries on his shoulder
+like a musket when he walks, as much as to say, "Threescore and ten,
+and no need of a staff yet, my Christian friend." No man is more
+beloved and esteemed by all who know him, old and young, than he; for
+like Father Grimes, whose nephew he is by the mother's side.--
+
+    "He modest merit seeks to find,
+      And give it its desert;
+    He has no malice in his mind,
+      No ruffles on his shirt.
+
+    His neighbors he does not abuse;
+      Is sociable and gay:
+    He wears large buckles in his shoes,
+      And changes them, each day."
+
+If there is one thing about Uncle Juvinell that we might venture to
+pronounce more charming than another, it is the smile of mingled fun,
+good-humor, and love, with which his countenance never ceases to
+shine, save when he hears the voice of pain and his breast with pity
+burns. Touching this same trait of his, a lady once said in our
+hearing, that she verily believed a cherub, fresh from the rosy
+chambers of the morning, came at the opening of each day to Uncle
+Juvinell's chamber, just on purpose to dash a handful of sunbeams on
+his head; and, as there were always more than enough to keep his face
+bathed with smiles for the next twenty-four hours, they were not
+wasted, but, falling and lodging on his gold spectacles, his gold
+breast-pin, his gold buttons, his gold watch-chain, and the gold head
+of his ebony cane, washed them with lustre ever new, as if his face,
+bright and broad as it was, were not enough to reflect the love and
+sunshine ever dwelling in his heart. We will not undertake to vouch
+for the truth of this, however. As the young lady was a marriageable
+young lady, and had been for a number of years, it would not be
+gallant or generous for us to mention it; but of this we are certain,
+that, when this good old gentleman enters a room, there is a warmth
+and brightness in his very presence, that causes you to look round,
+half expecting to see the tables and chairs throwing their shadows
+along the floor, as if, by the power of magic, a window had suddenly
+been opened in the wall to let in the morning sunshine.
+
+If the affections of Uncle Juvinell's heart are childlike in their
+freshness, the powers of his intellect are gigantic in their
+dimensions. He is a man of prodigious learning: for proof of which,
+you have but to enter his library, and take note of the books upon
+books that crowd the shelves from the floor to the ceiling; the maps
+that line the walls; the two great globes, one of the earth and the
+other of the heavens, that stand on either side of his reading-desk;
+and the reading-desk itself, whereon there always lies some book of
+monstrous size, wide open, which no one has ever had the courage to
+read from beginning to end, or could comprehend if he did.
+
+In the languages he is very expert; speaking French with such
+clearness and distinctness, that any native-born Frenchman, with a
+fair knowledge of the English, can with but little difficulty
+understand more than half he says; and in German he is scarcely less
+fluent and ready; while his Latin is the envy of all who know only
+their mother-tongue. In mathematics, his skill is such, that you might
+give him a sum, the working-out of which would cover three or four
+large slates; and he would never fail to arrive at the answer, let him
+but take his time.
+
+In astronomy, he is perfectly at home among the fixed stars; can
+distinguish them at a single glance, and that, too, without the help
+of his spectacles, from the wandering planets; and is as familiar with
+the motion and changes of the moon, as if he had been in the habit for
+the last forty years of spending the hot summer months at some of the
+fashionable watering-places of that amiable and interesting orb. But
+it is in the history of the nations and great men of the earth that
+Uncle Juvinell most excels, as shall be proved to your entire
+satisfaction before reaching the end of this volume.
+
+And yet, notwithstanding the vastness of his learning and the gigantic
+powers of his mind, he can, when it so pleases him, disburden himself
+of these great matters, and descend from his lofty height to the
+comprehension of the little folks, with as much ease as a huge
+balloon, soaring amidst the clouds, can let off its gas, and sink down
+to the level of the kites, air-balls, and sky-rockets wherewith they
+are wont to amuse themselves.
+
+Being an old bachelor, as before noticed, he, of course, has no
+children of his own; but, like the philosopher that he is, he always
+consoles himself for this misfortune with the reflection, that, had he
+been so favored, much of his love and affection must needs have been
+wasted on his own six, eight, or ten, as the case might have been,
+instead of being divided without measure among the hundreds and
+thousands of little ones that gladden the wedded life, and fill with
+their music the homes of others more blessed.
+
+Living, as all his brothers do, in easy circumstances, he has abundant
+time and leisure to devote himself to the particular interest and
+enjoyment of these little ones; and is always casting in his mind what
+he may be doing to amuse them, or make them wiser, better, and
+happier.
+
+Such is the ease, heartiness, and familiarity with which he demeans
+himself when among them, and enters into all their little pastimes and
+concerns, that they stand no more in awe of him than if he were one of
+their own number; and make him the butt of a thousand impish pranks,
+at which he laughs as heartily as the merriest rogue among them. And
+yet it is for that very reason, perhaps, that they love him so
+devotedly, and would give up their dog-knives or wax dolls any day,
+sooner than show themselves unmindful of his slightest wishes, or do
+aught that could bring upon them even his softest rebuke. They make
+nothing of taking off his gold spectacles, and putting them on their
+own little pugs to look wise; or running their chubby fists into the
+tight, warm pockets of his breeches, in quest of his gold pencil or
+pearl-handled knife; or dashing like mad over the yard, with his
+gold-headed cane for a steed; or stealing up behind him, as he stands
+with his back to the fire, and slyly pulling out his big red bandanna
+handkerchief, wherewith to yoke the dog and cat together as they lie
+sociably side by side on the hearth-rug. In short, he will suffer them
+to tease him and tousle him and tumble him to their hearts' content,
+and set no limits to their liberties, so long as they are careful not
+to touch his snowy linen with their smutched fingers; for, if Uncle
+Juvinell has one fault in the world, it is his unreasonable partiality
+for snowy linen. But, were we to go on with our praises and
+commendations of this best of men, we should fill a large volume full
+to overflowing, and still leave the better half unsaid: so we must
+exercise a little self-denial, and forego such pleasing thoughts for
+the present, as it now behooves us to bring our minds to bear upon
+matters we have more nearly in view.
+
+Seeing how earnestly the little folks were bent upon drawing out of
+him one of his longest stories, Uncle Juvinell now bade them sit down
+and be quiet till he should have time to conjure up something more
+charming than any Arabian tale they had ever heard; and throwing
+himself back in his great arm-chair, and fixing his eyes on the
+glowing coals, that seemed to present to his fancy an ever-shifting
+panorama, was soon lost in profound meditation. And the longer he
+thought, the harder he looked at the fire, which knowingly answered
+his look with a winking and blinking of its great bright eye, that
+seemed to say, "Well, Uncle Juvinell, what shall we do for the
+entertainment or instruction of these little people to-night? Shall we
+tell them of that crew of antic goblins we wot of, who are wont to
+meet by moonlight, to play at football with the hanged man's head,
+among the tombstones of an old graveyard? Or may be that dreadful
+ogre, with the one fiery eye in the middle of his forehead, who was in
+the habit of roasting fat men on a spit for his Christmas dinners,
+would be more to their taste. Or, if you prefer it, let it be that
+beautiful fairy, who, mounted on a milk-white pony, and dressed in
+green and gold, made her home in an echoing wood, for no other purpose
+than to lead little children therefrom, who might by some ill chance
+be separated from their friends, and lose their way in its tangled
+wilds. Or perhaps you are thinking it would be more instructive to
+them were we to conjure up some story of early times in green
+Kentucky, when our great-grandfathers were wont to take their rifles
+to bed with them, and sleep with them in their arms, ready to spring
+up at the slightest rustling of the dry leaves in the woods, and
+defend themselves against the dreaded Indian, as with panther-like
+tread he skulked around their lonely dwellings."
+
+To each and all of these, Uncle Juvinell shook his head; none of them
+being just exactly the thing he wanted. At length, finding that the
+fire hindered rather than helped him to make a choice, he rose from
+his seat, turned his back upon it, and looked from one bright face to
+another of the circle before him, till his eye rested on Daniel, who
+was among the oldest of the children, and was, by the way, the young
+historian of the family, and, in his own opinion, a youth of rather
+uncommon parts. He had that morning received from his uncle, as a
+Christmas present, that most delightful of story-books, "Robinson
+Crusoe;" but having seen the unlucky sailor high, but not dry, on his
+desert island, and having run his eye over all the pictures, he had
+laid it aside, and was now standing at the reading-desk, looking as
+wise as a young owl in a fog over a very large book indeed, in which
+he pretended to be too deeply interested to finish a slab of
+gingerbread that lay half munched at his side.
+
+Seeing his little nephew thus engaged, Uncle Juvinell smiled a quiet
+smile all to himself, and, after watching him a few moments, said,
+"Dannie, my boy, what book is that you are reading with so much
+interest that you have forgotten your gingerbread?"
+
+"Irving's Life of Washington, sir," replied Daniel with an air.
+
+"A good book, a very good indeed; but too hard for you, I fear," said
+Uncle Juvinell, shaking his head. "Tell me, though, how far you have
+read."
+
+"To Braddock's defeat, sir," replied Daniel.
+
+"You have been getting over the ground rather fast, I am thinking; but
+tell me how you like it," said Uncle Juvinell, by way of drawing his
+little nephew out.
+
+"Here and there, I come to a chapter that I like very much," replied
+Daniel: "but there are parts that I don't understand very well; and I
+was just thinking that I would point them out to you some time, and
+get you to explain them to me; as you will, I am certain; for you know
+every thing, and are so obliging to us little folks!"
+
+At this, Uncle Juvinell's face lighted up as with a brilliant thought;
+but, without seeming to notice his little nephew's request just then,
+he reseated himself, and again began looking hard at the fire. The
+fire opened its great bright eye more widely than before, and looked
+as if it were putting the question, "Well, sir, and what is it now?
+Out with it, and I will throw what light I can on the matter." After a
+few moments, there appeared to be a perfect understanding between
+them; for the fire with a sly wink seemed to say, "A happy thought,
+Uncle Juvinell,--a very happy thought indeed: I was just on the point
+of proposing the very same thing myself. Come, let us go about it at
+once, and make these holidays the brightest and happiest these little
+folks have ever known, or ever could or would or should know, in all
+their lives." And the fire fell to winking and blinking at such an
+extravagant rate, that the shadows of those who were seated round it
+began bobbing up and down the wall, looking like misshapen goblins
+amusing themselves by jumping imaginary ropes, the gigantic one of
+Uncle Juvinell leaping so high as to butt the ceiling.
+
+After several minutes of deep thought, the old gentleman rose, and
+stood on his short fat legs with the air of a man who had made up his
+mind, and with a smile on his face, as if sure he was just on the
+point of giving them all a pleasant surprise. "Laura, my dear," said
+he, "take down that picture from the wall you see hanging to the right
+of the bookcase; and you, Ella, my darling, take that bunch of
+feathers, and brush off the dust from it. Now hand it to me. This, my
+cherubs," he went on, "is the portrait of the good and great George
+Washington, who is called the Father of our country. It is to him,
+more than to any other man, that we owe the blessings of freedom,
+peace, and prosperity, we now enjoy in larger measure than any other
+people of the wide earth; and it was for these same blessings that he
+fought and struggled through all the weary years of our Revolutionary
+War, amidst difficulties, dangers, and discouragements such as never
+before tried the strength of man. And when, in the happy end, he, by
+his courage, skill, and fortitude, and abiding trust in the protection
+of an all-wise Providence, had come out victorious over all, and
+driven our cruel enemies from the land, so that our homes were once
+more gladdened with the smiles of peace and plenty,--then it was that
+a grateful people with one voice hailed him chosen of the Lord for the
+salvation of our beloved country. Blessed be the name of George
+Washington,--blessed for evermore!" And a big tear of love and
+thankfulness started from each of Uncle Juvinell's mild blue eyes,
+trickled slowly over his ruddy cheek, and, dropping thence, went
+hopping and sparkling down his large blue waistcoat.
+
+At this the little folks looked very grave, and thought to themselves,
+"What a good man Washington must have been, and how much he must have
+done and suffered for the welfare of his fellow-beings, thus to have
+brought the tears to our dear old uncle's eyes!" After looking at the
+picture for some moments in silence, they began talking about it, each
+in his or her own fashion; while Uncle Juvinell listened with much
+interest, curious to see what different impressions it would produce
+on their minds.
+
+"That scroll he holds in his left hand must be his farewell address to
+his army," said Daniel, the young historian, looking very wise.
+
+"What a fine long sword he carries at his side!" said Bryce, a
+war-like youngster who had just climbed to the summit of his ninth
+year, and had, as you must know, a wooden sword of his own, with which
+he went about dealing death and destruction to whole regiments of
+cornstalks and squadrons of horse-weeds, calling them British and
+Tories.
+
+"How tall and grand and handsome he looks!" said Laura, a prim and
+demure little miss of thirteen: "in his presence, I am sure I could
+never speak above a whisper."
+
+"That, yonder, among the trees and evergreens on the hill, must be the
+house where he lived," said Ella, a modest, sweet-mannered little lady
+of twelve. "What a beautiful place it is! and what a happy home it
+must have been when he lived in it!"
+
+"And see how the hill slopes down to the river, so grassy and smooth!
+and such a nice place for little boys to roll over and over down to
+the bottom!" said Ned, a rough-and-tumble youngster of ten, who spent
+one-half of the sunshine with his back to the ground and his heels in
+the air.
+
+"And see the beautiful river so broad and so smooth, and the great
+ships afar off going down to the sea!" said Johnnie, a little poet of
+eight, who passed much of his time dreaming with his eyes open.
+
+"And such a pretty play-house as I see there among the bushes on the
+hillside!" said Fannie, a stout little matron of five, the mother of a
+large and still increasing family of dolls.
+
+"That is not a play-house, Fannie, but the tomb where Washington lies
+buried," said Dannie with an air of superior wisdom.
+
+"What a splendid white horse that black man is holding for him! How he
+bows his neck, and champs his bit, and paws the ground!" said Willie,
+a harum-scarum, neck-or-nothing young blade of fourteen, who would
+have given his best leg to have been the owner of a galloping,
+high-headed, short-tailed pony.
+
+"What is he doing so far away from home without his hat, I wonder?"
+said Master Charlie, a knowing young gentleman of eight, who was much
+in the habit of doubting everybody's eyes and ears but his own.
+
+"How kind and good he looks out of his eyes, just like father!" said
+Mary, an affectionate and timid little creature of seven.
+
+Just then, Addison, a plump little fellow of four, in all the glory of
+his first new jacket and his first new breeches, who was standing on
+the top round of Uncle Juvinell's chair, suddenly cried out in a very
+strong voice for his age, "Oh! he looks just like Uncle Juvinell: now
+don't he, Cousin Mary?"
+
+For a man of his appearance to be thus compared with so stately and
+dignified a man as Washington was a thing so ludicrous, that Uncle
+Juvinell was surprised into the heartiest fit of laughter that he had
+enjoyed that day. When it was over, he bade Laura hang up the picture
+again in its accustomed place, and began where he had left off some
+time before: "Now, my dear children, it came into my mind, while I was
+talking with your Cousin Dannie a little bit ago, that I could not
+tell you any thing more entertaining and instructive than the story of
+Washington's life. It will, I am quite sure, interest you much: for
+although he was such a great man,--the greatest, no doubt, that ever
+lived,--and so awful to look upon, yet, for all that, his heart was
+full to overflowing with the most tender and kindly affections, and,
+if you can believe it, quite as fond of little children as your Uncle
+Juvinell; often joining in their innocent sports for a whole hour at a
+time. Let me see. This is Wednesday; and we have seven, eight, long
+holidays before us to be as happy as skylarks in. Now, I am thinking,
+that, if we would have next New Year's Day find us better and wiser,
+we could not hit upon a more proper plan for beginning so desirable an
+end than by spending a part of each day in making ourselves acquainted
+with the life and character of this good and great man, and, at the
+close of each evening's lesson, talking over what we have learned, to
+our more complete understanding of the same. And now, my merry ones,
+speak out, and tell me what you think of it."
+
+"It will be just exactly the very thing," said wise Daniel.
+
+"Glorious!" said rollicking Willie.
+
+"Charming!" said prim and demure Miss Laura.
+
+"'Twill be delightful, I am sure," said modest Ella.
+
+"Nothing could please me better, if we have a good big battle now and
+then," said war-like Bryce.
+
+"I wonder if it will be as interesting as 'Robinson Crusoe'?" put in
+doubting Charlie.
+
+"Or 'Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp'?" chimed in dreaming Johnnie.
+
+"And we'll all listen, and be so good!" said timid, loving little
+Mary.
+
+"Wait a moment for me, uncle, till I run down to the cabin, just to
+see how Black Daddy's getting along making my sled," said hair-brained
+Ned.
+
+"And wait a little bit for me too, uncle, till I go and put my dolly
+babe to bed; for she might take the measles if I keep her up too
+long," said motherly Fannie.
+
+"And let me sit on your knee, uncle; Cousin Mary wants my chair," said
+Addison, the youngest one of them all, at the same time climbing up,
+and getting astride of Uncle Juvinell's left fat leg.
+
+"Then settle yourselves at once, you noisy chatterboxes," said Uncle
+Juvinell with a shining face; "and mind you be as quiet and mute as
+mice at a cat's wedding while I am telling my story, or I'll"--His
+threat was drowned in the joyous shouts of the children as they
+scrambled into their chairs. When they had all put on a listening
+look, he poured out a little yellow, squat, Dutch mug brimful of rich
+brown cider from a big blue pitcher that Black Daddy had just placed
+on a table close at hand, and, having wet his whistle therewith, began
+his story. And now and then, as the story went on, the fire, keeping
+its bright, watchful eye upon the old gentleman, would wink at him in
+a sly manner, that seemed to say, "Well done, Uncle Juvinell,--very
+well done indeed. You see, sir, I was quite right in what I told you.
+We have hit upon the very thing. The little folks are enchanted: they
+are drawing in wisdom with every breath. A merry Christmas to us all!"
+Pop, pop! hurrah! pop!
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+GEORGE AT SCHOOL.
+
+
+A hundred years ago or more, there stood on the green slopes of the
+Potomac, in the county of Westmoreland, Va., an old red farmhouse,
+with a huge stone chimney at each end, and high gray roof, the eaves
+of which projected in such a manner as to cover a porch in front and
+two or three small shed-rooms in the rear. Now, although this house
+was built of wooden beams and painted boards, and was far from being
+what could be called, even for those times, a fine one,--looking as it
+did more like a barn than a dwelling for man,--yet, for all that, it
+had the honor of being the birthplace of the good and great George
+Washington, who is said, by many very wise persons who ought to know,
+to have been the greatest man that ever came into this pleasant and
+glorious world of ours.
+
+His father, Augustine Washington, was married early in life to Jane
+Butler, who died after having borne him two sons, Lawrence and
+Augustine. In a year or two after this loss, feeling the want of some
+one to gladden his lonely heart and home, he married Mary Ball, the
+belle of Horseneck, and said to have been the most beautiful young
+lady in all that part of the country. By this union he was blessed
+with six children, of whom our George, the eldest, was born on the
+twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+seven hundred and thirty-two.
+
+It has often appeared strange to me that nothing should be known of
+this great man's life up to the completion of his fifth year: and I am
+sorry for your sakes, my little ones, that such is the case; for it
+would be such a nice beginning to our story, could we say with
+certainty that he distinguished himself by walking alone at the age of
+five months; that he could pronounce "Mother" and "Good" with perfect
+distinctness when but one year old; that his mother taught him at the
+age of two to kneel by her side, and lisp, before going to his evening
+rest, that beautiful prayer, beginning with, "Now I lay me down to
+sleep;" that he rode like mad, at the age of three, round and round
+the yard, on his father's buckhorn-headed cane; and that he rode on a
+real horse at the age of four, and went galloping like a young Tartar
+round and round the meadow in front of the house, to the delight of
+his young mother, who watched him from the window. Of all this, and a
+great deal more of the same sort, you would, I doubt not, like much to
+hear, and I would like much to tell you; but we must keep within the
+bounds of true history, and content ourselves with the knowledge of
+that which really did happen. With this safe rule for our guidance, we
+will therefore proceed at once to take up the thread of our story at
+that period of George's boyhood, concerning which some certain record
+has come down to our time.
+
+At the age of five, when he was old enough to walk all alone for a
+mile or two through the woods and fields, his parents started him to
+school one bright spring morning, with his little basket on his arm,
+containing his dinner and a bran-new spelling-book, to take his first
+tiny steps in the flowery path of knowledge.
+
+His first teacher was a Mr. Hobby, an old man, who lived on a distant
+part of his father's plantation, and is said to have been besides the
+sexton or grave-digger of the neighborhood; and was, I have my private
+reasons for thinking, a broken-down old soldier, with a big cocked hat
+that shaded a kindly and weather-beaten face, and a wooden leg,--an
+ornament for which he was indebted to a cannon-ball, and took more
+pride in than if it had been a sound one of flesh and bone. As it is
+rarely ever the case that men with wooden legs are called upon to
+fight the battles of their country, this worthy old man, who well knew
+how to read and write, and cipher too, must needs earn his livelihood
+by teaching school, and sowing his knowledge broadcast among the
+little children of the neighborhood.
+
+Accordingly, it was to old Mr. Hobby, as everybody called him, that
+George was indebted for his first insight into the mysteries of
+book-learning; and although he was in due time to become the greatest
+man of this or any other age or country, yet he began his education
+by first learning his A B C, just as did other boys of that day,
+just as they are now doing, and just as they will continue to do
+for all time to come. After he had taken his A B C into his memory,
+and set them there in a straight row each in its proper place, he was
+not long, depend upon it, in reaching the middle of his spelling-book;
+and as soon as he could, without anybody's help, climb over tall and
+difficult words of five or six syllables, such as "immortality" or
+"responsibility," his master put him in the English Reader, where
+he soon overtook and went clean ahead of boys a great deal older
+than himself. From reading, he in a short time rose to writing;
+and it was said by those who knew him best, that he learned to write
+a neat round hand without ever once blotting his copy-book; and
+furthermore, that such a thing as a dirty, thumb-worn, dog-eared
+book was never seen in his hand. His next step in the path of
+knowledge was arithmetic; and, in less time than you can well
+believe, he had got the multiplication-table so thoroughly by heart,
+that he could run over it as fast backwards, from twelve times twelve
+to twice one, as common boys straightforward, even with the open book
+before their eyes. So well did he study, that, in less than four
+years' time after his first starting to school, the single rule of
+three was no more to him than long division to most boys; and he
+could repeat the tables of weights and measures as glibly as you,
+Master Johnnie, can rattle off the charming story of "Old Mother
+Hubbard and her Wonderful Dog."
+
+Now, the rapid progress George made in his studies was owing not so
+much to his uncommon aptitude at learning as to the diligence and
+industry with which he applied himself to them. For example: when
+other boys would be staring out at the window, watching the birds and
+squirrels sporting among the tree-tops; or sitting idly with their
+hands in their pockets, opening and shutting their jack-knives, or
+counting their marbles, or munching apples and corn-dodgers in a
+sneaking and unbecoming manner behind their books; or, more naughty
+still, shooting paper bullets at old Hobby's wooden leg as he eat
+dozing behind his high desk of a drowsy summer afternoon,--our George,
+with his hands to his ears to keep out the schoolroom buzz, would be
+studying with all his might; nor would he once raise his eyes from his
+book till every word of his lesson was ready to drop from his tongue's
+end of its own accord. So well did he apply himself, and so attentive
+was he to every thing taught him, that, by the time he was ten years
+old, he had learned all that the poor old grave-digger knew himself;
+and it was this worthy man's boast in after-years, that he had laid
+the foundation of Washington's future greatness. But what old Wooden
+Leg--for so they always called him when his back was turned--could not
+teach him at school, little George learned at home of his father and
+mother, who were well educated for those days; and many a long winter
+evening did these good parents spend in telling their children
+interesting and instructive stories of olden times, far-off countries,
+and strange people, which George would write down in his copy-book in
+his neatest, roundest hand, and remember ever afterward.
+
+A more prudent and careful father, and a more discreet and
+affectionate mother, than Mr. Washington and his wife Mary, perhaps
+never lived. So earnest and watchful were they to bring up their
+children in the fear of the Lord, and in the practice of every noble
+virtue, that their dutiful behavior and sweet manners were the talk
+and praise of the good people for miles and miles around. They taught
+them to be neat and orderly in their dress, as well as civil and
+polite in their manners; to be respectful to their elders; to be kind
+to one another, and to every thing God hath made, both great and
+small, whether man or bird or beast: but chiefly were they concerned
+to teach them the love of truth, and to tell it at all times when it
+should be their duty to speak out, let the consequences be what they
+might. To show you that such wise and careful training was not lost
+on the tender mind of George, I will tell you the story of his little
+hatchet, as it may serve you good stead in the day when you may be
+tempted to wander astray from the path of truth and virtue.
+
+One Christmas Eve, when the sharp, frosty air made the blood brisk and
+lively in the veins, little George, who was then about six years old,
+hung up his stocking on the mantel of the huge chimney, saying to
+himself as he did so, "Good Santa Claus, be kind to me while I am
+sleeping peacefully." Next morning, bright and early, just as a great
+Christmas log had begun to blaze and crackle on the hearth, he jumped
+spryly from his bed, and, without stopping to put on his clothes, ran
+to his stockings to see what good old Santa Claus had brought him
+while he slept. I leave you to picture to your minds his delight upon
+finding therein a little Indian tomahawk, with a bright keen edge and
+long red handle. It would have done all your hearts good to have seen
+how he skipped and danced around the room, and flourished his hatchet
+high over his head; how he went showing it to every one about the
+house, white and black; praising good old Santa Claus to the very
+skies, and never once feeling the want of his breeches. But, between
+you and me, I am rather inclined to suspect, that, if we had any means
+of arriving at the facts of the case, it would be found that Santa
+Claus had no more concern in this matter than your Uncle Juvinell
+himself. To my mind, there is more reason in the supposition, that his
+father, seeing the jolly old saint pass by at a late hour of the night
+in an empty sleigh, and that the children were not likely to have
+their stockings filled for that once, got up early in the morning, and
+put the hatchet in there himself, rather than that his little son
+should be disappointed.
+
+Be this as it may, it was all the same to George; and he was as happy
+as happy could be. At the breakfast-table, he could hardly eat his
+bread and milk for looking at his shining axe, which he had laid
+beside him on the table; and, before it was fairly broad daylight, he
+was out at the wood-yard, ankle-deep in snow, cutting and chopping
+away at the hard-seasoned beech and maple logs, as if it lay with him,
+for that day at least, to keep the whole family, white and black, from
+freezing. By and by, however, he found this more work than play, and
+began to cast his earnest young eyes about him for something green and
+soft whereon to try the edge and temper of his hatchet. Presently, as
+ill-luck would have it, a fine young English cherry-tree, just over
+the fence hard by, caught his attention, which, without further ado,
+he fell to hacking might and main; and the way he made the little
+chips fly was a thing surprising to see.
+
+Next morning, his father, passing by that way, saw the mischief that
+had been done, and was sorely displeased: for he had planted and
+reared this selfsame tree with the tenderest care; and, of all the
+trees in his orchard, there was not one other he prized so highly.
+Being quite sure that it was the work of some of the black children,
+he went straightway down to the negro quarter, bent on finding out,
+and bringing the unlucky culprit to a severe account.
+
+"Dick," said he to the first one he met, "did you cut that
+cherry-tree?"
+
+"No, mauster; don't know nothin' 'bout it," said Dick, showing the
+whites of _his_ eyes.
+
+"Did you, Sam?" said Mr. Washington, putting the same question to
+another little woolly-head.
+
+"No, mauster; don't know nothin' 'bout it," said Sam, likewise showing
+the whites of his eyes.
+
+The same question was put to Harry, who gave Dick and Sam's answer
+word for word, and, to add force to his denial, showed the whites of
+his eyes in like manner; and so on, till more than a dozen had been
+questioned with the same result; when it came to Jerry's turn to make
+denial, and show the whites of his eyes.
+
+Now, you must know there was not a more audacious, mischief-making,
+neck-or-nothing black brat than this same Jerry to be found on the
+banks of the Rappahannock, which is a very long river indeed. As a
+fish lives in water, or a salamander in fire, so did Jerry live and
+breathe, and have his being, in mischief; or, in other words, mischief
+was the element in which Jerry found his chief delight. If any mishap
+befell anybody or any thing, at any hour of the day or night, on any
+part of the plantation, on foot or on horseback, at rest or in motion,
+it was sure to be brought and laid at Jerry's door. Being aware of all
+this, Mr. Washington was now quite sure, that, as none of the rest had
+cut the cherry-tree, Jerry himself must be the offender; and so he put
+the question to him; to which Jerry, showing the whites of his eyes,
+made answer, "No, mauster; I didn't cut the cherry-tree: indeed,
+indeed, and double deed, I didn't cut the cherry-tree."
+
+"Ah! Jerry," said his master, "if you always told the truth, I should
+know when to believe you; but, as you do not, you must take the
+consequences of your evil ways, and blame nobody but yourself."
+
+Upon hearing this, Jerry began dancing and hopping around the room in
+a very brisk and lively manner, even before his master was within ten
+feet of him, as if he already felt the switch about his legs.
+
+Just then, in the very nick of time, George came walking leisurely by,
+hatchet in hand; who, upon seeing how matters stood, without a
+moment's hesitation, ran up to his father, and, dropping his hatchet,
+caught him round the leg, just as the first stroke of the switch was
+about to descend on the calves of the unlucky Jerry.
+
+"O papa, papa!" cried he, "don't whip poor Jerry: if somebody must be
+whipped, let it be me; for it was I, and not Jerry, that cut the
+cherry-tree. I didn't know how much harm I was doing; I didn't
+indeed." And the child began crying piteously.
+
+With a look of glad surprise, his father, dropping the switch, caught
+his brave little boy in his arms, and folded him tenderly, lovingly,
+to his bosom. "Now, thanks be to God," cried he, "thanks be to God,
+that I have a son whose love of truth is greater than his fear of
+punishment! Look on him, my black children, look on him, and be as
+near like him as you can, if you would have the love of your master
+and the good-will of all around you."
+
+Seeing the unlooked-for turn the affair had taken, and not having the
+words to express the feelings of joy and thankfulness that swelled
+almost to bursting in his little black breast, Jerry darted through
+the door, out into the yard, kicked up his heels, yelped like a young
+dog, threw a somerset in the snow, and went rolling over and over down
+to the bottom of the hill, and ever after loved his noble little
+master to distraction.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+THE FIRST SORROW.
+
+
+When George had learned all that poor old Hobby could teach him, his
+father, to reward him for his diligence and good behavior at school,
+indulged him in two or three weeks' holidays, which he went to spend
+at a distance from home, among some friends and relatives. Here, as
+usual, he was made much of; for, being a great favorite with all who
+knew him, he met with a cordial reception wherever he went; and what
+with hunting and fishing, riding and visiting, the time spent here was
+the most delightful he had ever known. But hardly had half the happy
+days flown by, when word came that his father was sick, even unto
+death; and that, of all things, he most desired to look upon his noble
+boy once more before he died. With a sadness and heaviness of heart he
+had never before experienced, George set out on his return home, where
+he arrived just in time to receive his dying father's blessing. Long
+and deeply did he mourn his loss; for his father was most tenderly
+beloved by his children, and greatly esteemed by his friends and
+neighbors as a useful member of society, and a man of many sterling
+traits of character.
+
+Mrs. Washington was thus left a young widow with a large family of
+young children, whom it now became her duty to provide for and educate
+in a manner becoming a Christian mother; and how well and faithfully
+and lovingly she discharged this sacred trust, is most beautifully set
+forth in the life and character of her great son. She was a woman of
+uncommon strength and clearness of understanding, and her heart was
+the home of every pure and noble virtue. She was mild, but firm;
+generous, but just; candid whenever she deemed it her duty to speak
+her mind, but never losing sight of the respect and consideration due
+to the feelings and opinions of others. She was gentle and loving with
+her children, yet exacting from them in return the strictest obedience
+to her will and wishes. But of all virtues most sacred in her eyes was
+that of the love of truth, which she ever sought to implant in their
+minds; assuring them, that, without it, all other virtues were but as
+unprofitable weeds, barren of fruits and flowers. She was simple and
+dignified in her manners, and had a hearty dislike for every thing
+savoring of parade and idle show. She always received her friends and
+visitors with a cordial smile of welcome, spreading before them with
+an unsparing hand the best her house afforded: but, when they rose to
+depart, she would invite them once, and once only, to stay longer;
+and, if after this they still seemed bent on going, she would do all
+in her power to speed them on their journey. With so many traits
+betokening strength of mind and character, she had but one weakness;
+and this was her excessive dread of thunder, caused in early
+maidenhood by seeing a young lady struck dead at her side by
+lightning.
+
+And such was Mary, the mother of Washington; and seldom indeed has her
+like been seen. As her husband, by industry and prudent management,
+had gathered together enough of the riches of this world to leave each
+of his children a fine plantation, she was not hindered by straitened
+circumstances, or anxiety as to their means of future support, from
+giving her chief attention to such bodily and mental training as
+should have a lasting tendency to make them, in more mature years,
+healthy, virtuous, and wise.
+
+It has been often remarked, that those men who have most distinguished
+themselves in the world's history for noble thoughts and heroic deeds,
+have, as a general thing, inherited those qualities of mind and heart
+which made them great, from their mothers, rather than from their
+fathers; and also that their efforts to improve and elevate the
+condition of their fellow-beings have been owing in a larger measure
+to the lessons of truth, piety, and industry, taught them by their
+mothers in childhood and early youth. If this be the case, then how
+much are we indebted for the freedom, prosperity, and happiness we
+now enjoy above other nations of the earth, to Mary, the mother of
+Washington! Perhaps, to give you a still more forcible idea of the
+characters of both mother and son, and of the wholesome effects on him
+of her judicious training, I ought to relate in this place the story
+of his attempt at taming the sorrel horse.
+
+A fine horse was an object that afforded Mrs. Washington, as it did
+the other substantial Virginia ladies of that day, quite as much, if
+not more, real pleasure than their more delicate grand-daughters of
+the present now find in their handsome carriages, lap-dogs, and
+canary-birds. So great was her fondness for this noble animal, that
+she usually suffered two or three of her finest to run in a meadow in
+front of the house, where she might look at them from time to time as
+she sat sewing at her dining-room window. One of these was a young
+sorrel horse, of great beauty of form, and fleetness of foot, but of
+so wild and vicious a nature, that, for fear of accident, she had
+forbidden any one to mount him, although he had already reached his
+full height and size.
+
+Now, you must know that a bolder and more skilful rider than George
+was not to be found in all the Old Dominion, as Virginia is sometimes
+called; and it was this early practice that afterwards won for him the
+name of being the finest horseman of his day. Often, as we may very
+naturally suppose to have been the case, would he reason thus with
+himself, as, sitting on the topmost rail of a worm fence, he watched
+the spirited young animal frisking and bounding about the field in all
+the freedom of his untamed nature: "If I were but once upon his back,
+with a strong bit in his mouth, believe me, I would soon make him a
+thing of use as well as ornament; and it would, I am sure, be such a
+pleasant surprise to mother to look from her window some fine morning,
+and see me mounted on his back, and managing him with ease, and to
+know that it was I who had subdued his proud spirit."
+
+Accordingly, full of these thoughts, he arose early one bright summer
+morning, and invited two or three friends of his own age, then on a
+visit at his mother's house, to go with him to the fields, to share
+with him the sport, or lend their aid in carrying out his design,
+should it be found too difficult and hazardous for himself alone. They
+needed no second bidding, these young madcaps, to whom nothing could
+be more to their liking than such wild sport. So at it they went; and
+after a deal of chasing and racing, heading and doubling, falling down
+and picking themselves up again, and more shouting and laughing than
+they had breath to spare for, they at last succeeded in driving the
+panting and affrighted young animal into a corner. Here, by some means
+or other (it was difficult to tell precisely how), they managed to
+bridle him, although at no small risk of a broken head or two from
+his heels, that he seemed to fling about him in a dozen different
+directions at once. Having thus made him their captive, they led him
+out to the more open parts of the field, where George requested his
+friends to hold him till he could get on his back. But the wild and
+unruly spirit the young beast had shown that morning had so dismayed
+them, that they flatly refused to comply; begging him not to think of
+attempting it, as it would be at the risk of life or limb. But George
+was not to be daunted by such trifles; and seeing that his blood was
+up, and knowing that, when this was the case with him, he was not to
+be turned aside from his purpose, they at length yielded unwilling
+consent to his entreaties; and, giving him the required aid, he was
+soon mounted.
+
+This was an insult the proud-spirited animal could not brook; and he
+began plunging and rearing in a manner so frightful to behold, that
+they who watched the struggle for mastery expected every moment to see
+the daring young rider hurled headlong to the ground. But he kept his
+seat unmoved and firm as an iron statue on an iron horse. At length,
+however, the horse, clinching the bit between his teeth, became for a
+time unmanageable, and sped away over the field on the wings of the
+wind; till, making a false step, he staggered and plunged, rallied
+again, staggered, and, with the red life-stream gushing from his
+nostrils, dropped down dead.
+
+George sprang from the ground unharmed: but, when he saw the noble
+young animal stretched out smoking and bloody and lifeless before him,
+tears of pity filled his eyes; and still faster did they flow when he
+thought of the grief it would occasion his mother, when she should
+hear how her beautiful favorite had come to his end. His companions
+now rejoining him, they all, with sad misgiving in their hearts,
+returned to the house, where Mrs. Washington met them with a cheerful
+good-morning, and, when they had taken their seats at the
+breakfast-table, began talking with them in her usual lively and
+entertaining manner, until the dreaded question came: "Well, young
+gentlemen," said she, "have you seen any thing of my sorrel horse in
+your walks this morning?"
+
+The boys looked at one another for some moments in silence, scarce
+knowing what answer to make. At last, George, to put an end to the
+painful suspense, said in a subdued voice, "Mother, the sorrel horse
+is dead." He then, in a few brief words, told her how it had all
+happened, and ended by entreating her forgiveness if he had offended;
+at the same time assuring her, that, in so doing, he had only thought
+of giving her a pleasant surprise.
+
+When he first began his account of the mishap, a flush of anger rose
+to his mother's cheek; of which, however, there was not a trace to be
+seen by the time he had finished; and she answered, with something
+like an approving smile, "My son, as you have had the courage to come
+and tell me the truth at once, I freely forgive you: had you skulked
+away, I would have despised you, and been ashamed to own you as my
+son."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+PLAYING SOLDIER.
+
+
+After the death of her husband, Mrs. Washington left the care and
+education of her son George, in no small measure, to the judgment and
+discretion of her step-son Lawrence, a young man of twenty-five, and
+lately married to Miss Fairfax. The love that had always existed
+between these two brothers was something beautiful indeed to
+behold,--the more so when we take into consideration the difference of
+fourteen years in their ages; and, now that their dear father was no
+more, this love grew all the more tender and strong, and George soon
+learned to look up to his eldest brother as to a second father.
+
+Mr. Lawrence Washington, besides being a fine scholar and one of the
+most polished gentlemen of his day, was also a brave and able soldier;
+having served during the late Spanish war as a lieutenant under the
+great Admiral Vernon, in honor of whom he had named his fine estate on
+the Potomac, Mount Vernon.
+
+At Mount Vernon, then, we find George spending by far the greater
+portion of his holidays; and here he often fell in with young
+officers, fellow-soldiers of his brother, to whom with eager ears he
+was wont to listen as they recounted their adventures, and told of
+hard-fought battles by land and sea with the roving pirates, or
+sea-robbers, and proud and vengeful Spaniards. These stories so fired
+his ardent young spirit, that he longed of all things to become a
+great soldier, that he might go forth to fight the enemies of his
+country, wherever they were to be found, and drive them from the face
+of the wide earth. To give these feelings some relief, he would muster
+his little school-fellows at play-time, and take them through the
+lessons of a military drill; showing them how to fire and fall back,
+how to advance and retreat, how to form in line of march, how to pitch
+their tents for a night's encampment, how to lay an Indian ambuscade,
+how to scale a wall, how to storm a battery; and, in short, forty
+other evolutions not to be found in any work on military tactics ever
+written, and at which old Wooden Leg, had he been there, would have
+shaken his cocked hat with a dubious look. Then dividing them into two
+opposing armies, with himself at the head of one, and the tallest boy
+of the school leading on the other, he would incite them to fight sham
+battles with wooden swords, wooden guns, snow-balls, and such other
+munitions of war as came most readily to hand; in which George, no
+matter what might be the odds against him, or what superior advantages
+the enemy might have in weapons or ground, was always sure to come off
+victorious.
+
+He was a handsome boy, uncommonly tall, strong, and active for his
+age; could out-run, out-jump, out-ride any boy three years older than
+himself; and, in wrestling, there was not one in a hundred who could
+bring his back to the ground. Many stories are told of his wonderful
+strength; and the spot is still shown, where, when a boy, he stood on
+the banks of the Rappahannock River, and, at its widest part, threw a
+stone to the opposite side,--a feat that no one has been found able to
+perform since that day. It was said, that, a few years later, he stood
+under the Natural Bridge, and threw a silver dollar upon the top of
+it,--a height of two hundred and twenty feet; not less than that of
+Bunker-hill Monument, and more than double that of the tallest hickory
+that ever hailed down its ripened nuts upon your heads. Although there
+were none more studious than he in the schoolroom, yet he always took
+the keenest delight in every kind of active and manly sport, and was
+the acknowledged leader of the playground. But he had qualities of
+mind and heart far more desirable and meritorious than those of mere
+bodily activity and strength. Such was his love of truth, his strong
+sense of justice, and his clearness of judgment, that, when any
+dispute arose between his playmates, they always appealed to him to
+decide the difference between them, as willing to abide by his
+decision, and make it their law. Although he had the courage of a
+young lion, and was even more than a match in strength for many an
+older boy, he was never known to have a fight at school, nor elsewhere
+indeed, that I have ever heard; for such was the respect he ever
+showed to the feelings and wishes of others, that he never gave an
+insult, and, depend upon it, never received one.
+
+The high ground of Mount Vernon commands a splendid view of the
+Potomac up and down for miles, where it makes a noble bend, and winds
+its shining course amidst verdant meadow-slopes and richly wooded
+hills. Now and then, in the course of the year, some noble ship, with
+all its sails outspread and gay banners fluttering to the breeze,
+might be seen moving down the majestic stream, hastening in its pride
+and strength to stem the billows of the mighty ocean. With the keenest
+of delight none but the young and daring mind can ever know, George,
+as he stood on the piazza in front of his brother's mansion, would
+watch them with wishful eyes, until a bend of the river hid their
+lofty masts behind the green tops of the yet more lofty hills between.
+Then would there awaken in his heart an earnest longing to become a
+sailor; to go forth in some gallant ship upon the face of the great
+deep; to visit those far-off countries, where he might behold with his
+own eyes those wonders he had read so much of in books. At such
+times, it may be, there would arise in his mind enchanting visions of
+some desert island, upon whose lonely rocky shores he might some day
+have the rare good fortune of being thrown by the angry billows, there
+to dwell, like another Robinson Crusoe, many, many years, with no
+other company than talking birds, skipping goats, and dancing cats,
+and, if so lucky, a good man Friday, to be rescued by his daring from
+the bloody clutches of the terrible cannibals.
+
+Lawrence Washington was not long in discovering the thoughts that were
+uppermost in the mind of the adventurous boy; and, like the generous
+brother that he was, resolved that, should an opportunity offer, a
+wish so natural should be gratified. In a short time after, George
+being then about fourteen years of age, a British man-of-war moved up
+the Potomac, and cast anchor in full view of Mount Vernon. On board of
+this vessel his brother Lawrence procured him a midshipman's warrant,
+after having by much persuasion gained the consent of his mother;
+which, however, she yielded with much reluctance, and many misgivings
+with respect to the profession her son was about to choose. Not
+knowing how much pain all this was giving his mother, George was as
+near wild with delight as could well be with a boy of a nature so even
+and steady. Now, what had all along been but a waking dream was about
+to become a wide-awake reality. His preparations were soon made:
+already was his trunk packed, and carried on board the ship that was
+to bear him so far away from his native land; and nothing now remained
+but to bid farewell to the loved ones at home. But when he came and
+stood before his mother, dressed in his gay midshipman's uniform, so
+tall and robust in figure, so handsome in face, and so noble in look
+and gesture, the thought took possession of her mind, that, if she
+suffered him to leave her then, she might never see him more; and,
+losing her usual firmness and self-control, she burst into tears.
+
+"Deeply do I regret, my dear son," said she, "to disappoint you in a
+wish you have so near at heart: but I find I cannot bring myself to
+give you up yet; for, young as you are, your aid and counsel have
+already become to me of the greatest service and comfort; and these
+little fatherless ones, now weeping around you, have learned to look
+up to you as their protector and guide. You know too little of the
+ways of the world, and are too young and inexperienced, to go forth to
+endure its hardships, and battle with its temptations, that lie in
+wait on every side to entrap the unwary, and lead them down to
+destruction. Without you, our home would be lonely indeed: then, for
+your mother's sake, and for the sake of these little ones, give up
+your darling scheme, for the present at least, that we may all be
+happy at home once more together."
+
+Thus entreated, what could he do but yield consent to the wishes of a
+loving and prudent mother, and remain at home? where, in a few days,
+his noble self-denial was rewarded with a sweet contentment of mind
+that he could never have known had he left the dear ones in sorrow
+behind him, and gone forth to spend months and years upon the billows
+of the lonely seas. Surely a kind Heaven so ordered that the welfare
+and happiness of us Americans, and, it may be, that of the whole
+world, should be made to depend upon the promptings of a mother's
+love; for had the boy Washington realized this early dream, and gone
+forth in that gallant ship, he might have perished in the stormy deep,
+and we had never known the name we now love so much to praise and
+venerate. Or, by his distinguished abilities, he might have risen to
+become in time the Lord High Admiral of the British Navy; and, instead
+of being set apart to the salvation of his native land, might have
+been made an instrument to its destruction, impossible as such an
+event may now appear to us, with our knowledge of the glorious work he
+did perform when in the fulness of his strength and years, and
+accustomed as we are to behold in him our model of all that is great
+and virtuous in mankind.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+"RULES OF BEHAVIOR."
+
+
+For the five years following his father's death, George made his home
+at the house of his half-brother, Augustine Washington, at a
+considerable distance from his mother's, where he might have the
+benefit of a better school which that neighborhood afforded. His new
+schoolmaster was a Mr. Williams, a very worthy man; who, however,
+although he knew a vast deal more than Mr. Hobby, the poor old
+grave-digger, was far from being what we might call a first-rate
+scholar. But what his teacher lacked in learning, George made up in
+diligence, and the most judicious use of every means of
+self-improvement within his reach. And here, my dear children, let me
+remind you of a thing worthy of your remembrance through life, that
+success in the pursuit of knowledge depends far less upon the ability
+and skill of the teacher, than upon the industry, perseverance, and
+willing application of the learner.
+
+Under the instruction of this, his second and last teacher, George got
+a little insight into English grammar, read some history, became well
+acquainted with geography, completely mastered arithmetic, and made
+handsome progress in geometry and trigonometry; which, as you must
+know, are higher branches of mathematics than arithmetic, and far more
+difficult to comprehend. In connection with the two latter, he studied
+surveying; by which is taught, as you must continue to bear in mind
+hereafter, the measurement of land.
+
+When he had advanced so far in this study as to give him some idea of
+the proper use and handling of the chain and compass, the two
+principal instruments employed in this art, he began to put his
+knowledge into practice by taking surveys of the farms lying in the
+immediate neighborhood of his schoolhouse, and also of the lands
+belonging to the estate of Mount Vernon.
+
+Assisted by his schoolmates, he would follow up, and measure off with
+the help of his long steel chain, the boundary lines between the
+farms, such as fences, roads, and watercourses; then those dividing
+the different parts of the same farm; determining at the same time,
+with the help of his compass, their various courses, their crooks and
+windings, and the angles formed at their points of meeting or
+intersection. This would enable him to get at the shape and size not
+only of each farm, but of every meadow, field, and wood composing it.
+This done, he would make a map or drawing on paper of the land
+surveyed, whereon would be clearly traced the lines dividing the
+different parts, with the name and number of acres of each attached;
+while, on the opposite page, he would write down the long and
+difficult tables of figures by which these results had been reached.
+All this he would execute with as much neatness and accuracy as if it
+had been left with him to decide thereby some gravely disputed
+land-claim.
+
+To qualify himself for the management of business affairs upon
+reaching the age of manhood, he would copy off into a blank-book every
+form or instrument of writing he would meet with; such as deeds,
+wills, notes of hand, bills of exchange, receipts, bonds,
+land-warrants, &c., &c. And, what was still more remarkable in a boy
+of thirteen, he wrote down, under the head of what he called "Rules of
+Behavior in Company and Conversation," such wise maxims, and lines of
+wholesome advice, as he would pick up from time to time in the course
+of his reading or observation, to aid him in forming habits of
+industry, politeness, and morality. Some of these rules, your Uncle
+Juvinell, with an eye mainly to your well-being, will repeat to you;
+for, when but a boy, he got them by heart, well knowing, that, without
+some such aid, he would find it hard, if not impossible, to so order
+his walks through life as to win and deserve the esteem and confidence
+of his fellow-men, as well as the blessing and approbation of his
+Maker. And now that he has reached the evening of his days, and is
+well assured that the daily observance of these rules has made him a
+wiser, a better, and a happier man, he would most earnestly advise all
+his friends, great or small, but especially small, be they boys or
+girls, to pursue the like course, if they would be favored of Heaven
+in the like manner. Here they are:--
+
+     "1. Every action in company ought to be with some sign of
+     respect to those present.
+
+     "2. In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a
+     humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.
+
+     "3. Speak not when others speak, sit not when others stand,
+     speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not when others
+     stop.
+
+     "4. Turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jog
+     not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean
+     not on any one.
+
+     "5. Be not a flatterer; neither play with any one that delights
+     not to be played with.
+
+     "6. Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though
+     he were your enemy.
+
+     "7. It is good manners to prefer them to whom we speak before
+     ourselves, especially if they be above us; with whom in no sort
+     ought we to begin.
+
+     "8. Strive not with your superiors in an argument, but always
+     submit your judgment to others with modesty.
+
+     "9. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself
+     professes; for it is immodest and presumptuous.
+
+     "10. When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well,
+     blame not him that did it.
+
+     "11. Before you advise or find fault with any one, consider
+     whether it ought to be in public or in private, presently or
+     at some other time, in what terms to do it; and, in reproving,
+     show no signs of anger, but do it with sweetness and mildness.
+
+     "12. Take all advice thankfully, in what time or place soever
+     given; but afterwards, not being blamable, take a time or place
+     convenient to let him know it that gave it.
+
+     "13. Mock not in jest at any thing of importance: if you
+     deliver any thing witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing
+     thereat yourself.
+
+     "14. Wherein you reprove another, be unblamable yourself; for
+     example is better than precept.
+
+     "15. Use no reproachful language against any one; neither curse
+     nor revile.
+
+     "16. Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the injury of
+     any.
+
+     "17. In your apparel, be modest, and endeavor to accommodate
+     yourself to nature, rather than to procure admiration; keep to
+     the fashion of your equals, such as are civil and orderly, with
+     respect to time and places.
+
+     "18. Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you to see
+     if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your
+     pantaloons sit neatly, and clothes handsomely.
+
+     "19. Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem
+     your reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad
+     company.
+
+     "20. Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is
+     a sign of a kindly and commendable nature; and, in all causes
+     of passion, admit reason to govern.
+
+     "21. Be not immodest in urging a friend to make known a secret.
+
+     "22. Utter not base and frivolous things amongst grave and
+     learned men, nor very difficult questions or subjects among the
+     ignorant, nor things hard to believe.
+
+     "23. Speak not of doleful things in time of mirth, nor at the
+     table; speak not of melancholy things, as death and wounds;
+     and, if others mention them, change, if you can, the discourse.
+     Tell not your dreams but to your intimate friend.
+
+     "24. Break not a jest, when none take pleasure in mirth; laugh
+     not loud, nor at all, without occasion; deride no man's
+     misfortune, though there seem to be some cause.
+
+     "25. Speak not injurious words, neither in jest nor earnest;
+     scoff at none, although they give occasion.
+
+     "26. Seek not to lessen the merits of others; neither give more
+     than due praise.
+
+     "27. Go not thither where you know not whether you shall be
+     welcome. Give not advice without being asked; and, when
+     desired, do it briefly.
+
+     "28. Reprove not the imperfections of others; for that belongs
+     to parents, masters, and superiors.
+
+     "29. Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of others, and ask not
+     how they came. What you may speak in secret to your friend,
+     deliver not before others.
+
+     "30. Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly, nor
+     bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.
+
+     "31. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb
+     not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not
+     nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not nor
+     answer him until his speech be ended.
+
+     "32. Treat with men at right times about business, and whimper
+     not in the company of others.
+
+     "33. Be not in haste to relate news, if you know not the truth
+     thereof.
+
+     "34. Be not curious to know the affairs of others; neither
+     approach those that speak in private.
+
+     "35. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to
+     keep your promise.
+
+     "36. When your masters or superiors talk to anybody, hearken
+     not, nor speak or laugh.
+
+     "37. Speak not evil of the absent; for it is unjust.
+
+     "38. Make no show of taking delight in your victuals; feed not
+     with greediness; cut your food with a knife, and lean not on
+     the table; neither find fault with what you eat.
+
+     "39. Be not angry at the table, whatever happens; and, if you
+     have reason to be so, show it not, but put on a cheerful face,
+     especially if there be strangers; for good humor makes of one
+     dish a feast.
+
+     "40. If you speak of God or his attributes, let it be
+     seriously, in reverence; and honor and obey your parents.
+
+     "41. Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.
+
+     "42. Labor to keep in your breast that little spark of
+     celestial fire called conscience."
+
+Now, does it not strike you, my dear children, as being most truly
+wonderful that it should have ever entered the mind of a boy of
+thirteen to lay down for his own guidance and self-improvement such
+rules and principles as these I have just repeated? It certainly must.
+And yet when I tell you that he strictly adhered to them through life,
+and squared his conduct by them daily, you will, no doubt, think it
+quite unreasonable that he could have been other than the good and
+great man he was.
+
+These writings I have mentioned filled several quires of paper; and
+together with his business papers, letters, journals, and
+account-books, written later in life, and with the same neatness and
+precision, are still preserved at Mount Vernon with pious care; and
+are even now to be seen by those who go on pilgrimages to that sacred
+spot, although, since many of them were penned, more than a hundred
+years have come and gone.
+
+And thus, my children, you have seen young Washington, at an age when
+most boys are wasting their precious hours in idle sports, seeking to
+acquire those habits of industry, punctuality, and method, which
+afterwards enabled him so to economize time and labor as to do with
+ease and expedition what others did with difficulty and tardiness. You
+have seen him making the best use of the slender means within his
+reach for storing his mind with those treasures of knowledge, and
+schooling his heart in the daily practice of those exalted virtues,
+which, after a life well spent and work well done, make good his title
+to the name he bears,--the greatest and the wisest of human kind.
+
+At last, the day came when George was to leave school for ever; and a
+day of sorrow it was to his school-fellows, who parted from him with
+many an affectionate wish, and, as we are told, even with tears; so
+greatly had he endeared himself to them by his noble disposition,
+gentle manners, and earnest desire to do as he would be done by, which
+appeared in all his words and actions. In these regrets, Mr. Williams,
+his worthy schoolmaster, also shared; and it gave him in after-life,
+when his little George had become the great Washington, the most
+heartfelt pleasure to say, that it had never been his privilege to
+teach another pupil who could at all compare with him for diligence in
+application, aptitude in learning, docility of disposition, manly
+generosity, courage, and truth.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+
+Extending from the Rappahannock to the Potomac, and stretching away
+beyond the Blue Ridge far into the Alleghany Mountains, there lay at
+this time an immense tract of forest land, broken only here and there
+by a little clearing, in the midst of which stood the rude log-cabin
+of some hardy backwoodsman. This large body of land--the largest,
+indeed, ever owned by any one man in Virginia--was the property of a
+great English nobleman named Lord Fairfax, an old bachelor of
+eccentric habits and strange opinions, but of a highly cultivated
+understanding, and, when it so pleased him, of polite and elegant
+address. His stature was lofty,--far above that of the common run of
+men. He was a keen sportsman, had a fund of whimsical humor, and, in
+his odd way, showed himself possessed of a kindly and generous heart;
+sometimes making a tenant or poor friend the present of a large farm,
+without requiring any thing in return but a haunch of venison or a fat
+wild turkey for his next Christmas dinner.
+
+Having heard that settlements were being made in the most fertile
+valleys of his wild domain, he had lately come over from the
+mother-country to inquire into the matter, and make suitable provision
+against any future encroachments of the kind upon his rights. He now
+beheld his forest possessions for the first time; and so charmed was
+he with the wild beauty of the scenery, and so won over by enticing
+visions of fishing and hunting, conjured up by the sight of the waving
+woods and running streams, that he resolved to leave his native land
+for ever, and take up his abiding-place for the rest of his days amid
+those leafy solitudes. Accordingly, he betook himself, with all his
+negro servants (numbering one hundred and fifty), and a few white
+dependants, to the beautiful Valley of the Shenandoah, lying between
+the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains; where he soon cleared a
+large plantation, and built thereon a house, to which he gave the name
+of Greenway Court.
+
+From that time forward, this became his fixed abode; but, as he had
+more land than a thousand men could put to any good use, he was quite
+willing to dispose of all, except what lay for a few miles immediately
+around Greenway Court, at reasonable rates, to such honest persons as
+were willing to buy it and make it their future home. But, in order
+that no misunderstanding might arise hereafter between the parties
+concerned with respect to the boundary-line and number of acres
+bought and sold, it was necessary, in the first place, to have the
+land surveyed, and divided into lots of convenient sizes for farms.
+
+Now, you must know that, old Lord Fairfax was a distant relative of
+Mrs. Lawrence Washington, and had, as a natural consequence, often met
+our George at Mount Vernon; and so struck was he with the manly
+bearing, high character, good sense, and mathematical skill, of the
+fair-haired, blue-eyed youth, that he offered him, young as he was,
+the place of surveyor of all his vast lands. Being the son of a
+widowed mother, and earnestly desirous of aiding her all in his power,
+and earning for himself an honest independence, George was but too
+happy to accept of the offer; and the necessary arrangements were soon
+made. Having provided himself with all things needful for the new
+enterprise,--such as a horse, a rifle, a blanket, and a steel chain
+and compass,--he set out, at the head of a small party of hunters and
+backwoodsmen, upon this his first considerable field of labor, early
+in the spring of 1748, just one month from the completion of his
+sixteenth year.
+
+They were soon, in the depths of the wilderness, miles beyond the most
+distant frontier settlements. The snows of winter that still lingered
+on the mountains, warmed by the softer airs of early spring, had
+melted so rapidly of late as to swell the forest streams to a degree
+that rendered their fording often difficult, and even sometimes
+dangerous. Now and then, coming to a stream which had overflowed its
+banks, the little party would be obliged to construct a raft of logs,
+roughly lashed together with grape-vines, upon which they could push
+to the opposite side, without getting their baggage wet, and, at the
+same time, compel their horses to swim along behind. Their way was
+often obstructed by the trunks and branches of fallen trees, thickets
+tangled and dense and thorny, huge and rugged rocks, and treacherous
+swamps, covered with long, green grass, into which the horses,
+stepping unawares, would suddenly plunge up to the saddle-girths in
+water and mire.
+
+For some time, they lodged in wigwams or huts, rudely framed of poles,
+and covered with the bark of trees; which served the purpose well
+enough when the weather was dry and still, but were often beaten down
+and overturned by the winds and rains when their shelter was most
+needed. After two or three of these rickety shanties had been tumbled
+about their heads, to the no small risk of life or limb, they wisely
+concluded to abandon them, and sleep in the open air, with the
+twinkling stars above them, the gray old trees around them, and the
+damp, cold ground beneath them, with nothing between but their good
+blankets, and the dead, dry leaves of autumn heaped together; and
+lucky was he who got the place nearest the fire, or could put the
+mossy trunk of a fallen tree between him and the biting blast, or,
+better still, could boast a bearskin for his bed. A little before
+sunset, they would halt for the night in some sheltered spot,
+convenient to a running stream; where, turning their horses loose to
+graze till morning, they would build a cheerful fire of the dry
+brushwood close at hand, and prepare their evening meal, which they
+would eat with a keenness of appetite known only to the tired and
+hungry hunter. Each man was his own cook; their food consisting
+chiefly of venison and wild turkey their rifles procured them, and
+fish drawn from the neighboring brook, which they would broil on the
+glowing coals, fastened to a forked stick instead of a spit, and then
+eat it from a maple chip, instead of a dish. If the season permitted
+them to add to this a hatful of berries that grew on the sunny side of
+the hill, or acorns from the mountain-oak, or nuts from the
+hickory-tree, or, more delicious still, plums, persimmons, and
+pawpaws, that grew in the more open parts of the woods, they made of
+it a dainty feast indeed.
+
+Now and then, in the course of this rambling life in the wilderness,
+they met with roving bands of skin-clad Indians, either as warriors
+out upon the war-path against some distant tribe, or as hunters
+roaming the forest in quest of game. One evening, late, as our little
+party of surveyors were about to encamp for the night, they spied
+through the trees the glimmering light of a large fire on the top of a
+far-off hill. Curious to know who, besides themselves, could be in
+that lonely place, they determined to go thither before stopping; and,
+guided by the light, reached ere long the spot, where they found a
+small squad of Indian hunters, resting themselves after the fatigues
+of the day's chase. They seemed to be in high good humor, as if the
+hunt had gone well with them that day; and, being in this mood,
+extended a true Indian welcome to the new-comers; setting before them,
+with open-handed hospitality, heaps of parched corn, and their
+choicest bits of venison, wild turkey, bear's meat, and fish. Supper
+ended, the pipe of peace and good-will passed from mouth to mouth, as
+a pledge that all should go on well between them; after which the
+Indians, for the further entertainment of their white guests, and as a
+more marked manner of showing their respect, set about preparing
+themselves for a war-dance.
+
+In the first place, they cleared the ground around the fire of chunks
+and brushwood, and other obstructions that might hinder the free play
+of their feet and legs in the performance. Then the two musicians
+began to put in order and tune their instruments: that is to say, one
+of them filled a camp-kettle half full of water, over which he tightly
+stretched a raw-hide, and, tapping it twice or thrice with a stick,
+drew forth a hollow, smothered sound therefrom, by way of giving to
+those not in the secret a hint that this was to be their drum; while
+the other made a rattle by putting a few bullets or pebbles into a
+hard, dry gourd of monstrous size, to the handle of which he fastened
+a horse's tail, not so much to improve its tone perhaps, as to give it
+a more finished appearance.
+
+These simple preparations soon completed, a tall warrior, grimly
+painted as if for battle, advanced a few paces into the circle, and,
+squatting upon his haunches, fixed his eyes for several moments with a
+hard, stony look upon nothing whatever, till the first tap of the drum
+and the first jerk of the rattle, when he suddenly leaped up, with a
+deafening yell that made the old woods ring again, and began capering
+about in the most astonishing manner, causing such a commotion among
+the dry leaves and dead twigs as made it appear that a little
+whirlwind had all at once been let loose among them. Another soon
+followed, and got up a similar sensation among the dry leaves and dead
+twigs on his own private account; while a third, springing into the
+circle, did the same; and so on, until at last the whole party were
+hot in the dance. Some brandished their scalping-knives, some
+flourished their tomahawks, some waved aloft the scalps of their
+enemies taken in battle; all yelling the while, and all making
+horrible faces. And warmer and warmer they waxed in the dance, and
+round and round they went; now up in the air, now down on the ground;
+jumping and kicking, yelping and barking, spinning and whirling,
+yelling and howling, like a pack of hobgoblins and imps on a spree.
+The hollow woods gave back the barbarous din in a thousand
+obstreperous echoes; and afar off, from the depths of the lonely
+forest glens, might have been heard, had not the attention of the
+spectators been otherwise engaged, the answering howl of the hungry
+wolves.
+
+After some time spent in this outlandish amusement, without any
+previous notice whatever, plump down they sat, and, in a minute, were
+smoking their pipes with as much gravity and composure as if they had
+just come in from a gentle promenade with their wives and children
+along the banks of a smooth and tranquil river. It was a sight, once
+seen, never to be forgotten. At first, George and his friends had
+looked on with open-eyed amazement; but, before the dance was ended,
+the whole scene appeared to them so comical, that they had need of all
+their self-control to keep a sober countenance, so as not to give
+offence to their savage entertainers.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+THE YOUNG SURVEYOR.
+
+
+It was a glorious region of stately woods, fertile valleys, clear
+running streams, and lofty mountains, where our young surveyor, with
+the exception of the winter months, spent the next three years of his
+life. At first, not being accustomed to such severe privations and
+exposure, it had gone rather hard with him: but he soon became inured
+to them; and it was, no doubt, to this rough experience in the
+wilderness, that he owed, in large measure, his uncommon vigor and
+activity of body, and that firm reliance on the resources of his own
+mind, which enabled him to endure and overcome those hardships,
+trials, and difficulties which beset him throughout the greater
+portion of his after-life. This severe training was also of another
+advantage to him, in making him perfectly familiar with all that
+region, in whose dark retreats and rugged wilds he learned, a few
+years later, his first hard lessons in the art of war.
+
+With all its privations, it was a life he loved to lead; for it
+afforded him the means of an independent support: and a happy boy was
+he, when first he wrote his mother that he was earning from fifteen
+to twenty dollars for every day he worked. Besides this, the beauty
+and grandeur of Nature's works, everywhere visible around him,
+awakened in him feelings of the truest delight; and he would sometimes
+spend the better part of a summer's day in admiring the tall and
+stately trees, whose spreading branches were his only shelter from the
+dews of heaven, and heat of noonday. At night, after supper, when his
+companions would be talking over the adventures of the day just past,
+or laughing boisterously at some broad joke repeated for the hundredth
+time, or would be joining their voices in the chorus of some rude
+woodland song, our young surveyor would be sitting a little apart on
+the trunk of a fallen tree, pencil and paper before him, calculating
+with a grave countenance, and by the ruddy light of a blazing
+pine-knot, the results of the day's labor. With no other companionship
+than that of the wild Indians he fell in with from time to time, and
+the rude, unlettered hunters around him, he must needs turn for
+society to the thoughts that stirred within his own mind. Often would
+he withdraw himself from the noisy mirth of his companions, and,
+climbing to some lofty mountain-top, spend hours and hours rapt in the
+contemplation of the wild and varied region, smiling in life and
+beauty far, far beneath him. At such times, we can imagine his
+countenance lit up with a sacred joy, and his soul rising in praise
+and thanksgiving to the great Father, who, in love and wisdom, made
+this glorious world for the good and happiness of all that dwell
+therein.
+
+Now and then, for the sake of a refreshing change, he would leave the
+wilderness behind him, with all its toils and dangers, and betake him
+to Greenway Court, the woodland home of old Lord Fairfax, with whom he
+had become a great favorite, and was ever a welcome guest. Here he
+would spend a few weeks in the most agreeable manner you can well
+imagine; for the old lord, being a man of some learning and extensive
+reading, had collected, in the course of a long life, a large library
+of the best and rarest books, from which, during these three years,
+George derived great pleasure and much valuable information. Besides
+this, a keener fox-hunter than this odd old bachelor was not to be
+found in all the Old Dominion; and, for the full enjoyment of this
+sport, he always kept a pack of hounds of the purest English blood. At
+the first peep of dawn, the cheerful notes of the hunter's horn, and
+the deep-mouthed baying of the fox-hounds, filling the neighboring
+woods with their lively din, would call our young surveyor from his
+slumbers to come and join in the sports of the morning. Waiting for no
+second summons, he would be up and out in a trice, and mounted by the
+side of the merry old lord; when, at a signal wound on the bugle, the
+whole party would dash away, pell-mell, helter-skelter, over the hills
+and through the woods, up the hills and down them again, across the
+brooks and along the winding river; hunters and horses hard on the
+heels of the hounds, hounds hard on the heels of poor Renard, and poor
+Renard cutting, cutting away for dear life.
+
+During the three years thus employed, George made his home at Mount
+Vernon, it being nearer and more convenient to his field of labor;
+but, as often as his business would permit, he would go on a visit to
+his mother at the old homestead on the Rappahannock, whither, as I
+should have told you before now, his father had removed when he was
+but three or four years old. These were precious opportunities, ever
+improved by him, of extending to her that aid in the management of her
+family affairs, which to receive from him was her greatest pleasure,
+as well as his truest delight to give.
+
+About this time, he formed a habit of writing down in a diary or
+day-book such facts and observations as seemed to him worthy of note,
+by which means he would be enabled to fix firmly in his mind whatever
+might prove of use to him at a future day. This is a most excellent
+habit; and I would earnestly advise all young persons, desirous of
+increasing their stock of knowledge, to form it as soon as they begin
+the study of grammar and can write a good round hand. The following is
+a specimen of this diary, written by him at the age of sixteen, as you
+will see by the date therein given:--
+
+     "March 13th, 1748.--Rode to his lordship's (Lord Fairfax's)
+     quarter. About four miles higher up the Shenandoah, we went
+     through most beautiful groves of sugar-trees, and spent the
+     better part of the day in admiring the trees and richness of
+     the land.
+
+     "14th.--We sent our baggage to Capt. Hite's, near Fredericktown;
+     and went ourselves down the river about sixteen miles (the
+     land exceedingly rich all the way, producing abundance of
+     grain, hemp, and tobacco), in order to lay off some land on
+     Cole's Marsh and Long Marsh.
+
+     "15th.--Worked hard till night, and then returned. After
+     supper, we were lighted into a room; and I, not being so good a
+     woodsman as the rest, stripped myself very orderly, and went
+     into the bed, as they called it; when, to my surprise, I found
+     it to be nothing but a little straw matted together, without
+     sheet or any thing else, but only one threadbare blanket, with
+     double its weight of vermin, I was glad to get up and put on my
+     clothes, and lie as my companions did. Had we not been very
+     tired, I am sure we should not have slept much that night. I
+     made a promise to sleep so no more; choosing rather to sleep in
+     the open air, before a fire.
+
+     "18th.--We travelled to Thomas Berwick's on the Potomac, where
+     we found the river exceedingly high, by reason of the great
+     rains that had fallen among the Alleghanies. They told us it
+     would not be fordable for several days; it being now six feet
+     higher than usual, and rising. We agreed to stay till Monday.
+     We this day called to see the famed Warm Springs. We camped out
+     in the field this night.
+
+     "20th.--Finding the river not much abated, we in the evening
+     swam our horses over to the Maryland side.
+
+     "21st.--We went over in a canoe, and travelled up the Maryland
+     side all day, in a continued rain, to Col. Cresap's, over
+     against the mouth of the South Branch, about forty miles from
+     the place of starting in the morning, and over the worst road,
+     I believe, that ever was trod by man or beast."
+
+In this diary, he also entered such items as these,--the number of
+acres of each lot of land surveyed, the quality of the soil, the
+growth of plants and trees, the height of the hills, the extent of the
+valleys, and the length, breadth, and course of the streams. From the
+items thus collected, he would draw the materials for the reports it
+was his duty to submit, from time to time, for examination, to his
+patron or employer; and such was the clearness, brevity, and exactness
+displayed therein, and such the industry, skill, and fidelity with
+which he performed his toilsome and difficult task, that the generous
+old lord not only rewarded him handsomely for his services, but
+continued to cherish for him through life a truly fatherly affection.
+
+In after-years, Washington was wont to turn with peculiar fondness to
+this period of his life, as perhaps affording the only leisure he had
+ever known for sentimental musings, and the indulgence of what fancy
+he may have had in those bright visions of future happiness, fame, or
+enterprise; to which all men are more or less given during the
+immature years of youth. This, to my mind, is to be easily enough
+accounted for, if we but ascribe it to a certain little circumstance;
+concerning which, as it exercised no small influence on his mind at
+the time, I will now tell you all that is known, and, it may be, more
+than ever can be known with possible certainty.
+
+From a letter written by him at the age of fifteen, and also from some
+sad and plaintive verses of his own composition found in his
+copy-book, we learn that the boy, who should grow to become the
+greatest man that ever made this glorious world of ours more glorious
+with his wise precepts and virtuous example, was at this time a victim
+of the tender passion called _love_, of which most of you little folks
+as yet know nothing but the four letters that spell the word.
+
+The object of this early attachment was a damsel, of whom nothing
+certain is known, as her name, from the fact of its never being
+repeated above a whisper, has not come down to our day, but who was
+called by him in his confidential correspondence the Lowland Beauty.
+As he had none of that self-assurance which lads of his age are apt to
+mistake for pluck or spirit, he never ventured to make known the
+secret of this passion to the object thereof; and it is probable, that
+we, even at the big end of a hundred years, are wiser as to this
+tender passage of his life than was ever the young lady herself. Not
+having the courage to declare the sentiments that warmed his breast,
+he wisely resolved to banish them from his mind altogether; and this,
+I will venture to say, was one reason why he so readily accepted of
+old Lord Fairfax's offer, and was willing for so long a time to make
+his abiding-place in the wilderness. But it was months, and even
+years, before he could get the better of his weakness, if such it
+could be justly called; for a wilderness, let me tell you (and I hope
+the hint will not be lost on my little friends), is the last place in
+the world, that a man, or a boy either, should take to, as the
+readiest means of ridding himself of such troublesome feelings. No
+wonder, then, that our young surveyor was grave and thoughtful beyond
+his years; and that the lonely forest, with its ever-changing beauties
+and wild seclusion, viewed through the bewitched eyes of love, should
+have had greater charms for him than the noisy, bustling haunts of
+men. That you may have a more distinct idea of the appearance of
+Washington at the time of which we are speaking, your Uncle Juvinell
+will conjure up, from the lingering lights and shadows of his dull old
+fancy, a little picture, to be gilded anew by your bright young
+fancies, and hung up in that loftiest chamber of your memory which you
+are wont to adorn with your portraits of the good and great men and
+women who have blessed the earth, and of whom we love so much to read
+and hear.
+
+It is a summer morning, and the eastern mountains fling their shadows
+long and huge across the lonesome valleys. Our little party of
+surveyors, having spent the night on the summits of one of the less
+lofty peaks of the Blue Ridge, are slowly descending its shrubby skies
+to the more densely wooded parts of the wilderness below, of whose
+waste fertility many a broad tract have they yet to explore, and many
+a mile of boundary-line have chain and compass yet to measure and
+determine. Still lingering on the summit far above, as loath to quit
+the contemplation of the splendid prospect seen from thence, stands a
+tall youth of eighteen, with his right arm thrown across his horse's
+neck, and his left hand grasping his compass-staff. He is clad in a
+buckskin hunting-shirt, with leggins and moccasons of the same
+material,--the simple garb of a backwoodsman, and one that well
+becomes him now, as in perfect keeping with the wildness of the
+surrounding scenery; while in his broad leathern belt are stuck his
+long hunting-knife and Indian tomahawk. In stature he is much above
+most youths of the same age: he is of a handsome and robust form, with
+high and strong but smooth features, light-brown hair, large blue
+eyes,--not brilliant, but beaming with a clear and steady light, as if
+a soul looked through them that knew no taint of vice or
+meanness,--and a countenance all glorious with a truth and courage,
+modest gentleness, and manly self-reliance; and as he thus lingers on
+that lonely mountain-height, glorified as it were with the fresh pure
+light of the newly risen sun, with head uncovered and looks reverent,
+he seems in holy communion with his Maker, to whom, in the tender,
+guileless years of childhood, a pious mother taught him to kneel,
+morning and evening, in prayer, thanksgiving, and adoration.
+
+Anon, his morning devotions ended, he turns to take, ere following his
+companions down the mountain, another view of the varied panorama
+spread out far beneath him, the chief feature of which is a valley,
+surpassing in beauty and fertility any that that summer's sun will
+shine on ere reaching his golden gateway in the west. Through this
+valley, glimmering, half seen, half hid among the waving woods, runs a
+river, with many a graceful bend, so beautiful, that, in the far-away
+years of the past, some long-forgotten tribe of Indians called it
+Shenandoah, or Shining Daughter of the Stars; a name that still
+lingers like a sweet echo among the mountains. And as the eyes of the
+young surveyor slowly range the wide prospect from point to point, and
+take in miles and miles of beauty at a single stretch of view, there
+is a look in them as if he would recall some pleasing dream of the
+night, which he would now fain bring forth, though but a dream, to
+refine and elevate the thoughts wherewith his mind must needs be
+occupied throughout the day. He is familiar with every feature of the
+landscape before him: he knows each shady dell and sunny hill, and
+every grassy slope and winding stream; for there he has made his home
+this many a day. He has seen it all a thousand times, and each time
+with renewed delight. But now it has a glory not all its own, nor
+borrowed from the morning sun, but from the first warm light of
+youthful love that burns in his heart for his Lowland Beauty.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+FIRST MILITARY APPOINTMENT.
+
+
+About this time, the Indians inhabiting that vast region extending
+from the Ohio River to the great lakes of the north, secretly
+encouraged and aided by the French, began to show signs of hostility,
+and threatened the western borders of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New
+York, with all the dismal horrors of their bloody and wasting warfare.
+The alarm spread rapidly from the frontier even to the Atlantic coast,
+till the whole country was awakened to the sense of the impending
+danger.
+
+To put the Province of Virginia in a better posture of defence, the
+governor thereof, Robert Dinwiddie, besides other measures, divided it
+into four grand military districts. Over each of these he placed what
+is called an adjutant-general, whose duty it was to organize and train
+the militia, instruct the officers in matters touching the art and
+science of war, to review the different companies when on parade, and
+to inspect their arms and accoutrements, and see that they were kept
+ready for use at a moment's warning.
+
+The energy, fidelity, and soundness of judgment, that young Washington
+had lately shown while acting as surveyor, had won for him a name in
+the colony; and, becoming known to Governor Dinwiddie, he was
+appointed by that gentleman adjutant-general of the Northern district;
+receiving along with his commission the rank of major, which entitled
+him to the salary of seven hundred and fifty dollars a year. You have
+already seen what great delight he took in martial exercises when a
+school-boy; and, now that he was to become a soldier in the true sense
+of the term, you will not be surprised to learn that this appointment
+was altogether agreeable to his present taste and inclinations. To
+show his deep sense of the honor done him, and the trust and
+confidence reposed in him, he determined to perform his work well and
+faithfully as far as in him lay.
+
+The better to qualify himself for the duties of his office, he placed
+himself under the instruction of his brother Lawrence, and other
+officers living in that part of the province, who had served under
+Admiral Vernon during the late Spanish war. These gentlemen, besides
+giving him the benefit of their experience and observation, placed in
+his hands the best works on military science then in use; from which
+he learned the various modes of training militia, the different
+manoeuvres of an army on the field of battle, and their management
+while on the line of march, together with the most approved plans of
+building forts, throwing up intrenchments and redoubts, and the
+construction of other works of defence, whether of wood or earth or
+stone. At the same time, he also made himself acquainted with the
+handling and design of many weapons and engines of war; and under the
+instruction of Capt. Van Braam, a Dutch fencing-master, he became very
+skilful in the use of the sword. Thus Mount Vernon, from being the
+quiet mansion of a country gentleman, was now, in a manner, converted
+into a military school; and the youth, who but a few years before, as
+he strolled among its verdant retreats, had, in honor of his Lowland
+Beauty, made his first and only attempt of putting his thoughts and
+feelings in verse, was, at the early age of nineteen, called upon to
+discharge those stern duties which men of age and experience alone are
+generally thought able to perform. The district allotted to Major
+Washington (for so we must now call him) consisted of several large
+counties, each of which the duties of his office obliged him to visit
+from time to time; and such was the energy and spirit he carried into
+his work, and such ability did he display, and such was the manliness
+and dignified courtesy with which he deported himself on all
+occasions, that he soon completely won the confidence and affections
+of both officers and men, who were inspired by his example to still
+greater zeal and patriotism in the service of their country.
+
+But these labors, so agreeable to one of his age and ardent spirit,
+were now interrupted for several months. His brother Lawrence, who
+had always been of a delicate constitution, was now thought to be in
+the last stages of consumption, and was advised by his physicians to
+betake himself to the West Indies, where he might yet, perhaps, find
+some relief in the warmer suns and milder airs of those beautiful
+islands. As he would have need of cheerful company and gentle and
+careful nursing, he took with him his favorite brother George; and,
+embarking from Alexandria, was soon out upon the shining billows of
+the deep-blue sea, in quest of that health he was never again to find.
+Their place of destination was the charming little Island of
+Barbadoes, where, after a somewhat stormy voyage, they arrived in
+safety.
+
+While here, Major Washington had an attack of small-pox, which handled
+him rather severely; and for some time he was thought to be in a
+dangerous condition. But in a few weeks, by dint of careful nursing,
+joined to the natural vigor of his constitution, he got the better of
+this frightful malady; and, when he was completely restored, not a
+disfiguring trace of it remained.
+
+During his sojourn here, he still continued his habit of writing down
+in a journal whatever of importance or interest came under his
+observation; in which, among other items, we find such as the
+following,--the speed of the ship in which they sailed; the direction
+of the winds; some account of a storm that overtook them on their
+voyage; the cities, ships, forts, and military strength of the Island
+of Barbadoes; its products; manners and customs of the people, and the
+laws and government under which they lived. By this means,
+contributing as it did to habits of close and accurate observation, he
+impressed the more strongly upon his memory such facts as might prove
+of use to him at a future day.
+
+Our two Virginians, during the three or four months of their stay on
+the island, were treated with much courtesy and hospitality by the
+inhabitants. But neither the genial climate of the region, nor the
+kindly hospitality of the people, was enough to restore that health
+and strength to the invalid for which he had come so far and hoped so
+long.
+
+Feeling that his end was drawing nigh, Lawrence Washington resolved to
+hasten home, that he might have the melancholy satisfaction of
+spending his last moments in the midst of his family and friends. He
+had scarcely returned to Mount Vernon, and bid a fond farewell to the
+loved ones there, when the angel of death summoned him to take another
+and a longer voyage, in quest of immortality, to be found in the
+islands of the blest, that smile in never-fading beauty on the bosom
+of the eternal sea.
+
+Thus, at the early age of thirty-four, died Lawrence Washington, one
+of the most amiable and accomplished gentlemen of his day. He left
+behind him an affectionate wife, a sweet little daughter, a devoted
+brother, and many a loving friend, to mourn his loss. In his will, he
+bequeathed his fine estate of Mount Vernon and all else that he
+possessed to his brother George; on condition, however, that his wife
+should have the use of it during her lifetime, and that his daughter
+should die without children to inherit it. The daughter did not reach
+the years of maidenhood; and, the mother surviving but a few years,
+George was left in the undivided possession of a large and handsome
+property; and, in a worldly point of view, his fortune was really
+already made. But, for all that, he long and deeply mourned the death
+of this much loved and valued brother, who had been to him father and
+friend ever since that first great sorrow of his childhood, when he
+became a widow's son and a widow's blessing.
+
+And thus, my little children, I have told you the story of this great
+and good man's life from his years of infancy up to those of early
+manhood. I have dwelt at greater length upon this period of his life
+than perhaps any other historian, and have told you some things that
+you might look for elsewhere in vain. In my treatment of this part of
+the subject, it has been my chief aim and earnest desire to impress
+upon your opening minds this one great truth,--that, if you would be
+good and wise in your manhood, you must begin, now in early youth, to
+put forth all your powers, and use all the means within your reach, to
+store your mind with useful knowledge, and direct your thoughts and
+actions in the ways of truth and virtue, industry and sobriety. The
+boy Washington did all this; and, ere we have done, you shall see the
+glorious results of such a good beginning. Be like him in your
+youth,--patient and diligent, loving and dutiful, truthful and
+prayerful; that you may be like him in the fulness of years,--esteemed
+and beloved, happy and good, useful and wise.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+IMPORTANT EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+When Uncle Juvinell had finished this part of his story, he paused,
+and with a beaming face looked round upon his little circle of
+listeners. Two or three of the youngest had long since fallen asleep;
+and Master Ned, having heard the story of the little hatchet, had
+stolen quietly away to the cabin, just to see how "black daddy" was
+getting along with his sled. Having waited till it was finished, he
+had, for his own private amusement, taken it to a nice hillside, and
+was now coasting on it all alone by the light of a good-humored,
+dish-faced moon. The other children had listened with great interest
+and attention to the story, and were still sitting with their eyes
+bent earnestly on the fire, whose great bright eye had by this time
+grown a little red, and was winking in a slow and sleepy way, as if it
+were saying, "Well done, Uncle Juvinell,--very well done indeed. I
+have been listening very attentively, and quite approve of all you
+have said, especially all that about the wooden-legged schoolmaster,
+the little hatchet, the sorrel horse, the Indian war-dance, and the
+Lowland Beauty, not to mention those wise maxims and wholesome moral
+precepts you brought in so aptly. All of it is very fine and very
+good, and just to my liking. But I am thinking it is high bed-time for
+these little folks."
+
+Uncle Juvinell was much gratified to see how deeply interested the
+children were in what he had been telling them; and in a little while
+he called upon them to let him know how they all liked it. Laura said
+that it was very nice; Ella, that it was charming; Daniel, that it was
+quite as interesting as Plutarch's Lives; Willie, that it was even
+more so than "Robinson Crusoe;" and Bryce, that it was very good, but
+he would have liked it better had Uncle Juvinell told them more about
+the Indians. Just then, Master Charlie awoke from a comfortable nap of
+an hour or two, having dropped asleep shortly after the sorrel horse
+dropped dead; and, to make believe that he had been as wide awake as a
+weasel from the very start, began asking such a string of questions as
+seemed likely to have no end. After a droll jumbling of Washington
+with Jack the Giant-killer, old Lord Fairfax with Bluebeard, poor old
+Hobby, the wooden-legged schoolmaster, with the Roving Red Robber, he
+at last so far got the better of his sleepy senses as to know what he
+would be driving at; when he said, "Uncle Juvinell, did his father let
+him keep his little hatchet after he had cut the cherry-tree?"
+
+"History, my little nephew," replied his uncle with a sober
+countenance, "does not inform us whether he did or not; but you may be
+quite sure that he did, well knowing that a little boy who would
+choose rather to take a whipping than tell a lie, or suffer another to
+be punished for an offence he had himself committed, would never be
+guilty the second time of doing that wherein he had once been
+forbidden."
+
+"What became of black Jerry after he turned a somerset in the snow,
+and went rolling over and over down the hill?" Charlie went on.
+
+"Jerry, I am happy to say," replied his uncle, "was so won over by the
+kindness and noble self-devotion of his brave little master, that he
+made up his mind to mend his ways from that very moment; and in a
+short time, from having been the worst, became the best behaved
+negroling to be found on either side of the Rappahannock, for more
+than a hundred miles up and down."
+
+"What is a negroling?" inquired Master Charlie, as if bent on sifting
+this matter to the very bottom.
+
+"A negroling," replied Uncle Juvinell with a smile, "is to a
+full-grown negro what a gosling is to a full-grown goose. Now, can you
+tell me what it is?"
+
+"A gosling negro, I suppose," was Charlie's answer; and then he asked,
+"Did old Hobby go on teaching school after little George left him?"
+
+"Of course he did," answered his uncle; "but, you may depend upon it,
+he never took another scholar as far as the single rule of three."
+Then, winking slyly at two or three of the older children, he
+continued: "This worthy schoolmaster lived to the good old age of
+ninety-nine; when, feeling that his earthly pilgrimage was drawing to
+a close, he for the last time hung up his big cocked hat on the
+accustomed peg, and for the last time unscrewed his wooden, leg, and
+set it in its accustomed corner; then, like a good Christian, laid him
+down to die in peace, giving thanks to Heaven with his last breath
+that it had fallen to his lot to teach the great George Washington his
+A B C's and the multiplication-table."
+
+This made Master Charlie look very grave and thoughtful, so that he
+asked no more questions for the rest of the night.
+
+Then Daniel, the young historian, who, having his mind occupied with
+more weighty matters, had been listening with some impatience while
+the above confab was going on, begged that his uncle would tell him
+what was meant by a midshipman's warrant.
+
+"In the first place, Dannie," said Uncle Juvinell, "for the benefit of
+the rest of the children, who are not so well informed upon such
+matters as yourself, we must see what a midshipman is. The lowest
+officer in the navy, but still several degrees removed from a common
+sailor, is a midshipman, who enters a man-of-war as a kind of pupil
+to study the art of navigation, and to acquaint himself with other
+matters connected with the seafaring life. A man-of-war, you must
+know, is the largest vessel, or ship of war, belonging to a nation;
+while all the ships fitted out at the public expense, together with
+the officers and seamen concerned in their keeping and management,
+make up what is called a navy. By navigation, we are to understand the
+art by which sailors are taught to conduct ships from one point to
+another. Now, a warrant is a writing that gives some one the right to
+do a thing or to enjoy it. Thus you see a midshipman's warrant would
+have given young Washington the right to go on board a man-of-war,
+where, as a kind of pupil, he would have learned the art of
+navigation, the management of ships, and many other things necessary
+to make a good sailor. The knowledge thus acquired, and the training
+to which he must needs have been subjected, would have fitted him in
+time to become an officer of the navy, such as a lieutenant or a
+captain, and, it may be, even an admiral."
+
+"And what is an admiral?" inquired Willie.
+
+"An admiral," replied Uncle Juvinell, "is the highest officer of the
+navy; he is to the armies of the sea what a general is to the armies
+of the land, and commands a squadron, or fleet, which, you must know,
+is a large number of armed ships, moving and acting in concert
+together."
+
+"Does he fight with a sword?" inquired Bryce, who, it must be borne in
+mind, was the military young gentleman, who carried a wooden sword of
+his own.
+
+"It is unusual," replied his uncle, "for either an admiral or a
+general to fight in person; it being their duty to put their armies in
+order of battle, and afterwards, during the fight, to control the
+movements of the different regiments or divisions by orders carried by
+aides to the officers under their command."
+
+"You told us, uncle," said Willie, "that Washington received, along
+with the commission of adjutant-general, the rank of major. Now, what
+are we to understand by this?"
+
+"A commission," replied his uncle, "is a writing, giving some one the
+right or authority to perform the duties of some office, and receive
+the pay and honors arising from the same. The duties of an
+adjutant-general you have already seen; and the commission received by
+young Washington to perform those duties made him equal in rank, not
+to a general, but to a major."
+
+"I know you told us, uncle," said Ella, "what is meant by surveying;
+but I don't think that I clearly understand it yet."
+
+"I will refer you to your brother Dannie," said Uncle Juvinell; "for
+he is looking very wise, as if somebody knew a thing or two, and
+could, were he but called upon, greatly enlighten somebody else. Out
+with it, Dannie, and let us have it."
+
+"Surveying teaches the measurement of land," Dannie made haste to
+answer; "and a surveyor is one who measures land with the help of a
+long chain and compass and other instruments. Now, George Washington,
+for example"--
+
+"That will do, Daniel," said his uncle, interrupting him: "you have
+made it as clear as daylight already; and I dare say your sister
+understands you perfectly, without the help of any example."
+
+"Oh, I like to have forgotten one thing!" cried Willie. "Tell us what
+is meant by line of march, manoeuvres on the battle-field, throwing
+up intrenchments, and the like."
+
+To these points, Uncle Juvinell made answer: "An army, my nephew, is
+said to be on the line of march when it is moving from one place to
+another. A manoeuvre is an evolution or a movement of an army,
+designed to mislead or deceive an enemy, or in some way to gain the
+advantage of him. An intrenchment is a breastwork or wall, with a
+trench or ditch running along the outside. The breastwork, being
+formed of the earth thrown up from the trench, serves as a protection
+against the shots of an enemy. The trench being quite as deep as the
+breastwork is high, renders it very difficult and dangerous for the
+works to be taken by storm; for the enemy must first descend into the
+ditch before he can reach and scale the wall,--an attempt always
+attended with the greatest peril to those who make it; for they who
+defend the works, fighting on top of the walls, have greatly the
+advantage of those beneath. Sometimes intrenchments run in straight or
+crooked lines, and sometimes enclose an irregular square or circle;
+and any piece of ground, or body of men, thus enclosed or fortified,
+is said to be intrenched."
+
+"What a pity it is we can never know the name of the Lowland Beauty!"
+remarked Miss Laura regretfully; for she was getting to be quite old
+enough to be somewhat interested in matters of this kind.
+
+"The name the young surveyor gave her," said Uncle Juvinell, "lends an
+interest to this part of his life, which a knowledge of her true name
+might never have awakened. Besides this, my dear niece, if you but be
+attentive to what I shall relate hereafter, you will learn many things
+touching the life and character of his mother Mary and his wife Martha
+far more worthy of your remembrance."
+
+The clock struck ten; the fire burned low, and a heavy lid of ashes
+hid its great red eye. And now Uncle Juvinell bethought him that it
+must indeed be high bed-time for the little folks; and in conclusion
+he said, "Now, my dear children, I want you to bear well in mind what
+I have told you to-night, that you may be the better prepared for what
+I shall tell you to-morrow evening. And hereafter I would have you
+write down on your slates, while I go on with my story, whatever you
+may find difficult and shall wish to have more fully explained at the
+end of each evening's lesson. And now let us sing our evening hymn,
+and part for the night."
+
+With that they joined their voices, as was their wont, in a sweet hymn
+of praise and thanks to the great Father of us all,--the little folks
+carrying the treble, while Uncle Juvinell managed the bass. This duly
+done, they came one by one, and kissed their dear old uncle a loving
+good-night; then crept to their happy beds to dream till morning of
+wooden-legged schoolmasters, little hatchets, wild rides on fiery
+untamed horses that were always sorrel, of life in the lonely
+wilderness, rambles without end up and down the mountains, and of
+skin-clad Indiana leaping and whirling in the war-dance.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+INDIAN TROUBLES.
+
+
+And now, said Uncle Juvinell, I see you are all agog, slate and pencil
+in hand, ready to jot down any question that may chance to pop into
+your busy young brains, to be asked and answered, for our further
+enlightenment, at the end of our evening lesson. So, without more ado,
+we will begin.
+
+But, before trudging on further in our delightful journey, we must
+pause a moment, and turning square round, with our faces towards the
+long-ago years of the past, take a bird's-eye view of the early
+history of our country, that we may know exactly where we are when we
+come to find ourselves in the outskirts of that long and bloody
+struggle between the two great nations of England and France, commonly
+called the Seven Years' War, and sometimes the Old French War. Now,
+although this would not be as entertaining to your lively fancies as
+an Arabian tale or an Indian legend, yet you will by and by see very
+plainly that we could not have skipped it, without losing the sense of
+a great deal that follows; for it was during this war that our
+Washington first experienced the trials and hardships of a soldier's
+life, and displayed that courage, prudence, and ability, which in the
+end proved the salvation and glory of his native country.
+
+In the first place, you must know, my dear children, that this
+beautiful land of ours, where now dwell the freest and happiest people
+the blessed sun ever shone upon, was, only a few hundred years ago,
+all a vast unbroken wilderness; a place where no one but savage
+Indians found a home, whose chief amusement was to fight and kill and
+scalp each other; and whose chief occupation was to hunt wild beasts
+and birds, upon whose flesh they fed, and with whose hairy skins and
+horns and claws and feathers they clothed and decked themselves. Where
+in the leafy summer-time may now be heard the merry plough-boy
+whistling "Yankee Doodle" over the waving corn, the wild Indian once
+wrestled with the surly bear, or met his ancient enemy in deadly
+fight. Nibbling sheep and grazing cattle now range the grassy hills
+and valleys where he was wont to give chase to the timid deer, or lie
+in wait for the monstrous buffalo. Huge steamers ply up and down our
+mighty rivers where he once paddled his little canoe. Splendid cities
+have risen, as if at the rubbing of Aladdin's enchanted lamp, where in
+the depths of the forest he once kindled the great council-fire, and
+met the neighboring tribes in the Big Talk. The very schoolhouse,
+where you little folks are now tripping so lightly along the flowery
+path of knowledge, may perhaps stand on the selfsame shady slope,
+where, of a long summer evening, he would sit at the door of his
+bark-built wigwam, smoking his long pipe, and watching his naked red
+children with a more fatherly smile than you can well imagine in one
+so fierce, as with many a hoop and yelp they played at "hide-and-seek"
+among the gray old trees and pawpaw thickets. On yonder hill-top,
+where we at this moment can see the windows of the house of God
+shining and glancing in the moonlight, he may have stood, with his
+face to the rising or setting sun, in mute worship before the Great
+Spirit.
+
+But the stronger and wiser white man came; and, at his terrible
+approach, the red man, with all his wild remembrances, passed away,
+like an echo in the woods, or the shadow of an April cloud over the
+hills and valleys; and the place that once knew him shall know him no
+more for ever.
+
+And yet it might have been far otherwise with him and with us, had not
+a certain Christopher Columbus chanced to light upon this Western
+World of ours, as he came hap-hazard across the wide Atlantic, where
+ship had never sailed before, in quest of a shorter passage to Asia.
+
+By this great discovery, it was proved to the entire satisfaction of
+all who are in the least interested in the matter, that this earth
+upon which we live, instead of being long and flat, with sides and
+ends and corners like a great rough slab, was round, and hollow
+inside, like an India-rubber ball, and went rolling through empty
+space, round and round the sun, year after year, continually.
+
+Of this bold and skilful sailor, the most renowned that ever lived, I
+should like to tell you many things; but, as we set out to give our
+chief attention to the story of Washington, we must deny ourselves
+this pleasure until the holidays of some merry Christmas yet to come,
+when your Uncle Juvinell, if he still keeps his memory fresh and
+green, will relate to you many wonderful things in the life of this
+great voyager, Columbus.
+
+Up to this time, all the nations of Christendom had for ages upon ages
+been sunk in a lazy doze of ignorance and superstition. But, when
+tidings of the great discovery reached their drowsy ears, they were
+roused in a marvellous manner; and many of the richest and most
+powerful forthwith determined to secure, each to itself, a portion of
+the new-found region, by planting colonies; or, in other words, by
+making settlements therein.
+
+For this purpose, they sent out fleets of ships across the Atlantic to
+these distant shores, laden with multitudes of men, who brought with
+them all manner of tools and implements wherewith to clear away the
+forests, till the soil, and build forts and cities, and arms to defend
+themselves against the attacks of the war-like savages. Thus, for
+example, Spain colonized Mexico; France, Canada; and England, that
+strip of the North-American continent, lying between the Alleghany
+Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, now known as the eastern coast of
+the United States.
+
+At first, the new-comers were received and treated with much kindness
+and hospitality by the natives: but it was not long before they
+discovered that they were likely to be robbed of their homes and
+hunting-grounds; when rage and jealousy took possession of their
+hearts, and from that time forward they never let slip an opportunity
+of doing all the mischief in their power to the hated intruders. Then
+began that long train of bloody wars between the two races, which have
+never ceased except with defeat or ruin of the weaker red man, and
+bringing him nearer and nearer to the day when he must either forsake
+his savage life, or cease to have an existence altogether.
+
+Now, this may appear very unjust and wrong to my little friends; and,
+to some extent, it really was: but, in those days, might made right;
+or, in other words, the strong ruled the weak. And yet we are bound to
+believe that all this, in the long-run, has worked, and is still
+working, to the greatest good of the greatest number: for, had it been
+otherwise, all this beautiful land, now the home of a Christian and
+happy people, would have remained the dismal wilderness we have
+described it; answering no good end, as far as concerns the spread of
+truth and knowledge, and the cultivation of those useful arts which
+make a nation prosperous in peace, and strong in war.
+
+Notwithstanding their troubles with the Indians, the hardships and
+privations to which the first settlers of a wild country are always
+exposed, and the shameful neglect with which they were treated by the
+mother-countries, the French and English colonies went on growing and
+thriving in a way that was wonderful to behold. At the end of a
+hundred and fifty years, or thereabouts, they had so grown in strength
+and increased in numbers, and had so widened their boundaries, that at
+last the continent, vast as it is, seemed too narrow to hold them
+both; and they began throwing up their elbows for more room, in a
+manner that would have been thought quite uncivil in a private
+individual at a dinner table or in a stage-coach.
+
+Whereupon there arose a hot dispute between the kings of France and
+England as to whom belonged all that immense region stretching from
+the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, in the one direction; and, in the
+other, from the Ohio to the Great Lakes of the North.
+
+The French claimed it by the right of discovery: by which they meant,
+that a certain Father Marquette had, nearly a hundred years before,
+discovered the Mississippi during his wanderings as a missionary
+among the Indians of the Far West. They pretended, that, as this pious
+man had paddled a little canoe up and down this splendid river a few
+hundred miles, his royal master, the King of France, was thereby
+entitled to all the lands watered by it, and the ten thousand streams
+that empty into it.
+
+The English, on the other hand, claimed it by the right of purchase;
+having, as they said, bought it at a fair price of the Six Nations, a
+powerful league or union of several Indian tribes inhabiting the
+region round about the great lake's Erie and Ontario. What right the
+Six Nations had to it, is impossible to say. They claimed it, however,
+by the doubtful right of conquest; there being a tradition among them,
+that their ancestors, many generations before, had overrun the
+country, and subdued its inhabitants.
+
+Now, the poor Indians who occupied the land in question were very
+indignant indeed when they heard that they and theirs had been sold to
+the white strangers by their red enemies, the Six Nations, whom they
+regarded as a flock of meddlesome crows, that were always dipping
+their ravenous bills into matters that did not in the least concern
+them; and their simple heads were sorely perplexed and puzzled, that
+two great kings, dwelling in far-distant countries, thousands of miles
+away beyond the mighty ocean, should, in the midst of uncounted
+riches, fall to wrangling with each other over a bit of wilderness
+land that neither of them had ever set eyes or foot on, and to which
+they had no more right than the Grand Caliph of Bagdad, or that
+terrible Tartar, Kublah Khan.
+
+"Of all this land," said they, "there is not the black of a man's
+thumb-nail that the Six Nations can call their own. It is ours. More
+than a thousand moons before the pale-face came over the Big Water in
+his white-winged canoes, the Great Spirit gave it to our forefathers;
+and they handed it down, to be our inheritance as long as the old
+hills tell of their green graves. In its streams have we fished, in
+its woods have we hunted, in its sunny places have we built our
+wigwams, and in its dark and secret places have we fought and scalped
+and burnt our sworn enemies, without let or hinderance, time out of
+mind. Now, if the English claim all on this side of the Ohio, and the
+French claim all on this side of the Big Lakes, then what they claim
+is one and the same country,--the country whereon we dwell. Surely our
+white brothers must be dreaming. It is our hearts' desire, that our
+brothers, the English, keep on their side of the Ohio, and till the
+ground, and grow rich in corn; also that our brothers, the French,
+keep on their side of the lakes, and hunt in the woods, and grow rich
+in skins and furs. But you must both quit pressing upon us, lest our
+ribs be squeezed in and our breath be squeezed out, and we cease to
+have a place among men. We hold you both at arm's-length; and whoever
+pays good heed to the words we have spoken, by him will we stand, and
+with him make common cause against the other."
+
+But to these just complaints of the poor Indian the French and English
+gave no more heed than if they who uttered them were so many
+whip-poor-wills crying in the woods. So they fell to wrangling in a
+more unreasonable manner than ever. Finally, to mend the matter (that
+is to say, make things worse), the French, coming up the Mississippi
+from the South, and down from the Great Lakes of the North, began
+erecting a chain of forts upon the disputed territory, to overawe the
+inhabitants thereof, and force the English to keep within the
+Alleghanies and the Atlantic. As a matter of course, the English
+regarded this as an insult to their dignity, and resolved to chastise
+the French for their impudence. And this it was that brought about
+that long and bloody struggle, the Old French War.
+
+Thus, my dear children, do great and wise nations, professing to
+follow the humane teachings of the man-loving, God-fearing Jesus,
+often show no more truth and justice and honesty in their dealings
+with one another than if they were as ignorant of the Ten Commandments
+as the most benighted heathens, to whom even the name of Moses was
+never spoken. Yet, from your looks, I see that you are wondering
+within yourselves what all this rigmarole about England, France, the
+Six Nations, and disputed territories, can have to do with George
+Washington. Had you held a tight rein on your impatience a little
+while longer, you would have found out all about it, without the
+inconvenience of wondering; and hereafter, my little folks, rest
+assured that your Uncle Juvinell never ventures upon any thing without
+having all his eyes and wits about him, and that what he may tell you
+shall always prove instructive, although it may now and then--with no
+fault of his, however--seem to you somewhat dry and tedious.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+"BIG TALK" WITH "WHITE THUNDER."
+
+
+But we are a little fast. In order to bring ourselves square again
+with our story, we must take one step backward, and begin afresh.
+
+When tidings of these trespasses of the French reached the ears of
+Robert Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia, all his Scotch blood
+boiled within him, and he began forthwith casting in his mind what
+might be done to check or chastise such audacious proceedings.
+
+Cooling down a little, however, he thought it would be better, before
+throwing his stones, to try what virtue might be found in grass. By
+which you are to understand, that he determined to write a letter to
+the French general, then stationed in a little fort near Lake Erie,
+inquiring by what authority these encroachments were made on the
+dominions of his royal master, the King of England; and demanding that
+they, the French, should abandon their forts, and withdraw their
+troops from the disputed territory, without delay, or else abide the
+consequences. He was well aware, that, to insure any thing like
+success in a mission so difficult and perilous, the person intrusted
+with it must needs be robust of body, stout of heart, clear of head;
+one inured to the hardships of a backwoods life, well acquainted with
+the habits and customs of the Indians, and withal a man of
+intelligence, polite address, and the strictest integrity of
+character. But one such man was to be found among ten thousand; and
+this was George Washington, who answered to the description in every
+particular, and was therefore chosen to perform this perilous
+undertaking, although he had not yet completed his twenty-second year.
+
+Accordingly, having received from Governor Dinwiddie written
+instructions how to act when come into the enemy's country, Major
+Washington set out the next morning from Williamsburg, then the
+capital of Virginia, and made his way at once to Winchester, at that
+time a frontier settlement of the province, lying on the very edge of
+the wilderness. Here he spent several days in procuring supplies for
+the expedition, and raising a small party of hunters and pioneers to
+guard and bear him company. After some delay, he succeeded in
+procuring the services of seven men. Four of these were hardy
+backwoodsmen of experience, whose business it was to take care of the
+baggage and keep the party supplied with game. Mr. Davidson was to go
+along as Indian interpreter, and Mr. Gist as guide. A bolder and more
+enterprising pioneer than this Gist, by the by, was not to be found
+in all the Western wilds; and he is supposed by some historians to
+have been the first white man that ever brought down an elk or a
+buffalo in that paradise of hunters, green Kentucky. In addition to
+these, Washington took with him as French interpreter his old Dutch
+fencing-master, Capt. Van Braam. The worthy captain, however, seems to
+have been a far more expert master of sword-play than of the
+languages; for the jargon he was pleased to call an interpretation was
+often such a medley of half-learned English, half-remembered French,
+and half-forgotten Dutch, that they who listened would be nearly as
+much perplexed to see what he would be driving at, as if he were
+sputtering Cherokee into their ears.
+
+All things being at last in readiness, the gallant little party,
+headed by our young Virginian, turned their faces towards the great
+North-west; and, plunging into the wilderness, were soon beyond all
+traces of civilized man. The autumn was far advanced. The travelling
+was rendered toilsome, and even dangerous, by the heavy rains of this
+season, and early snows that had already fallen on the mountains,
+which had changed the little rills into rushing torrents, and the low
+bottom-lands into deep and miry swamps. Much delayed by these and the
+like hinderances, Washington, upon reaching the banks of the
+Monongahela, deemed it best to send two of the backwoodsmen with the
+baggage in canoes down this river to its mouth, where, uniting its
+waters with those of the Allegheny, it helped to form the great Ohio.
+Promising to meet them at this point, he and the rest of the party
+pushed thitherward by land on horseback. Reaching the Forks of the
+Ohio two days before the canoe-men, he spent the time in exploring the
+woods and hills and streams around, and was much struck with the
+advantages the place held out as a site for a military post. This,
+together with other items meriting attention that happened to him or
+occurred to his mind during the expedition, he carefully noted down in
+a journal which he kept, to be laid, in the form of a report, before
+Gov. Dinwiddie, upon his return. The following year, as a convincing
+proof to his countrymen how entirely they might rely on his foresight
+and judgment in such matters, French officers of skill and experience
+chose this very spot to be the site of Fort Duquesne, afterwards so
+famous in the border history of our country. Near the close of the
+war, this post fell into the hands of the English, who changed its
+name to that of Fort Pitt; which in time gave rise to the busy,
+thriving, noisy, dingy, fine young town of Pittsburg, a smoky-looking
+picture of which you may see any time you choose to consult your
+geography.
+
+Instead of pushing on directly to the Lakes, Major Washington turned a
+little aside from his course, and went down the Ohio about twenty
+miles, to an Indian village called Logstown. Here, as had been
+previously arranged, he met a few sachems or chiefs of some of the
+Western tribes, to kindle a council-fire and have a Big Talk. He was
+received with much hospitality and courtesy by a stately old chief,
+whose Indian name you would not care to hear, as it would give Master
+Charlie's nut-crackers the jaw-ache to pronounce it. Among the
+English, however, as he was the head of a league or union of several
+tribes, he usually went by the name of the Half King. After the pipe
+had passed with all due gravity from mouth to mouth, and every
+warrior, chief, and white man present had taken a whiff or two, in
+sign that all was good-will and peace between them, Washington arose,
+and addressed the Half King in a short speech, somewhat after the
+following manner:--
+
+"Your brother, the Governor of Virginia, has sent me with a letter to
+the big French captain, near Lake Erie. What is written therein deeply
+concerns you and your people as well as us. It was his desire,
+therefore, that you share with us the toils and dangers of this
+expedition, by sending some of your young men along with us, to guide
+us through the wilderness where there is no path, and be our safeguard
+against the wiles of cunning and evil-minded men we may chance to meet
+by the way. This he will look upon as a still further proof of the
+love and friendship you bear your brothers, the English. As a pledge
+of his faith in all this, and as a token of his love for his red
+brother, he sends this belt of wampum."
+
+Mr. Davidson having interpreted this speech, the Half King for some
+moments after sat smoking in profound silence, as if turning over in
+his mind what he had just heard, or as if waiting, according to Indian
+notions of etiquette on such occasions, to assure himself that the
+speaker had made an end of his say. He then arose, and spoke to the
+following effect:--
+
+"I have heard the words of my young white brother, and they are true.
+I have heard the request of my brother the Governor of Virginia, and
+it is reasonable. At present, however, my young men are abroad in the
+forest, hunting game to provide against the wants of the coming
+winter, that our wives and children starve not when we are out upon
+the war-path. At the third setting of the sun from this time, they
+will be coming in; when I will not only send some of them with my
+young white brother, but will myself bear him company. For he must
+know that we have ceased to look upon the French as our friends. They
+have trespassed upon our soil; they have spoken words of insult and
+mockery to our oldest sachems. For this cause have my people resolved
+to return them the speech-belt they gave us at the Big Talk we had
+last winter at Montreal. It is that I may defy the big French captain
+to his teeth, and fling his speech-belt in his face, that I now go
+with my young brother, the Long Knife."
+
+On the third day, as had been promised, the young men came in from
+hunting; from among whom the Half King chose eight or ten to serve as
+an additional escort to Major Washington during the expedition. Among
+these was a warrior of great distinction, who went by the tremendous
+name of White Thunder, and was keeper of the speech-belt. Now, you
+must know, that in Indian politics, when two tribes exchange
+speech-belts, it is understood to be an expression of peace and
+good-will between them; while to return or throw them away is the same
+as a declaration of war, or at least to be taken as a hint that all
+friendly intercourse between them is at an end. The "keeper of the
+speech-belt" was, therefore, a kind of "secretary of state" among
+these simple people.
+
+Thus re-enforced by his red allies, Washington, who had grown somewhat
+impatient under this delay, gladly turned his face once more towards
+the Great Lakes. All this time, the rain had continued to fall with
+scarcely an hour's intermission. The streams and low meadow-lands were
+so flooded in consequence, that they were often obliged to wander many
+a weary mile over rugged highlands and through tangled forests,
+without finding themselves any nearer their journey's end. Now and
+then, coming to some muddy, swollen stream, in order to gain the
+opposite side without getting their baggage wet, they must needs cross
+over on rafts rudely constructed of logs and grape-vines, and make
+their horses swim along behind them. It was near the middle of
+December, before the little party, jaded and travel-stained, reached
+their destination.
+
+Major Washington was received with true soldierly courtesy by the
+French general, to whom he at once delivered Gov. Dinwiddie's letter.
+A few days being requested for a due consideration of its contents, as
+well as the answer to be returned, he spent the time, as he had been
+instructed, in gaining all the information he could, without exciting
+suspicion, touching the designs of the French in the North-west,--to
+what extent they had won over the several Indian tribes to their
+interest; the number of troops they had brought into the territory;
+and the number, strength, and situation of the forts they had built.
+The fort where the French general then had his headquarters stood on
+the banks of a little river called French Creek, in which Washington
+observed lying, and bade his men count, a large number of canoes, to
+be used early in the following spring for transporting men and
+military stores down the Ohio. All the hints and items thus gathered
+he carefully noted down in his journal, to be laid, as I have told you
+already, in the form of a report, before Gov. Dinwiddie, upon his
+return.
+
+Being wary and watchful, he was not long in discovering that the
+French were tampering with his Indian allies; tempting them, by the
+gayest of presents, the fairest of promises, and the hottest of
+firewater, to break faith with the English, and join their cause.
+These underhand dealings gave Washington much uneasiness of mind; and
+he complained to the French general, yet in a firm and dignified
+manner, of the unfair advantage thus taken of the besetting weakness
+of these poor people.
+
+Of course, the wily old Frenchman denied all knowledge of the matter;
+although we are bound to believe, that, as these tricks and intrigues
+were going on under his very nose, he must certainly have winked at,
+if he did not openly encourage them.
+
+It is true that the Indians were by no means too nice to enrich
+themselves with French presents, and get drunk on French whiskey; yet,
+for all that, they turned a deaf ear to French promises, and, keeping
+their faith unbroken, remained as true as hickory to their friends the
+English. Even the Half King, stately and commanding as he was in
+council, yielded to the pleasing temptation along with the rest; and,
+for the greater part of the time, lay beastly drunk about the fort.
+When at last he came to his sober senses, he was not a little
+chopfallen upon being somewhat sternly reminded by Major Washington of
+the business that had brought him thither, the recollection of which
+he had seemingly drowned in his enemy's whiskey. Whereupon, as if to
+show that all his threats and promises had been made in good faith, he
+went forthwith to the French general, and delivered the grave oration
+he had composed for the occasion; at the same time returning the
+speech-belt White Thunder had brought, as a sign that all friendly
+relations between the French and his people were at an end.
+
+At last, having received the answer to Gov. Dinwiddie's letter, and
+looked into matters and things about him as far as he could with
+prudence, Major Washington was now anxious to be away from the place
+where he had already been detained too long. During his stay, however,
+he had been treated with the greatest respect and courtesy by the
+accomplished Frenchman, who presented him, upon his departure, with a
+large canoe laden with a liberal supply of liquors and provisions,
+that lasted him and his men until they reached the Ohio.
+
+To spare the horses as much as possible, Washington had sent them,
+with two or three of the men, by land to Venango, a fort about fifteen
+miles below; whither he now set out to follow them by water. The
+navigation of this little river, owing to its shallows and the masses
+of floating ice that here and there blocked up its channel, was
+difficult and toilsome in the extreme. Oftentimes, to prevent their
+frail canoes from being dashed to pieces against the rocks, would they
+be compelled to get out into the cold water for half an hour at a
+time, and guide them with their hands down the whirling and rapid
+current, and now and then even to carry them and their loads by land
+around some foaming cataract to the smoother water below. After an
+irksome little voyage, they reached Venango, fully satisfied that to
+go further by water was quite out of the question.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+CHRISTMAS IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+
+Here, at Venango, Major Washington, much to his regret, was compelled
+to part company with the Half King and his other red allies. White
+Thunder, keeper of the speech-belt, had been so seriously injured in
+their passage down, as to be, for the present, quite unable to travel;
+and the rest would not think of leaving him, but needs must tarry
+there until their friend should be well enough to be brought in a
+canoe down the Alleghany.
+
+Remounting their horses, our little party once more took their weary
+way through the wilderness. It was now the 22d of December. The
+weather was bitter cold; the snow fell thick and fast, and froze as it
+fell; and the bleak winds moaned drearily among the naked trees. The
+forest streams were frozen from bank to bank, yet often too thin to
+bear the weight of the horses; which rendered their crossing painful
+and hazardous indeed. To add to the discomfort of our travellers, the
+horses, from poor and scanty fare, had become too weak to be able
+longer to carry their allotted burdens. Moved with compassion at their
+pitiable plight, Washington dismounted from his fine saddle-horse, and
+loaded his with a part of the baggage; choosing rather to toil along
+on foot, than to take his ease at the expense of pain even to these
+poor brutes. His humane example was promptly followed by the rest of
+the party; and only the two men kept the saddle to whom was intrusted
+the care of the baggage.
+
+You can well imagine, that a Christmas spent in this wild waste of
+leafless woods and snowy hills was any thing but a merry one to these
+poor fellows, so far away from their homes, which, at that moment,
+they knew to be so bright and cheerful with the mirth and laughter of
+"old men and babes, and loving friends, and youths, and maidens gay."
+And yet I dare say, that, even there, they greeted each other on that
+blessed morning with a brighter smile than usual, and called to their
+remembrance, that on that morn a babe was born, who, in the fulness of
+years, has grown to be the light and love and glory of the earth.
+
+Seeing that the half-famished beasts were growing weaker and weaker
+day by day, and that he would be too long in reaching his journey's
+end if he governed his speed by theirs, Washington left Capt. Van
+Braam in command of the party, and pushed forward with no other
+company than Mr. Gist. Armed with their trusty rifles, and clad in
+the light dress of the Indians, with no extra covering for the night
+but their watch-coats, and with no other baggage but a small
+portmanteau containing their food and Major Washington's important
+papers, they now made rapid headway, and soon left their friends far
+behind. The next day, they came upon an Indian village called
+Murdering Town; a name of evil omen, given it, perhaps, from its
+having been the scene of some bloody Indian massacre. What befell them
+here, I will tell you, as nearly as I can remember, in Mr. Gist's own
+words:--
+
+     "We rose early in the morning, and set out at seven o'clock,
+     and got to Murdering Town, on the south-east fork of Beaver
+     Creek. Here we met with an Indian whom I thought I had seen at
+     Joncaire's, at Venango, when on our journey up to the French
+     fort. This fellow called me by my Indian name, and pretended to
+     be glad to see me. He asked us several questions; as, how we
+     came to travel on foot, when we left Venango, where we parted
+     with our horses, and when they would be there. Major Washington
+     insisted on travelling by the nearest way to the forks of the
+     Alleghany. We asked the Indian if he could go with us, and show
+     us the nearest way. The Indian seemed very glad and ready to go
+     with us; upon which we set out, and the Indian took the Major's
+     pack. We travelled very brisk for eight or ten miles; when the
+     Major's feet grew sore, and he very weary, and the Indian
+     steered too much north-eastwardly. The Major desired to encamp;
+     upon which the Indian asked to carry his gun, but he refused;
+     and then the Indian grew churlish, and pressed us to keep on,
+     telling us there were Ottawa Indians in those woods, and they
+     would scalp us if we lay out; but go to his cabin, and we would
+     be safe.
+
+     "I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the
+     Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much
+     as I did. The Indian said he could hear a gun from his cabin,
+     and steered us northwardly. We grew uneasy, and then he said
+     two whoops might be heard from his cabin. We went two miles
+     further. Then the Major said he would stay at the next water,
+     and we desired the Indian to stop at the next water; but,
+     before we came to the water, we came to a clear meadow. It was
+     very light, and snow was on the ground. The Indian made a stop,
+     and turned about. The Major saw him point his gun towards us,
+     and he fired. Said the Major,--
+
+     "'Are you shot?'
+
+     "'No,' said I.
+
+     "Upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing white oak,
+     and began loading his gun; but we were soon with him. I would
+     have killed him; but the Major would not suffer me. We let him
+     charge his gun. We found he put in a ball: then we took care of
+     him. Either the Major or I always stood by the guns. We made
+     him make a fire for us by a little run, as if we intended to
+     sleep there. I said to the Major,--
+
+     "'As you will not have him killed, we must get him away, and
+     then we must travel all night.'
+
+     "Upon which I said to the Indian,--
+
+     "'I suppose you were lost, and fired your gun?'
+
+     "He said he knew the way to his cabin: it was but a little
+     distance.
+
+     "'Well,' said I, 'do you go home, and, as we are tired, we will
+     follow your track in the morning; and here is a cake of bread
+     for you, and you must give us meat in the morning.'
+
+     "He was glad to get away. I followed him, and listened until he
+     was fairly out of the way; and then we went about half a mile,
+     when we made a fire, set our compass, fixed our course, and
+     travelled all night. In the morning, we were on the head of
+     Piny Creek."
+
+Thus you see, my dear children, from this adventure, upon what slight
+accidents sometimes hang the destinies, not only of individuals, but
+even of great nations; for had not this treacherous Indian missed his
+aim, and that too, in all likelihood, for the first time in a
+twelvemonth, it had never been our blessed privilege to know and love
+and reverence such a man as Washington; and that, instead of being the
+free-born, independent people that he made us, we might have been at
+this very moment throwing up our hats and wasting our precious breath
+in shouts of "Long life to Queen Victoria!"
+
+All that day they walked on, weary and foot-sore, through the deep
+snow, without a trace of living man to enliven their solitary way. The
+cold gray of a winter's evening was deepening the shadows of the
+forest when they came to the banks of the Alleghany; and here a new
+disappointment awaited them. They had all along cheered themselves
+with the prospect of crossing this river on the ice: but they found
+it frozen for about fifty yards only from either bank; while the rest
+of the ice, broken into huge cakes, went floating swiftly down the
+main channel, crushing and grinding together, and filling the hollow
+woods around with doleful noises.
+
+With heavy hearts they kindled their camp-fire, and cooked and ate
+their frugal supper; then, making themselves as comfortable as the
+piercing winds would allow, they lay down on their snowy beds to
+sleep, hopeful that the morrow would bring them better luck. Morning
+dawned, and yet brought with it no brighter prospect. Would you know
+what they did in this grievous state? Listen while I read Major
+Washington's own account of it, as we find it written in his
+journal:--
+
+     "There was no way for getting over but on a raft; which we set
+     about, with but one poor hatchet, and finished just after
+     sun-setting. This was a whole day's work. We next got it
+     launched; then went on board of it, and set off. But, before we
+     were half way over, we were jammed in the ice, in such a manner
+     that we expected every moment our raft to sink, and ourselves
+     to perish. I put out my setting-pole to try and stop the raft,
+     that the ice might pass by; when the rapidity of the stream
+     threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it jerked
+     me out into ten feet of water: but I fortunately saved myself
+     by catching hold of one of the raft-logs. Notwithstanding all
+     our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were
+     obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft, and make
+     to it. The cold was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all
+     his fingers, and some of his toes, frozen; and the water was
+     shut up so hard, that we found no difficulty in getting off the
+     island, on the ice, in the morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's."
+
+Here, for a space, they stopped to rest and refresh themselves after
+the fatigue and exposure they had just undergone; and here, among
+other items of interest, they heard that Queen Aliquippa, an Indian
+princess, had been deeply offended that the young Long Knife had
+passed by her royal shanty, the month before, without calling to pay
+his compliments. Major Washington, well knowing that to humor their
+peculiar whims and fancies was the best mode of securing the good-will
+and friendship of these people, hastened at once to present himself
+before her copper majesty, and make what amends he could for his
+breach of etiquette. The present of a bottle of rum (over which, queen
+that she was, she smacked her lips), and of his old watch-coat, that
+would so handsomely set off her buckskin leggins, softened her ire
+completely, and made her, from that time forward, the stanch friend
+and ally of the English.
+
+Travelling on a few miles further, they came to Mr. Gist's house, on
+the banks of the Monongahela, where Washington bought a horse to bear
+him to his journey's end, and parted with his trusty guide. He was now
+entirely alone; and a wide stretch of woods and mountains, swamps and
+frozen streams, still lay between him and the cheerful homes to whose
+comforts he had been so long a stranger. Now and then, the loneliness
+of the way would be for a moment enlivened by the sight of some sturdy
+backwoodsman, axe or rifle on shoulder, pushing westward, with his
+wife and children and dogs and household trumpery, to find a home in
+some still more distant part of the wilderness. It was midwinter,
+when, after having been absent eleven weeks on his perilous mission,
+our young Virginian, looking more like a wild Indian than the civil
+and Christian gentleman that he really was, rode into the town of
+Williamsburg, nor halted until he had alighted and hitched his horse
+in front of the governor's house.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLE.
+
+
+Upon his arrival, Major Washington hastened at once to lay before Gov.
+Dinwiddie, and the Virginia Legislature then in session, the French
+general's letter, and the journal he had kept during the expedition.
+
+In his letter, the French general spoke in high and flattering terms
+of the character and talents of young Washington; but, in language
+most decided and unmistakable, refused to withdraw his troops from the
+disputed territory, or cease building forts therein, as had been
+demanded of him, unless so ordered by his royal master, the King of
+France, to whose wishes only he owed respect and obedience. From the
+tenor of this letter, it was plainly enough to be seen (what might, in
+fact, have been seen before), that the French were not in the least
+inclined to give up, at the mere asking, all that they had been at so
+much pains and expense at gaining. It therefore followed, that as the
+title to this bit of forest land could not be written with the pen, on
+fair paper, in letters of Christian ink, it must needs be written with
+the sword, on the fair earth, in letters of Christian blood. By this,
+the little folks are to understand their Uncle Juvinell to mean that
+war alone could settle the question between them. And this
+unreasonable behavior, on the part of two great nations, has already,
+I doubt not, brought to your minds the story of two huge giants, who,
+chancing to meet one night, fell into a long and stormy dispute with
+each other about the possession of a fair bit of meadow-land they had
+happened to spy out at the same moment, where it lay in the lower horn
+of the moon; and who finally, like the silly monsters that they were,
+began belaboring each other with their heavy malls, as if the last
+hope of beating a little reason in were to beat a few brains out.
+
+To drive and keep back the French and their Indian allies, Gov.
+Dinwiddie made a call on the Virginia militia, and wrote to the
+governors of some of the neighboring provinces, urging them, for their
+common defence, to do the same. To strengthen their borders, and give
+security to their frontier settlers, a small party of pioneers and
+carpenters were sent to build a fort at the Forks of the Ohio, as
+Washington had recommended in his journal. This journal, by the way,
+throwing, as it did, so much new light on the designs of the French in
+America, was thought worthy of publication, not only throughout the
+Colonies, but also in the mother-country. The good sense, skill,
+address, and courage shown by the young Virginian throughout the late
+expedition, had drawn upon him the eyes of his countrymen; and, from
+that time forward, he became the hope and promise of his native land.
+As a proof of this high regard, he was offered the command of the
+regiment to be raised: which, however, he refused to accept; for his
+modesty told him that he was too young and inexperienced to be
+intrusted with a matter of such moment to his country. To Col. Fry, an
+officer of some note in the province, the command of the regiment was
+therefore given; under whom he was quite willing to accept the post of
+lieutenant-colonel.
+
+Notwithstanding the pressing danger that threatened all alike, the
+people were shamefully slow in answering the summons to arms.
+Washington had felt confident, that, at the very first tap of the
+drum, squads upon squads of active, sturdy, well-fed, well-clothed
+young farmers, moved by the same spirit with himself, would come
+flocking to his standard with their trusty rifles, powder-horns, and
+hunting-pouches, ready and eager to do their country service. Instead
+of this, however, there gathered, about him a rabble of ragamuffins
+and worthless fellows, who had spent their lives in tramping up and
+down the country, without settled homes or occupations.
+
+Some were without hats and shoes; some had coats, and no shirts; some
+had shirts, and no coats; and all were without arms, or any keen
+desire to use them if they had them. All this disgusted and
+disheartened our youthful colonel not a little; for he was young, and
+had yet to learn that it is of just such stuff that the beginnings of
+armies are always made. The slender pay of a soldier was not enough to
+tempt the thriving yeomanry to leave their rich acres and snug
+firesides to undergo the hardships and dangers of a camp life; as if,
+by failing to answer their country's call, and fighting in its
+defence, they were not running a still greater risk of losing all they
+had.
+
+To encourage the young men of the province to come forward, Gov.
+Dinwiddie caused it to be proclaimed, that two hundred thousand acres
+of the very best land on the head-waters of the Ohio should be divided
+between those that should enlist and serve during the war. This
+splendid offer had, in some small measure, the effect desired; so
+that, in a short time, something like an army was cobbled together,
+with which, poor and scantily provided as it was, they at last
+resolved to take the field.
+
+Col. Washington, in command of the main body, was ordered to go on in
+advance, and cut a military road through the wilderness, in the
+direction of the new fort at the Forks of the Ohio, by way of the
+Monongahela; while Col. Fry was to remain behind with the rest of the
+troops, to bring up the cannon and heavy stores when the road should
+be opened. When the pioneers had cut their way about twenty miles
+beyond the frontier town of Winchester, there came a rumor, that the
+men who had been sent to build the fort at the Forks of the Ohio had
+all been surprised and captured by the French. In a few days, all
+doubts as to the truth of this report were set at rest by the men
+themselves, who came walking leisurely into camp, with their spades
+and axes on their shoulders, to every appearance quite well and
+comfortable.
+
+For several days, they said, they had been working away on the fort
+quite merrily; when, early one morning, they were much surprised to
+see one thousand Frenchmen, in sixty bateaux, or boats, and three
+hundred canoes, with six pieces of cannon, dropping quietly down the
+Alleghany. The leader of this gallant little force summoned the fort
+to surrender in the short space of an hour, or else they would find
+their unfinished timber-work tumbling about their heads in a way that
+would not be altogether agreeable. No one with even half his wits
+about him would have for a moment thought of defending an unfinished
+fort with axes, spades, and augers, against a force of twenty times
+their number, backed by cannon and grape-shot. These men had all their
+wits about them, and, to prove it, gave up the fort without further
+parley; when the French captain marched in, and took formal possession
+of the wooden pen in the name of his most Christian majesty, the King
+of France; after which, with that gayety and good-humor so often to
+be observed among the French people, he invited the young ensign--who,
+in the absence of the captain, had been left in the command of the
+fort for that day--to dine and drink a glass of wine with him. He then
+suffered them all to depart in peace with his good wishes, and with
+their spades, carpenter's tools, and axes on their shoulders.
+
+Col. Washington was deeply mortified at this intelligence; but, like
+the manly man that he was, he put a bright face on the matter, and, to
+keep up the spirits of his men, resolved to push on with the road with
+more vigor than ever. And a tremendous undertaking this was, I assure
+you. The tallest of trees were to be felled, the hugest of rocks to be
+split and removed, the deepest of swamps to be filled, and the
+swiftest of mountain torrents bridged over. With such hinderances, you
+will not wonder that they made but four miles a day. Now and then, the
+soldiers would be obliged to put their shoulders to the wheel, and
+help the poor half-famished horses with their heavy wagons up some
+rough and rocky steep. Thus over the gloomy mountains, and down the
+rugged defiles, and through a dark and lonely valley since called the
+Shades of Death, they forced their toilsome way. At last, after many
+weary days, they reached the banks of the Youghiogeny,--a romantic
+little river that went tumbling down the green hills in many a foaming
+waterfall; then, like a frolicsome school-boy nearing school, put on
+a demure and sober face, and quietly emptied itself into the more
+tranquil Monongahela. Here, to give his worn-out men and horses some
+repose after their severe and unceasing labors, Washington ordered a
+halt.
+
+Being told by some friendly Indians that the baggage could be carried
+down this stream by water, he set out early one morning in a canoe,
+with four or five white men, and an Indian for a guide, to see for
+himself what truth there might be in this report. When they had rowed
+about ten miles, their Indian guide, after sulking for a little while,
+laid his oar across the canoe, and refused to go further. At first,
+this behavior appeared to them a little queer; but they were not long
+in discovering that it was only a way the cunning red rascal had of
+higgling to get more pay for his services. After some pretty sharp
+bargaining, Col. Washington promised to give him his old watch-coat
+and a ruffled shirt if he would go on; upon which, without more ado,
+he picked up his oar, and for the rest of the trip steered away
+blithely enough. You can well imagine what an uncommon swell this
+savage dandy, with his bare red legs, must have cut, a few days after,
+in his civilized finery, among the copper-cheeked belles of the woods.
+By the time they had rowed twenty miles further, Washington was
+satisfied, that, owing to the rocks and rapids, a passage down this
+river in the shallow canoes of the Indians was next to impossible.
+
+Returning to camp, he soon afterwards received word from his old
+friend and ally, the Half King, that a party of French had been seen
+coming from the direction of Fort Duquesne, who were in all
+likelihood, by that time, somewhere in his close neighborhood. Upon
+hearing this, Washington deemed it prudent to fall back a few miles to
+the Great Meadows, a beautiful little plain, situated in the midst of
+woods and hills, and divided by a rivulet. Here he threw up strong
+intrenchments, cleared away the undergrowth, and prepared what he
+called "a charming field for an encounter." Shortly after, Mr. Gist,
+whom you well remember, came into camp, from his home on the
+Monongahela, with the tidings, that a party of French had been at his
+house on the day before, whom, from their appearance, he believed to
+be spies. Washington sent out some of his men on wagon-horses to beat
+the woods; who came in about dusk, without having, however, discovered
+any traces of the enemy. About nine o'clock that same night, an Indian
+runner came from the Half King with word, that some of his hunters had
+late that evening seen the tracks of two Frenchmen not five miles
+distant; and that, if Col. Washington would join him with some of his
+men, they would set out early in the morning in quest of the lurking
+foe.
+
+Taking with him about forty men, and leaving the rest to guard the
+intrenchments, Washington set out forthwith for the Indian camp. Their
+way led them through tall and thick woods, that were then in the full
+leaf of early summer. As if to deepen their gloom, the sky was
+overcast with the blackest of clouds, from which the rain poured down
+in torrents; and the night, of course, was as dark as dark could be.
+No wonder, then, that they were continually losing their path, which
+was but a deer-track, and none of the plainest, even in broad
+daylight. When any one discovered that he had lost himself, he would
+shout, and set himself right again by the answering shouts of his
+comrades who might be so lucky as to be in the path at that moment.
+After blundering about all night through marshy thickets, slipping
+upon slimy rocks, and scrambling over the oozy trunks of fallen trees,
+they reached the Indian camp at daybreak in a somewhat moist and
+bedabbled plight, as you may well imagine. The Half King seemed
+overjoyed at seeing his young white brother once more; and, with true
+Indian hospitality, set before him and his men the best his camp
+afforded. After breakfasting heartily on bear's meat, venison, and
+parched corn, they all set out together, much refreshed, to seek what
+game might be in the wind. The Half King led the way to the spot where
+the two tracks had been seen the evening before; and, having found
+them, told two of his sharp-eyed hunters to follow the trail until
+they could bring some tidings of the feet that had made them. Like
+hounds on the scent of a fox, they started off at a long trot; only
+pausing now and then to look more closely at the leaves, to make sure
+they were right, and not on a cold scent. In a short time, they came
+back with word that they had spied twenty-five or thirty French and
+Canadians encamped in a low, narrow bottom, between high and steep
+hills, who looked as if they were desirous of concealment. Whereupon
+Washington proposed that the two parties should divide, and, stealing
+upon the enemy from opposite directions, surprise and capture him, if
+possible, without the shedding of blood. To this the Half King agreed;
+and, parting, they moved off in profound silence, each on their
+separate way.
+
+A sudden turn of the hollow, down which they had been making their way
+for several minutes, brought Washington and his party, ere they were
+well aware, in full view of the enemy. Some were cooking their
+morning's meal, some were preparing their arms for the day's
+excursion, some were lounging, and all were merry. But, seeing as soon
+as seen, they ran with all speed to their guns, that were leaned
+against the trees hard by, and, without more ado, began firing in so
+brisk and earnest a manner, that left the Virginians no choice but to
+return it, which they did with spirit. About the same time, the Half
+King and his warriors came down to the bottom of the hill on the
+opposite side of the hollow, and, screening themselves behind a bit of
+rising ground, joined the music of their rifles with the rest. For
+about fifteen minutes, the skirmish was kept up with great spirit on
+both sides; when the French, having lost ten of their number (among
+whom was their leader, Capt. de Jumonville), surrendered, and yielded
+up their arms. Washington had one man shot dead at his side, and three
+men wounded; but his Indian allies, protected as they were by the
+rising ground, came off without the loss of a single feather or
+porcupine-quill. Unluckily, in the heat of the encounter, a
+swift-footed Canadian, better, no doubt, at dodging than shooting,
+managed to make his escape, and carried the news to Fort Duquesne.
+
+The Half King and his warriors, I am sorry to tell you, would have
+butchered the prisoners in cold blood, had not Washington sternly
+forbidden them. They therefore consoled themselves as best they might
+for this disappointment by scalping the dead; which, however, yielded
+them but sorry comfort, as there were but ten scalps to be divided
+among forty warriors.
+
+The Half King was much offended by this humane interference, on the
+part of his young white brother, in behalf of the prisoners; for he
+seemed to think, that as they were spies, and French spies at that,
+they richly deserved to be scalped alive. Such milk-and-water,
+half-way measures might do for pale-faces, but were not the sort of
+entertainment to be relished by a genuine Indian brave of the first
+water, or, to speak more to the point, of the first blood.
+
+Without, however, in the least heeding these muttered grumblings of
+the worthy old chief, who had his failings along with the rest of
+mankind, Col. Washington took the prisoners to his camp, where he
+treated them with even more kindness and courtesy than they as spies
+deserved. From thence he sent them under a strong guard to
+Williamsburg, and wrote to Gov. Dinwiddie, begging him to treat them
+with all the humanity due to prisoners of war, but to keep a strict
+watch over them, as there were among them two or three very cunning
+and dangerous men.
+
+This encounter, commonly called the Jumonville affair, caused a great
+sensation, not only throughout the Colonies, but also in France and
+England; for it was there, as you must know, in that remote and
+obscure little valley, that flowed the first blood of this long and
+eventful war. It was Washington's first battle; and, being a
+successful one, much inspirited him. In a letter written at this time
+to his brother Augustine, after touching upon the particulars of this
+skirmish, he says, "I heard the bullets whistle; and, believe me,
+there is something charming in the sound."
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+FORT NECESSITY.
+
+
+About this time, Col. Fry died at Wills's Creek, where he had lain ill
+of a fever for several weeks; and Washington, as the next in rank, was
+obliged to take command of the regiment. Although this change brought
+with it an increase of pay and honors, yet it caused him the sincerest
+regret; for even then, young as he was, he had the good of his country
+more earnestly at heart than his own private advantage. He said, and
+with unfeigned modesty, that he feared he was scarcely equal to the
+discharge of such high and responsible duties, without the aid and
+counsel of some older and more experienced officer.
+
+Capt. de Villiers was now commander of the French at Fort Duquesne.
+When tidings of the late encounter reached this officer through the
+swift-footed Canadian, he swore a deep oath that he would chastise the
+audacious young Virginian for what he chose to call this barbarous
+outrage, and avenge the death of De Jumonville, whose brother-in-law,
+as ill luck would have it, he chanced to be. Foreseeing his danger,
+and to defend himself against the superior force he knew would be
+brought against him, Col. Washington set about forthwith to strengthen
+his works. He dug the ditches deeper, raised the breastworks higher,
+and surrounded the whole with a row of palisades, firmly planted in
+the ground, and set so close together as scarcely to allow of a
+gun-barrel passing between them.
+
+Owing to the shameful neglect of those whose duty it was to send up
+supplies, he and his men suffered much from the want of food,--many
+days at a stretch sometimes passing by without their tasting bread. To
+aggravate this new distress, the Half King and many of his warriors,
+with their wives and children, now sought refuge in the fort from the
+vengeance of the French and their savage allies; which added nothing
+to their strength, and only increased the number of hungry mouths to
+be fed. To this place, then, where gaunt famine pinched them from
+within and watchful enemies beset them from without, Washington gave
+the fitting name of Fort Necessity. Luckily for them, while in this
+pitiable plight, days and days passed by, and still no avenging De
+Villiers showed himself, though alarms were frequent.
+
+Col. Washington now ordered Major Muse to bring up the rest of the
+troops that had been waiting all this while at Wills's Creek, with the
+heavy stores and cannon. To reward the friendly Indians for their
+services and fidelity, Major Muse brought with him presents of
+hatchets and knives, guns, powder and lead, tin cups, needles and
+pins, beads, and dry-goods of every gaudy hue, and it may be, although
+we can only guess it, a ruffled shirt or two. In addition to these,
+there came a number of silver medals for the chief sachems, sent by
+Gov. Dinwiddie at the suggestion of Col. Washington, who well knew how
+much these simple people prize little compliments of this kind. Major
+Muse handed out the presents, while Washington hung the medals about
+the necks of the sachems, which yielded them far more delight, you
+will be sorry to hear, than their good old missionary's catechism.
+This was done with all that show and parade so dear to an Indian's
+heart; and, to give a still finer edge to the present occasion, they
+christened each other all over again: that is to say, the red men gave
+the white men Indian names, and the white men gave the red men English
+names. Thus, for example, Washington gave the Half King the name of
+Dinwiddie, which pleased him greatly; while he, in his turn, bestowed
+on his young white brother a long, high-sounding Indian name, that you
+could pronounce as readily spelt backwards as forwards. Fairfax was
+the name given a young sachem, the son of Queen Aliquippa, whose
+eternal friendship to the English, it must be borne in mind, had been
+secured by Washington, the previous winter, by the present of an old
+coat and a bottle of rum.
+
+By the advice of his old and much-esteemed friend, Col. William
+Fairfax, Washington had divine worship in the fort daily, in which he
+led; and, thanks to the early teachings of his pious mother, he could
+do this, and sin not. Solemn indeed, my dear children, and beautiful
+to behold, must have been that picture,--that little fort, so far away
+in the heart of the lonely wilderness, with its motley throng of
+painted Indians and leather-clad backwoodsmen gathered round their
+young commander, as, morning and evening, he kneeled in prayer before
+the Giver of all good, beseeching aid and protection, and giving
+thanks.
+
+As if to put his manhood and patience to a still severer test, there
+came to the fort about this time an independent company of one hundred
+North Carolinians, headed by one Capt. Mackay, who refused to serve
+under him as his superior officer. As his reason for this conduct,
+Mackay argued that he held a royal commission (that is to say, had
+been made a captain by the King of England), which made him equal in
+rank, if not superior, to Washington, who held only a provincial
+commission, or had been made a colonel by the Governor of Virginia.
+This, in part, was but too true; and it had been a source of
+dissatisfaction to Washington, that the rank and services of colonial
+officers should be held at a cheaper rate than the same were valued at
+in the royal army. It wounded his honest, manly pride, and offended
+his high sense of justice; and he had already resolved in his own mind
+to quit such inglorious service, as soon as he could do so without
+injury to the present campaign, or loss of honor to himself. To most
+men, the lofty airs and pretensions of Capt. Mackay and his
+Independents would have been unbearable; but he kept his temper
+unruffled, and, with a prudence beyond his years, forbore to do or say
+any thing that would lead to an angry outbreak between them; and as
+they chose to encamp outside the fort, and have separate guards, he
+deemed it wisest not to trouble himself about them, only so far as
+might concern their common safety.
+
+Days, and even weeks, had now passed away, and still no enemy had come
+to offer him battle. His men were becoming restless from inaction; and
+the example of the troublesome Independents had already begun to stir
+up discontent among them, which threatened, if not checked in season,
+to end in downright insubordination. As the surest remedy for these
+evils, Washington resolved to push forward with the road in the
+direction of Fort Duquesne, and carry the war into the enemy's own
+country. Requesting Capt. Mackay to guard the fort during his absence,
+he set out with his entire force of three hundred men, and again began
+the toilsome work of cutting a road through the wilderness. The
+difficulties they had now to overcome were even greater than those
+which beset them at the outset of their pioneering. The mountains
+were higher, the swamps deeper, the rocks more massive, the trees
+taller and more numerous, the torrents more rapid, the days more hot
+and sultry, and the men and horses more enfeebled by poor and scanty
+food. You will not wonder, then, that they were nearly two weeks in
+reaching Mr. Gist's plantation on the Monongahela, a distance of but
+fifteen miles.
+
+But hardly had they pitched their tents, and thrown themselves on the
+grass to snatch a little rest, when there came the disheartening
+intelligence, brought in by their Indian spies, that Capt. de Villiers
+had been seen to sally from Fort Duquesne but a few hours before, at
+the head of a force of five hundred French and four hundred Indians,
+and must by that time be within a few miles of the Virginia camp. For
+three hundred weary and hungry men to wait and give battle to a force
+three times their number, fresh and well fed, was a thing too absurd
+to be thought of for a single moment. Washington, therefore, as their
+only chance of safety, ordered a hasty retreat, hoping that they might
+be able to reach the settlements on Wills's Creek before the enemy
+could overtake him. The retreat, however, was any thing but a hasty
+one; for the poor half-famished horses were at last no longer able to
+drag the heavy cannon and carry the heavy baggage. Moved with pity for
+the lean and tottering beasts, Washington dismounted from his fine
+charger, and gave him for a pack-horse; which humane example was
+promptly followed by his officers. Yet even this was not enough: so,
+while some of the jaded men loaded their backs with the baggage, the
+rest, as jaded, dragged the artillery along the stony roads with
+ropes, rather than that it should be left behind to fall into the
+hands of the enemy. For this good service, rendered so willingly in
+that hour of sore distress, they went not unrewarded by their generous
+young commander.
+
+Capt. Mackay and his company of Independents had, at Washington's
+request, come up a little while before, and now joined in the retreat.
+But they joined in nothing else; for, pluming themselves upon their
+greater respectability as soldiers of his Britannic majesty, they lent
+not a helping hand in this hour of pressing need, although the danger
+that lurked behind threatened all alike. They marched along, these
+coxcombs, daintily picking their way over the smoothest roads, and too
+genteel to be burdened with any thing but their clean muskets and tidy
+knapsacks. This ill-timed and insolent behavior served only to
+aggravate the trials of the other poor fellows all the more; and when,
+at last, they had managed to drag the cannon and the wagons and
+themselves to Fort Necessity, they were so overcome with fatigue and
+hunger, and so moved with indignation at the conduct of the
+Independents, that they threw down their ropes and packs, and flatly
+refused to be marched further. Seeing their pitiful plight, and that
+it would be impossible to reach the settlements, Col. Washington, as
+their last chance of safety, turned aside, and once more took shelter
+in his little fort.
+
+As Capt. Mackay and his company of gentlemen fighters had done nothing
+towards strengthening the works during his absence, Washington ordered
+a few trees to be felled in the woods hard by, as a still further
+barrier to the approach of the enemy. Just as the last tree went
+crashing down, the French and their Indian allies, nine hundred
+strong, came in sight, and opened a scattering fire upon the fort, but
+from so great a distance as made it little more than an idle waste of
+powder and lead. Suspecting this to be but a feint of the crafty foe
+to decoy them into an ambuscade, Washington ordered his men to keep
+within the shelter of the fort, there to lie close, and only to shoot
+when they could plainly see where their bullets were to be sent.
+
+A light skirmishing was kept up all day, and until a late hour in the
+night; the Indians keeping the while within the shelter of the woods,
+which at no point came within sixty yards of the palisades. Whenever
+an Indian scalp-lock or a French cap showed itself from among the
+trees or bushes, it that instant became the mark of a dozen
+sharpshooters watching at the rifle-holes of the fort. All that day,
+and all the night too, the rain poured down from one black cloud, as
+only a summer ruin can pour, till the ditches were filled with water,
+and the breastworks nothing but a bank of miry clay; till the men were
+drenched to the skin, and the guns of many so dampened as to be unfit
+for use.
+
+About nine o'clock that night, the firing ceased; and shortly after a
+voice was heard, a little distance beyond the palisades, calling upon
+the garrison, in the name of Capt. de Villiers, to surrender.
+Suspecting this to be but a pretext for getting a spy into the fort,
+Col. Washington refused to admit the bearer of the summons. Capt. de
+Villiers then requested that an officer be sent to his quarters to
+parley; giving his word of honor that no mischief should befall him,
+or unfair advantage be taken of it. Whereupon, Capt. Van Braam, the
+old Dutch fencing-master, being the only French interpreter
+conveniently at hand, was employed to go and bring in the terms of
+surrender. He soon came back; but the terms were too dishonorable for
+any true soldier to think of accepting. He was sent again, but with no
+better result. The third time, Capt. de Villiers sent written articles
+of capitulation; which, being in his own language, must needs be first
+translated before an answer could be returned. By the flickering light
+of one poor candle, which could hardly be kept burning for the pouring
+rain, the Dutch captain read the terms he had brought, while the rest
+stood round him, gathering what sense they could from the confused
+jumbling of bad French, and worse English he was pleased to call a
+translation. After this, there followed a little more parleying
+between the hostile leaders; when it was at last settled that the
+prisoners taken in the Jumonville affair should be set at liberty;
+that the English should build no forts upon the disputed territories
+within a twelvemonth to come; and that the garrison, after destroying
+the artillery and military stores, should be allowed to march out with
+all the honors of war, and pursue their way to the settlements,
+unmolested either by the French or their Indian allies. When we take
+into account the more than double strength of the enemy, the starving
+condition of the garrison (still further weakened as it was by the
+loss of twelve men killed and forty-three wounded), and the slender
+hope of speedy succor from the settlements, these terms must be
+regarded as highly honorable to Col. Washington; and still more so
+when we add to this the fact, that the Half King and his other Indian
+allies had deserted him at the first approach of danger, under the
+pretext of finding some safer retreat for their wives and children.
+Whether they failed from choice, or hinderance to return, and take
+part in the action, can never now be known with certainty.
+
+Thus the dreary night wore away; and, when the dreary morning dawned,
+they destroyed the artillery and the military stores, preparatory to
+their setting forth on their retreat. As all the horses had been
+killed or lost the day before, they had no means of removing their
+heavy baggage: they therefore secured it as best they might, hoping to
+be able to send back for it from the settlements. Still in possession
+of their small-arms, they then marched out of the fort with all the
+honors of war,--fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying. They
+had gone but a few yards from the fort, when a large body of Indians
+pounced with plundering hands upon the baggage. Seeing that the French
+could not or would not keep them back, Washington, to disappoint them
+of their booty, ordered his men to set fire to it, and destroy all
+they could not bring away upon their backs.
+
+This done, they once more took up their line of march; and a
+melancholy march it was. Between them and the nearest settlements,
+there lay seventy miles of steep and rugged mountain-roads, over which
+they must drag their weary and aching limbs before they could hope to
+find a little rest. Washington did all that a kind and thoughtful
+commander could to keep up the flagging spirits of his men; sharing
+with them their every toil and privation, and all the while
+maintaining a firm and cheerful demeanor. Reaching Wills's Creek, he
+there left them to enjoy the full abundance which they found awaiting
+them at that place; and, in company with Capt. Mackay, repaired at
+once to Williamsburg to report the result of the campaign to Gov.
+Dinwiddie.
+
+A short time after, the terms of surrender were laid before the
+Virginia House of Burgesses, and received the entire approval of that
+wise body; who, although the expedition had ended in defeat and
+failure, most cheerfully gave Col. Washington and his men a vote of
+thanks, in testimony of their having done their whole duty as good and
+brave and faithful soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+GENERAL BRADDOCK.
+
+
+Having brought the campaign to an honorable if not successful end,
+Col. Washington threw up his commission, and left the service. This
+had been his determination for some time past; and he felt that he
+could do so now without laying his conduct open to censure or
+suspicion, having within his own breast the happy assurance, that, in
+the discharge of his late trust, he had acted the part of a faithful
+soldier and true patriot, seeking only his country's good. The reasons
+that led him to take this step need not be repeated, as you will
+readily understand them, if you still bear in mind what I told you a
+short time since touching those questions of rank which caused the
+difficulty between him and Capt. Mackay.
+
+A visit to his much-beloved mother was the first use he made of his
+leisure. The profound love and reverence that never failed to mark his
+conduct towards his mother were among the most beautiful traits of his
+character. The management of the family estate, and the education of
+the younger children, were concerns in which he ever took the
+liveliest interest; and to make these labors light and easy to her by
+his aid or counsel was a pleasure to him indeed. This grateful duty
+duly done, he once more sought the shelter of Mount Vernon, to whose
+comforts he had been for so many months a stranger. The toils of a
+soldier's life were now exchanged for the peaceful labors of a
+husbandman. Nor did this change, to his well-ordered mind, bring with
+it any idle regrets; for the quiet pursuits of a farmer's life yielded
+him, young, ardent, and adventurous as he was, scarcely less delight
+than the profession of arms, and even more as he grew in years.
+
+The affair of the Great Meadows roused the mother-country at last to a
+full sense of the danger that threatened her possessions in America.
+Accordingly, to regain what had been lost, money, and munitions of
+war, and a gallant little army fitted out in the completest style of
+that day, were sent over with all possible expedition, under the
+command of Major-Gen. Braddock.
+
+From the shrubby heights of Mount Vernon, Washington could look down,
+and behold the British ships-of-war as they moved slowly up the
+majestic Potomac, their decks thronged with officers and soldiers
+dressed in showy uniform, their polished arms and accoutrements
+flashing back the cold, clear light of the February sun. From their
+encampment at Alexandria, a few miles distant, he could hear the
+booming of their morning and evening guns, as it came roiling over the
+hills and through the woods, and shook his quiet home like a sullen
+summons to arms. Often, no longer able to keep down his youthful
+ardor, he would mount his horse, and, galloping up to the town, spend
+hours there in watching the different companies, as with the precision
+of clockwork they went through their varied and difficult evolutions.
+At these sights and sounds, all the martial spirit within him took
+fire again.
+
+To Gen. Braddock, who commanded all the forces in America, provincial
+as well as royal, Gov. Dinwiddie and other Virginia notables spoke in
+the highest terms of the character of young Washington; giving him at
+the same time still further particulars of the brave and soldierly
+conduct he had so signally shown during the campaign of the previous
+year. They took pleasure, they said, in recommending him as one whose
+skill and experience in Indian warfare, and thorough acquaintance with
+the wild country beyond the borders, were such as could be turned to
+the greatest advantage in the course of the following campaign.
+
+Desirous of securing services of such peculiar value, Braddock sent
+our young Virginian a courteous invitation to join his staff; offering
+him the post of volunteer aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel. Here
+was an opportunity of gratifying his taste for arms under one of the
+first generals of the day. Could he do it without the sacrifice of
+honor or self-respect? Although he had left the service for the best
+of reasons, as you must bear in mind, yet there was nothing in these
+reasons to hinder him from serving his country, not for pay, but as a
+generous volunteer, bearing his own expenses. Besides, such a post as
+this would place him altogether above the authority of any equal or
+inferior officer who might chance to hold a king's commission.
+Debating thus with himself, and urged on by his friends, he accepted
+Braddock's invitation, and joined his staff as volunteer aide-de-camp.
+
+Now, would you know what an aide-de-camp is? Wait, and you will find
+out for yourselves when we come to the battle of the Monongahela,
+where Braddock suffered his gallant little army to be cut to pieces by
+the French and Indians.
+
+When Mrs. Washington heard that her son was on the eve of joining the
+new army, full of a mother's fears, she hastened to entreat him not
+again to expose himself to the dangers and trials of a soldier's life.
+Although the army was the only opening to distinction at that time in
+the Colonies, yet, to have him ever near her, she would rather have
+seen him quietly settled at his beautiful homestead, as an
+unpretending farmer, than on the high road to every worldly honor at
+the risk of life or virtue. Ever mindful of her slightest wishes, her
+son listened respectfully to all her objections, and said all he could
+to quiet her motherly fears: but, feeling that he owed his highest
+duty to his country, he was not to be turned from his steadfast
+purpose; and, taking an affectionate leave of her, he set out to join
+his general at Fort Cumberland.
+
+Fort Cumberland was situated on Wills's Creek, and had just been built
+by Braddock as a gathering point for the border; and thither he had
+removed his whole army, with all his stores, and munitions of war.
+Upon further acquaintance, Washington found this old veteran a man of
+courteous though somewhat haughty manners, of a hasty and uneven
+temper, strict and rigid in the discipline of his soldiers, much given
+to martial pomp and parade, and self-conceited and wilful to a degree
+that was sometimes scarcely bearable. He was, however, of a sociable
+and hospitable turn; often inviting his officers to dine with him, and
+entertaining them like princes. So keen a relish had he for the good
+things of the table, that he never travelled without his two cooks,
+who were said to have been so uncommonly skilful in their line of
+business, that they could take a pair of boots, and boil them down
+into a very respectable dish of soup, give them only the seasoning to
+finish it off with. The little folks, however, must be very cautious
+how they receive this story, as their Uncle Juvinell will not
+undertake to vouch for the truth of it.
+
+The contractors--that is to say, the men who had been engaged to
+furnish the army with a certain number of horses, pack-saddles, and
+wagons, by a certain time, and for a certain consideration--had failed
+to be as good as their word, and had thereby seriously hindered the
+progress of the campaign. As might have been expected, this was enough
+to throw such a man as Braddock into a towering passion; and, to mend
+his humor, the governors of the different provinces were not as ready
+and brisk to answer his call for men and supplies as he thought he had
+a right to expect.
+
+So he poured forth his vials of wrath upon whomsoever or whatsoever
+chanced to come uppermost. He stormed at the contractors; he railed at
+the governors, and sneered at the troops they sent him; he abused the
+country in general, and scolded about the bad roads in particular.
+
+Washington, with his usual clearness of insight into character, soon
+saw, to his deep disappointment, that this was hardly the man to
+conduct a wilderness campaign to any thing like a successful end,
+however brave the testy old veteran might be, and expert in the
+management of well-drilled regulars in the open and cultivated regions
+of the Old World. Of the same opinion was Dr. Franklin, who, being at
+that time Postmaster-General of all the Colonies, came to Braddock's
+quarters at Fort Cumberland to make some arrangements for transporting
+the mail to and from the army during the progress of the expedition. I
+will read you his own lively account of this interview, as it will
+enable you to see more clearly those faults of Braddock's character
+that so soon after brought ruin on his own head, and disgrace upon
+English arms in America.
+
+     "In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some
+     account of his intended progress. 'After taking Fort Duquesne,'
+     said he, 'I am to proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that,
+     to Frontenac, if the season will allow; and I suppose it will,
+     for Duquesne can hardly detain me above three or four days: and
+     then I can see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara.'
+
+     "Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army must
+     make in their march by a very narrow road to be cut for them
+     through the woods and bushes, and also what I had heard of a
+     former defeat of fifteen hundred French who invaded the
+     Illinois country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears
+     for the event of the campaign; but I ventured only to say, 'To
+     be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne with these
+     fine troops, so well provided with artillery, the fort, though
+     completely fortified and assisted with a very strong garrison,
+     can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I
+     apprehend of obstruction to your march is from the ambuscades
+     of the Indians, who, by constant practice, are dexterous in
+     laying and executing them; and the slender line, nearly four
+     miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to be
+     attacked by surprise on its flanks, and to be cut like thread
+     into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up
+     in time to support one another.' He smiled at my ignorance, and
+     replied,"'These savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to
+     raw American militia; but upon the king's regular and
+     disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an
+     impression.'
+
+     "I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a
+     military man in matters of his profession, and said no more."
+
+In the course of this interview, Franklin chanced to express a regret
+that the army had not been landed in Pennsylvania, where, as every
+farmer kept his own wagon and horses, better means would have been
+more readily found for transporting the troops, with their heavy guns
+and munitions of war, across the country and over the mountains. Quick
+to take a hint, Braddock made haste to request him, as a man of
+standing in his colony, to furnish him, in the king's name, one
+hundred and fifty wagons, and four horses to each wagon, besides a
+large number of pack-horses and pack-saddles. This, Franklin readily
+undertook to do; and went about it with such diligence, that by the
+latter part of spring, even before the time set, he had fulfilled his
+promise to the last letter; and Braddock had now the satisfaction of
+seeing his army, after all these vexatious delays, in a condition to
+move forward.
+
+Meanwhile, Washington was all attention to affairs in camp, and was
+daily gaining fresh insight into the art of war, as understood and
+practised in the most civilized countries of the Old World. Every day
+the men were drilled, and passed under review; their arms and
+accoutrements carefully inspected by their officers, to make sure that
+they were in perfect order, and ready for use at a moment's notice.
+Sentinels and guards were stationed in and about the camp, day and
+night.
+
+So strict was the watch kept by this lynx-eyed old general over the
+morals of his men, that drunkenness was punished with severe
+confinement; and any one found guilty of theft was drummed out of his
+regiment, after receiving five hundred stripes on his bare back. Every
+Sunday, the soldiers were called together, under the colors of their
+separate regiments, to hear divine service performed by their
+chaplains.
+
+To lend variety to the scene, the Indians of the neighboring
+wilderness came flocking in to join their fortunes with the English,
+or bring information of the movements or designs of the French. Among
+these came his old friend and ally, White Thunder, keeper of the
+speech-belt; and Silver Heels, a renowned warrior, so called, no
+doubt, from his being uncommonly nimble of foot. Also, as we shall
+meet him again hereafter, should be mentioned another sachem, whose
+Indian name the little folks must excuse their Uncle Juvinell from
+giving them in full. By your leave, then, for the sake of brevity and
+convenience, we will call him by the last two syllables of his name,
+Yadi. From them Washington learned, much to his regret, that his red
+brother, the Half King, had died a few months before; having, as the
+conjurors or medicine-men of his tribe pretended, been bewitched by
+the French for the terrible blow he had dealt them at the battle of
+Jumonville, which had filled them with such terror, that they dared
+not hope for safety in the wide earth till certain that he walked and
+ate and slept no more among living men.
+
+Although Braddock held these savage allies in high contempt, yet when
+Washington pointed out to him how much was to be gained by their
+friendship, and how much to be lost by their enmity, he was persuaded,
+for that one time at least, to treat them with marked respect and
+distinction.
+
+To give them an overwhelming idea of the power and splendor of English
+arms, he received them with all the honors of war,--fifes playing,
+drums beating, and the regulars lowering their muskets as they passed
+on to the general's tent. Here Braddock received them in the midst of
+his officers, and made them a speech of welcome, in the course of
+which he told them of the deep sorrow felt by their great father, the
+King of England, for the death of his red brother, the Half King; and
+that, to console his red children in America for so grievous a loss,
+as well as to reward them for their friendship and services to the
+English, he had sent them many rich and handsome presents, which they
+should receive before leaving the fort. This speech was answered by a
+dozen warriors in as many orations, which being very long and very
+flowery, and very little to the point, bored their English listeners
+dreadfully. The peace-pipe smoked and the Big Talk ended, Braddock, by
+way of putting a cap on the grand occasion, ordered all the fifes to
+play, and drums to beat, and, in the midst of the music, all the guns
+in the fort to be fired at once. He then caused a bullock to be
+killed, and roasted whole, for the refreshment of his Indian guests.
+
+The Indians, in their turn, to show how sensible they were of the
+honor done them by this distinguished reception, entertained the
+English by dancing their war-dances and singing their war-songs: by
+which you are to understand that they jumped and whirled and capered
+about in a thousand outlandish antics till they grew limber and weak
+in the knees, and yelped and bellowed and howled till their bodies
+were almost empty of breath; when, from very exhaustion, they hushed
+their barbarous din, and night and slumber fell on the camp. In the
+daytime, these lords of the forest, tricked out in all their savage
+finery, their faces streaked with war-paint and their scalp-locks
+brave with gay bunches of feathers, would stalk about the fort, big
+with wonder over every thing they saw. Now and then, they would follow
+with admiring eyes the rapid and skilful movement of the red-coated
+regulars, as one or other of the regiments, like some huge machine,
+went through their martial exercises; or, standing on the ramparts,
+they would watch with still keener zest and interest the young
+officers as they amused themselves by racing their horses outside the
+fort.
+
+As ill luck would have it, these warriors had brought with them their
+wives and children, among whom were many very pretty Indian girls,
+with plump, round forms, little hands and feet, and beady, roguish
+eyes. As female society was not by any means one of the charms of life
+at Fort Cumberland, the coming of these wild beauties was hailed with
+the liveliest delight by the young English officers, who, the moment
+they laid eyes on them, fell to loving them to desperation. First
+among these forest belles was one who went by the expressive name of
+Bright Lightning; so called, no doubt, from being the favorite
+daughter of White Thunder. It being noised abroad that she was a
+savage princess of the very first blood, she, of course, at once
+became the centre of fashionable attraction, and the leading toast of
+all the young blades in camp. No sooner, however, did the warriors get
+wind of these gallantries, than they were quite beside themselves with
+rage and jealousy, and straightway put an end to them; making the
+erring fair ones pack off home, bag and baggage, sorely to their
+disappointment, as well as to that of the young British lions, who
+were quite inconsolable for their loss.
+
+This scandalous behavior on the part of the English--of which,
+however, your Uncle Juvinell may have spoken more lightly than he
+ought--was, as you may well believe, very disgusting to Washington,
+who was a young man of the purest thoughts and habits. As may be
+naturally supposed, it gave deep and lasting offence to the sachems;
+and when to this is coupled the fact, that their wishes and opinions
+touching war-matters were never heeded or consulted, we cannot wonder
+that they one by one forsook the English, with all their warriors, and
+came no more.
+
+Foreseeing this, and well knowing what valuable service these people
+could render as scouts and spies, Washington had gone to Braddock,
+time and again, warning him to treat them with more regard to their
+peculiar whims and customs, if he did not wish to lose the advantages
+to be expected from their friendship, or bring upon him the terrible
+consequences of their enmity. As this wise and timely advice came from
+a young provincial colonel, the wrong-headed old general treated it,
+of course, with high disdain, and to the last remained obstinate in
+the belief that he could march to the very heart of the continent
+without meeting an enemy who could withstand his well-drilled regulars
+and fine artillery.
+
+And thus, my dear children, did this rash and wilful man cast lightly
+away the golden opportunity, wherein, by a few kind words, or tokens
+of respect, he could have gained the lasting friendship of this
+much-despised race, and thereby made them, in all human likelihood,
+the humble means of saving from early destruction the finest army,
+which, up to that time, had carried its banners to the Western World.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+ROUGH WORK.
+
+
+At last, all things were got in readiness; and the gallant little army
+began its toilsome march through the forest, and over the mountains,
+and up and down the valleys. Beside the regulars, fourteen hundred
+strong, it consisted of two companies of hatchet-men, or carpenters,
+whose business it was to go on before, and open the road; a small
+company of seamen, who had the care and management of the artillery;
+six companies of rangers, some of whom were Pennsylvanians; and two
+companies of light horse, which, being composed of young men taken
+from the very first families of Virginia, Braddock had chosen to be
+his body-guard: the whole numbering two thousand, or thereabouts.
+
+Owing to the difficulty of dragging the loaded wagons and heavy guns
+over the steep and rocky roads, the march was slow and tedious in the
+extreme; and what made it still more trying to Washington's patience
+was to see so many wagons and pack-horses loaded down with the private
+baggage of the English officers,--such as fine clothing, table
+dainties, and a hundred little troublesome conveniences, which they
+must needs lug about with them wherever they went. Weeks before they
+left Fort Cumberland, Washington had pointed out to Braddock the folly
+of attempting to cross that monstrous mountain barrier with a cumbrous
+train of wheel-carriages; and expressed the opinion, that, for the
+present, they had better leave the bulk of their baggage and their
+heaviest artillery, and, trusting entirely to pack-horses for
+transporting what should be needed most, make their way at once to
+Fort Duquesne while the garrison was yet too weak to offer any
+resistance. This prudent counsel, however, as usual, had failed to
+produce the least effect on the narrow and stubborn mind of Braddock;
+but by the time he had dragged his unwieldy length over two or three
+mountains, and had made but a few miles in many days, it began to dawn
+on his mind by slow degrees, that a campaign in an American wilderness
+was a very different thing from what it was in the cultivated regions
+of Europe, where nearly every meadow, field, or wood, could tell of a
+Christian and civilized battle there fought, and where the fine roads
+and bridges made the march of an army a mere holiday jaunt as compared
+to this rough service. The difficulties that beset him seeming to
+thicken around him at every step, he was at last so sorely put to it
+and perplexed as to be obliged to turn to the young provincial
+colonel for that advice which he, in his blind self-confidence, had
+but a short while before disdained.
+
+Too well bred to seem surprised at this unbending of the haughty old
+general, although he really was not a little, Washington readily, yet
+with all becoming modesty, did as he was desired, in a clear, brief,
+and soldierly manner. He gave it as his opinion, that their best plan
+would be to divide the army into two parts,--the smaller division,
+under command of Col. Dunbar, to form the rear, and bring up the heavy
+guns and baggage-wagons; the larger division, under the command of
+Braddock, to form the advance, and taking with it but two pieces of
+light artillery, and no more baggage than could be conveniently
+carried on pack-horses, push rapidly on to Fort Duquesne, and surprise
+the garrison before they could receive timely warning of their danger,
+or be re-enforced by the troops from Canada, which would have arrived
+ere then, had not the summer drought prevented. To some extent, this
+prudent advice was followed; and, to give it the force of example,
+Washington reduced his baggage to a few little necessaries that he
+could easily carry in a small portmanteau strapped to his back, and
+gave his fine charger to be used as a pack-horse. His brother
+provincial officers, accustomed as they were to dealing with the
+difficulties and inconveniences of a backwoods life, in a ready,
+off-hand fashion, followed his example with the greatest willingness
+and good-humor. Notwithstanding this, however, there were still two
+hundred pack-horses loaded with the private baggage of the English
+officers, who were unwilling, even in that hour of pressing need, to
+make this little sacrifice of their present comfort to the common
+good. So tender did they seem of their bodily ease, and so given up to
+the pleasures of appetite, that Washington began to have serious
+doubts of their fitness to endure the hardships of a rough campaign,
+and of their courage and firmness to face the dangers of the
+battle-field.
+
+One evening late, about this time, as the army lay encamped at the
+Little Meadows, there suddenly appeared among them, from the
+neighboring woods, a large party of hunters, all Pennsylvanians,
+dressed in the wild garb of Indians, and armed with hatchets, knives,
+and rifles. Their leader was a certain Capt. Jack, one of the greatest
+hunters of his day, and nearly as famous in the border tales of
+Pennsylvania as Daniel Boone in those of green Kentucky. When your
+Uncle Juvinell was quite a lad, he read the story of this strange man,
+in an old book, which pleased and interested him so much at the time,
+that he has never since forgotten it, and will now repeat it to you in
+the very words of the old chronicler:--
+
+     "The 'Black Hunter,' the 'Black Rifle,' the 'Wild Hunter of
+     Juniata,' is a white man. His history is this: He entered the
+     woods with a few enterprising companions, built his cabin,
+     cleared a little land, and amused himself with the pleasure of
+     fishing and hunting. He felt happy; for then he had not a care.
+     But on an evening, when he returned from a day of sport, he
+     found his cabin burnt, his wife and children murdered. From
+     that moment he forsakes civilized man, hunts out caves in which
+     he lives, protects the frontier inhabitants from the Indians,
+     and seizes every opportunity of revenge that offers. He lives
+     the terror of the Indians, and the consolation of the whites.
+     On one occasion, near Juniata, in the middle of a dark night, a
+     family were suddenly awaked from sleep by the report of a gun.
+     They jumped from their huts; and, by the glimmering light from
+     the chimney, saw an Indian fall to rise no more. The open door
+     exposed to view the Wild Hunter. 'I have saved your lives!' he
+     cried; then turned, and was buried in the gloom of night."
+
+Bidding his leather-stockings to wait where they were till he came
+back, the Black Hunter strode on to the general's tent, and, without
+more ado than to enter, made known the object of his coming there, in
+a speech that smacked somewhat of the Indian style of oratory; which I
+will give you, as nearly as I can, in his own words:--
+
+     "Englishmen, the foe is on the watch. He lurks in the
+     strongholds of the mountains. He hides in the shadows of the
+     forest. He hovers over you like a hungry vulture ready to
+     pounce upon its prey. He has made a boast that he will keep his
+     eye upon you, from his look-outs on the hills, day and night,
+     till you have walked into his snare, when he will shoot down
+     your gay red-birds like pigeons. Englishmen, dangers thicken
+     round you at every step; but in the pride of your strength you
+     have blinded your eyes, so that you see them not. I have
+     brought my hunters, who are brave and trusty men, to serve you
+     as scouts and spies. In your front and in your rear, and on
+     either hand, we will scour the woods, and beat the bushes, to
+     stir up the lurking foe, that your gallant men fall not into
+     his murderous ambuscade. To us the secret places of the
+     wilderness are as an open book; in its depths we have made our
+     homes this many a year: there we can find both food and
+     shelter. We ask no pay, and our rifles are all our own."
+
+To this noble and disinterested offer, Braddock returned a cold and
+haughty answer.
+
+     "There is time enough," said he, "for making such arrangements;
+     and I have experienced troops on whom I can rely."
+
+Stung to the quick by this uncivil and ungenerous treatment, the Black
+Hunter, without another word, turned, and, with a kindling eye and
+proud step, left the tent. When he told his followers of the scornful
+manner in which the English general had treated their leader, and
+rejected their offer of service, they staid not, but, with angry and
+indignant mien, filed out of the camp, and, plunging once more into
+the wilderness, left the devoted little army to march on to that
+destruction to which its ill-starred commander seemed so fatally bent
+on leading it. The contemptuous indifference which always marked the
+demeanor of Braddock towards these rude but brave and trusty warriors
+of the woods was very offensive to Washington; the more, as he knew,
+that, when it came to be put to the test, these men, unskilled though
+they were in the modes of civilized warfare, would be found far better
+fitted to cope with the cunning and stealthy enemy they had then to
+deal with, than those well-dressed, well-armed, well-drilled, but
+unwieldy regulars.
+
+After having rested a few days at the Little Meadows, the advanced
+division of the army once more took up the line of march; but, to
+Washington's disappointment, made scarcely better speed than before,
+although lightened of nearly all of the heavy baggage. "I found,"
+wrote he a short time after, "that, instead of pushing on with vigor,
+we were halting to level every mole-hill, and erect bridges over every
+brook; by which means we were sometimes four days in getting twelve
+miles." Slowly the long and straggling lines held on their weary way,
+now scrambling over some rugged steep, now winding along some narrow
+defile, till at length the silence of that gloomy vale--the Shades of
+Death--was again broken by the shouts and uproar of a marching army.
+
+For several days, Washington had been suffering much from fever,
+attended with a racking headache, which had obliged him to travel in a
+covered wagon. By the time they reached the great crossings of the
+Youghiogeny, his illness had so increased, that Dr. Craik, his good
+friend and physician, declared it would be almost certain death for
+him to travel further; at the same time advising him to stay where he
+was until his fever should somewhat abate its violence, when he could
+come up with Dunbar's rear division. His brother officers also, and
+even his old general, kindly urged him to give up all thought of going
+on for the present; while, to render his disappointment more bearable,
+some of them promised to keep him informed, by writing, of every thing
+noteworthy which should happen in the course of their march. Seeing
+then; was no help for it, he suffered himself to be left behind: but
+it was with a sad and heavy heart that, he saw them pass on without
+him; and when they had vanished, one by one, in the shadows of the
+neighboring wilds, and the gleaming of their arms could no longer be
+seen through the openings of the trees and bushes, he turned with a
+sigh, and said to the men whom Braddock had left to nurse and guard
+him, "I would not for five hundred pounds miss being at the taking of
+Fort Duquesne." Here he lay for ten days; his fever, no doubt, much
+aggravated by his impatience to rejoin his comrades, and the fear lest
+he should not be well in time to share with them the dangers and
+honors of the coming contest.
+
+Meanwhile, Braddock pursued his slow and tedious march, and in a few
+days had passed the Great Meadows, where young Washington, the year
+before, as you must well remember, had learned his first lessons in
+the rude art of war. A few miles beyond this, he came to a deserted
+Indian camp, on the top of a rocky hill, where, to judge from the
+number of wigwams, at least one hundred and seventy warriors must have
+lodged. The fires were still burning; which showed but too plainly
+that the stealthy foe was on the watch, and not far distant. Some of
+the trees hard by had been stripped of their bark; and on their white,
+sappy trunks were to be seen, in the rude picture-writing of the
+Indians, savage taunts and threats of vengeance meant for the English;
+while intermixed with these were bullying boasts and blackguard slang,
+written in the French language, as if to force on the notice of those
+who were to read them the fact, that there were white as well as red
+men lurking near.
+
+It had almost slipped my mind to tell you, that Braddock, moved
+perhaps by the advice of Washington, had, before setting out from Fort
+Cumberland, employed a small party of Indians, with their sachem Yadi
+at their head, to serve as guides and spies during the campaign. A few
+days after passing the deserted camp on the rock, four or five
+soldiers, straggling too far in the rear, were suddenly waylaid by the
+prowling foe, and all murdered and scalped on the spot.
+
+To avenge the death of their comrades, a squad of regulars went out
+in quest of the enemy, and soon came in sight of a small party of
+Indians, who held up the boughs of trees before them, and stood their
+rifles on the ground, as a sign that they were friends. Not
+understanding this, however, and the distance being too great for them
+to make out who they were, the blundering regulars fired, and one of
+the party fell dead on the spot,--a youthful warrior, who proved to be
+the son of the sachem Yadi. When Braddock heard of this melancholy
+accident, he was deeply grieved. He forthwith sent for the bereaved
+father, and, to his praise be it ever recorded, endeavored, by kind
+words and liberal presents, to console him, and make some little
+amends for his heavy loss; and, as a still further token of his
+regard, he ordered the hapless youth to be buried with all the honors
+of war. The body, borne on a bier, was followed by the officers, two
+and two; while the soldiers, drawn up in two lines, with the grave
+between them, stood facing each other, with the points of their
+muskets turned downward, and their chins resting in the hollow of the
+breeches. When the body was lowered, they fired three volleys over the
+grave, and left the young warrior to his long sleep on the hillside,
+with his bright hatchet and trusty rifle beside him. All this was very
+soothing to the sorrow and gratifying to the fatherly pride of the old
+sachem, and made him ever after a loving friend and faithful ally of
+the English. I have told you this little story to show you, that this
+testy and obstinate old general, with all his faults, was far from
+being the hard, unfeeling man that he sometimes seemed; and also as a
+tribute that every historian should pay to the memory of one whose
+misfortune it has been to be blamed so much, and pitied so little.
+
+By this time, Washington had so far regained his strength as to admit
+of his being borne along in a covered wagon; and, setting out
+accordingly, in five days came up with the advance division, where it
+lay encamped in a beautiful spot about two miles from the Monongahela,
+and fifteen miles from Fort Duquesne. Here he was joyfully welcomed by
+both officers and men, with whom his generosity, and frank, manly
+bearing, had made him a great favorite. Shortly after his arrival, Mr.
+Gist and two Indian scouts, who had been sent out to reconnoitre or
+spy out the enemy, came back with the cheering tidings, that the
+re-enforcements had not yet come down from Canada, and that the
+garrison in the fort was at present too weak to stand a single hour's
+siege. But what gave him a little uneasiness was a lofty column of
+smoke, rising from a deep and densely wooded hollow, where they were
+quite sure the watchful enemy was lurking, and hatching some mischief
+for the English.
+
+Now, the fort and the camp lay on the same side of the river; and the
+most direct route between them was by a narrow mountain pass, rising
+abruptly from the water's edge on the left, and, on the right, shut
+in by a steep and lofty hill, whose stony sides were overgrown with
+laurel and stunted cedars and pines. As it was altogether out of the
+question to drag their wagons and artillery along this pass, it was
+resolved to cross the river, first at a point just over against the
+camp, and then, moving down along the opposite bank, recross it at
+another point five miles below; at both of which places the fords were
+shallow, and the banks not high.
+
+At last, the 9th of July, 1755,--a day ever to be remembered in
+American annals,--began to dawn. Long before its first red light had
+streaked the east, a hum in the camp told that the little army was,
+even at that hour, all astir, and big with the bustle of preparation.
+Officers and men were in the highest hopes, and looked forward with
+confidence to the coming evening, when they were to plant their
+victorious banners on the ramparts of Fort Duquesne. Although they had
+marched thus far without serious molestation, yet Col. Washington's
+fears of an ambuscade were not a whit diminished; for he felt quite
+certain that they should never reach the French fort without an
+attempt being made to surprise, or drive them back. Full of these
+apprehensions, he went to Gen. Braddock, and, pointing out to him the
+danger hanging over them, urged him by all means to send out the
+Virginia rangers to scour the woods and thickets, front and flank, and
+beat up the enemy, should any chance to be lurking near with the
+design of drawing them into an ambuscade. No advice, as it afterwards
+turned out, could have been more timely: but, coming from a raw
+provincial colonel, Braddock cast it aside with angry impatience; and
+when the line of march was formed, as if to show in what light esteem
+he held it, he ordered the rangers to the rear, to guard the baggage.
+Before daybreak, a large party of pioneers, or road-cutters, with a
+small guard of regulars, numbering in all about three hundred, had
+gone on before to open a passage for the army through the woods, and
+make the fords more passable by levelling the banks.
+
+The midsummer sun was shooting its first beams, level and red, among
+the Alleghany hills, when the little army, having crossed the
+Monongahela at the upper ford, stood on its southern bank, forming in
+line of march. By order of their general, officers and men had scoured
+and polished their arms and accoutrements the night before; and now
+appeared in full uniform, as if some grand military parade were to be
+the programme of the day. The whole line was soon moving slowly
+forward, with fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying; the
+regulars keeping step the while to the "Grenadier's March." In the
+clear and tranquil depths of the river, as they moved along its shady
+banks, could be seen, as in a mirror, the long array of
+leather-shirted rangers and red-coated regulars, with their sun-lit
+arms and prancing steeds, and bright banners that floated in the
+morning breeze. This brilliant spectacle, so well set off by the
+smiling river in front and the frowning woods beyond, formed a picture
+that ever lived in the memory of Washington; and in after-years he
+used often to say, that, as it then appeared to him, he thought he had
+never seen any thing so beautiful. In the enthusiasm of the moment, he
+forgot his late illness, the still enfeebled condition of his
+body,--all, save the glory of serving his country; and, mounting his
+horse, he joined his brother-aides in their attendance on their
+general, else far more fatal must have been the end of that bloody
+day.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT.
+
+
+In my account of this battle, as well as all the others that will come
+thundering in upon us from time to time in the course of our story, I
+have thought it would suit our purpose best to touch upon those facts
+only that are likeliest to leave the most lasting pictures of such
+events on your minds; using the while no more words than may actually
+be needed to give clearness and completeness to the same. And now,
+Daniel, my young Herodotus, and Ned, my young Hannibal, bring in
+another Christmas log, that we may have a more cheerful blaze; for our
+story will be doleful enough for the next half-hour, without these
+goblin shadows dodging and flitting about the room to make it more so.
+
+At mid-day, Braddock's army came to the lower ford, where a halt was
+called to allow of a few minutes' rest. Far in front, across the
+river, the ringing of a hundred axes, followed at short intervals by
+the crash of falling trees, could be distinctly heard; telling that
+the pioneers were there, working might and main to clear a passage for
+those behind. The road just opened, after leaving the ford, ran
+across a heavily wooded bottom that skirted the river; and thence, for
+a few hundred yards, up a rocky slope to the foot of a high range of
+hills, about a mile distant, where it entered a narrow, bushy defile,
+and went no further. The country, for miles and miles around, as far
+as the eye could reach, was thickly wooded, save the rocky slope just
+mentioned, and the neighboring ravines, which were overgrown with
+long, coarse grass and whortleberry-bushes, so high as to sweep the
+horses' bellies; with here and there a few scattering trees of some
+size. It was the very place, of all others, that the wily Indian would
+be most likely to choose for his ambuscade.
+
+By two o'clock, the whole army had regained the northern bank of the
+river. They were now within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, and a lucky
+end to their present campaign seemed near at hand. In a few minutes,
+artillery and baggage, foot and horse, regulars and rangers, formed
+into separate and distinct columns, stood ready to move as soon as the
+word should be given. Just at the moment, however, when they were
+listening to hear the order, "Forward, march!" drop from their
+general's lips, they were startled by a sudden and heavy firing among
+the hills, which put a sudden stop to the hundred axes, and told but
+too plainly that the road-cutters and their guard of regulars had been
+drawn into an ambuscade. Washington knew at once, and too well, that
+the evil he dreaded from the beginning, had, on the very eve of
+success, come upon them; and with it also came the painful reflection,
+that it would never have so befallen them, had the rangers been
+suffered to scour the woods, and beat up the enemy, as had been
+recommended by him but a few hours before. Braddock forthwith ordered
+two companies to hurry on to the relief of the pioneers; and, at his
+bidding, one of his aides spurred forward to learn further of the
+matter, and bring him word. The firing grew heavier and heavier, and
+seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. The lonely hills and woods
+around rang with the whoops and yells of the unseen savages. Not able
+to restrain his impatience till his aide came back, Braddock ordered
+his main division to come up at double-quick; and, taking with him his
+two remaining aides and a small guard of light-horse, galloped up to
+the scene of action. Here what was his rage and mortification to find
+his doughty regulars, of whom he had boasted so much, changed, as it
+were in the whistling of a bullet, into a mere disorderly rabble of
+red-coats,--confused, bewildered, to a degree that he could never have
+dreamed possible! Crowded and huddled together in the narrow road, he
+saw them dropping down under the Indian bullets, helpless as a herd of
+frightened deer beset by a band of unseen hunters.
+
+By this time, the Indians, still hid from view by the grass and
+bushes, had stretched their lines along either side of the road, from
+the hollows among the hills to some distance down the rocky slope, and
+were pouring in a murderous fire upon the affrighted English; yelling
+and whooping the while like a legion of devils at some infernal
+frolic. Two bayonet charges had been made to drive them from their
+hiding-places, but in vain. The regulars, notwithstanding their
+officers' orders to the contrary, kept up a hurried but random firing,
+which had little or no effect upon the enemy, as nothing could be seen
+of him but the puffs of rifle-smoke that rose and hovered in little
+blue clouds over his place of ambush. The English, it is said, were
+less appalled by the whistling bullet; of the unseen savages than by
+their unearthly yells,--a sound that none of them had ever heard
+before, and many a poor fellow of them never heard again. The Indian
+war-whoop has been described as a sound so wild and terrible, that,
+when once heard in battle, it rings in the listener's ears for weeks
+thereafter, and is never forgotten even to his dying day.
+
+But the English officers, on the contrary, behaved themselves with a
+gallantry that filled Washington with astonishment and admiration.
+Heretofore he had seen them only in camp or on the line of march,
+where their habits of ease and self-indulgence had led him to doubt
+their having the courage and firmness to face, without shrinking,
+danger in such appalling forms. Unmindful of the bullets that whistled
+continually about their heads, they galloped up and down the broken
+and bleeding lines, in the vain endeavor to rally their men, and bring
+them again to something like order. Mounted on fine horses, and
+dressed in rich uniforms, they offered a tempting mark to the unseen
+rifles that were levelled at them from behind every tree and bush, and
+tuft of grass; and, ere the work of death was finished, many a gallant
+steed, with dangling reins and bloody saddle, dashed riderless about
+the field. And, as if this were not enough, many of them must needs
+fall victims to the unsoldierly conduct of their own men, who,
+forgetful of all discipline, and quite beside themselves with terror
+and bewilderment, loaded their pieces hurriedly, and fired them off at
+random, killing friends as well as foes. Nor did this most shameful
+part of the bloody scene end here: many of the Virginia rangers, who
+had already taken to the trees and bushes, and were doing good service
+by fighting the Indians in their own fashion, were shot down by the
+blundering regulars, who fired into the woods wherever they saw a puff
+of smoke, unable to distinguish whether it rose from a red or a white
+man's rifle. Upon these brave rangers the brunt of the battle fell;
+and indeed, had it not been for their firmness and presence of mind,
+their skill and address in the arts and strategems of Indian warfare,
+which enabled them for a time to hold the enemy in check, hardly a
+remnant of Braddock's fine army would have survived to behold the
+going-down of that summer's sun.
+
+At the very commencement of the battle, a small party of warriors,
+cheered on by a French officer in a fancifully trimmed hunting-shirt,
+had leaped out from their covert into the road, with the view, it
+seemed, of cutting off those in front from the assistance of their
+comrades in the rear; but the regulars, who guarded the road-cutters,
+having discharged a well-aimed volley of musketry into their very
+faces, they had turned, and fled with even more haste than they had
+come, leaving behind them several of their number dead on the spot,
+and among these their dashing French leader. After that, they had
+taken care to keep close under cover of the grass and bushes. Now and
+then, however, a tall brave, grim and hideous with war-paint, with a
+yell of defiance would leap from his ambush, and, darting into the
+road, tomahawk and scalp a wounded officer just fallen; then vanish
+again as suddenly as if the earth had opened to swallow him up.
+
+All this while, Col. Washington had borne himself with a firmness,
+courage, and presence of mind, that would have done honor to a
+forty-years' veteran. His two brother aides-de-camp having been
+wounded early in the engagement, the whole duty of carrying the
+general's orders had fallen on him; and nobly did he that day
+discharge it. Although brave men were falling thick and fast on every
+side, yet he shrank from no exposure, however perilous, did his duty
+but lead him there. Mounted on horseback, his tall and stately form
+was to be seen in every part of the field, the mark of a hundred
+rifles, whose deadly muzzles were pointed at him whithersoever he
+went. Two horses were shot dead under him, and his coat was pierced
+with bullets; but he seemed to bear about him a charmed life, and went
+unharmed. His danger was so great, that his friend Dr. Craik, who
+watched his movements with anxious interest, looked every moment to
+see him fall headlong to the ground; and that he came off alive seemed
+to him a miracle. Washington himself, with that piety which ever
+marked his character, laid his deliverance from the perils of that
+fatal day to the overruling care of a kind and watchful Providence.
+
+Although brought thus suddenly face to face with new and untried
+dangers, Braddock bore himself throughout the day like the valiant man
+that he really was. The bullets and yells of the invisible foe he
+scarcely noticed, as he galloped hither and thither about the field,
+giving his orders through a speaking-trumpet, whose brazen voice rose
+loud and hoarse above the din of battle. Under the mistaken notion
+that a savage enemy, hid in a thicket, was to be dealt with as a
+civilized one in an open plain, he sought to recover his lost ground
+by forming his men into companies and battalions; which, however, he
+had no sooner done, than they were mowed down by the murderous fire
+from the ambush, that had never ceased. "My soldiers," said he, "would
+fight, could they but see their enemy; but it is vain to shoot at
+trees and bushes." Whereupon Washington urgently besought him to let
+his regulars fight the Indians in their own fashion, which would the
+better enable them to pick off the lurking foe with less danger to
+their own safety. But Braddock's only answer to this was a sneer; and
+some of his regulars, who were already acting upon the suggestion, he
+angrily ordered back into the ranks, calling them cowards, and even
+striking them with the flat of his sword. He then caused the colors of
+the two regiments to be advanced in different parts of the field, that
+the soldiers might rally around their separate standards. It was all
+in vain. In his excitement, he cheered, he entreated, he swore, he
+stormed: it was only a waste of breath; for the poor fellows were too
+disheartened and broken, too overcome by mortal fear, to rally again.
+
+Col. Washington, seeing that the day was on the point of being lost,
+galloped down to the rear to see if nothing could be done with the
+artillery; but he found the gunners in a most disorderly plight,
+benumbed with terror, and utterly unable to manage their guns. What
+Washington did on this occasion, I had better tell you in the words of
+an old Pennsylvania soldier, who was there at the time, and survived
+the battle for half a hundred years or more; and used often, for the
+entertainment of your Uncle Juvinell and other little boys, to fight
+his battles over again as he sat smoking in his chimney corner.
+
+     "I saw Col. Washington," he would say, "spring from his panting
+     horse, and seize a brass field-piece as if it had been a stick.
+     His look was terrible. He put his right hand on the muzzle, his
+     left hand on the breech; he pulled with this, he pushed with
+     that, and wheeled it round, as if it had been a plaything: it
+     furrowed the ground like a ploughshare. He tore the sheet-lead
+     from the touch-hole; then the powder-monkey rushed up with the
+     fire, when the cannon went off, making the bark fly from the
+     trees, and many an Indian send up his last yell and bite the
+     dust."
+
+This, however, gave the savages but a momentary check, as he could not
+follow it up; there being no one by ready and willing to lend him a
+helping hand. The Virginia rangers and other provincial troops, who
+had done the only good fighting of the day, were thinned out to
+one-fourth their number; and the few that remained were too weary and
+faint to hold out longer against such fearful odds. Between the
+well-aimed firing of the enemy and the random shooting of the
+regulars, the slaughter of the English officers had been frightful:
+out of the eighty-six who went into the battle, only twenty-four came
+off unhurt. Gen. Braddock had five horses killed under him. By this
+time, he had given up all hope of regaining the day; and, galling as
+it must have been to his proud spirit, was at last forced to think of
+retreating as their only chance of safety. Just as he was on the
+point, however, of giving orders to this effect, a bullet--said by
+some to have been a random shot from one of his own soldiers--passed
+through his arm, and, lodging itself in his lungs, brought him to the
+ground, mortally wounded. His officers placed him in a tumbrel, or
+pioneer's cart, and bore him from the field, where, in his despair, he
+prayed them to leave him to die.
+
+Seeing their leader fall, a fresh panic seized the army. And now
+followed a wild and disorderly rout, the like of which was never known
+before, and has never since been known, in our border-wars. The
+soldiers in front fell back on those in the centre; those in the
+centre fell back on those in the rear: till foot and horse, artillery
+and baggage, were jammed and jumbled together, making a scene of
+dismay and confusion it would be vain for me to attempt to describe.
+To add wings to their speed, the Indians, with a long, loud yell of
+fiendish triumph, now rushed from their ambush, and, brandishing aloft
+their murderous tomahawks, began to press hard on the heels of the
+terrified fugitives. The better to elude their savage pursuers, the
+regulars threw away their arms, the gunners abandoned their guns, and
+the teamsters cut their horses from the traces, and, mounting them,
+fled, never halting until they reached Col. Dunbar's camp,--a gallop
+of forty miles. A few fell under the tomahawk before the farther bank
+of the river could be gained. Here, luckily for the survivors, the
+Indians gave over the pursuit, in their eagerness to plunder the
+slain, and gather what else of booty might be found on the field.
+
+Thus ended this bloody battle, or rather slaughter; for in truth it
+could be called nothing else. Of the sixteen hundred valiant men who
+had that morning, in all the bright array of gleaming arms and waving
+banners, marched along the banks of that beautiful river, nearly
+one-half, ere the sun went down, had fallen on Braddock's Hill. What
+made this disaster more shameful still was the weakness of the enemy's
+force, which did not exceed eight hundred, of whom only a fourth were
+French; and, of all this number, scarcely forty fell in the fight.
+
+Col. Washington was now ordered to ride back with all speed to
+Dunbar's camp, to fetch horses, wagons, and hospital-stores for the
+relief of the wounded. Although still quite weak from his ten days'
+fever, which indeed had left him with no more strength than should
+have sufficed for the fatigues of that trying day, yet he set out on
+the instant, and, taking with him a guard of grenadiers, travelled the
+livelong night. What with those terrible sights and sounds still
+ringing in his ears, and flashing before his eyes; what with the
+thought of the many dead and dying that lay on the lonely hillside far
+behind, with their ghastly upturned faces, more ghastly still in the
+light of the moon; and what with the bitter, bitter reflection, that
+all this would never have been but for the pride and folly of a single
+man,--that ride through the dark and silent woods must have been a
+melancholy one indeed. He pushed on, without leaving the saddle, till
+late in the afternoon of the following day, when he reached Dunbar's
+camp; and gathering together, without loss of time, the necessaries
+for which he had been sent, started on his return that same night,
+scarcely allowing himself and men an hour for food and rest. Early
+next morning, he met the main division at Mr. Gist's plantation,
+whither they had dragged their shattered lines the evening before.
+From thence they all went on together to the Great Meadows, where they
+arrived that same day, and halted.
+
+For the four and twenty hours following the battle, Braddock had
+remained sad and silent; never speaking except to say, "Who would have
+thought it?" The second day, he seemed more cheerful; for he said, "We
+shall better know how to deal with them another time." He spoke in
+high praise of the skill and courage shown by the Virginia rangers and
+other provincial troops during the whole engagement. He now saw, but
+too late, and to his deep regret, that he had not given these rough
+and hardy men half the credit due them as good soldiers; and also that
+he had made a fatal mistake in underrating the strength, skill, and
+address of the enemy he had been sent there to subdue. To Washington
+he made a frank and manly apology for the contempt and impatience with
+which he had so often treated his prudent and well-timed counsel. As
+if wishing to make still further amends for this, he bequeathed to him
+his faithful negro servant, Bishop, and his fine white charger, both
+of whom had helped to carry their wounded master from the field. On
+the fourth day after the battle, he died; having been kindly and
+tenderly cared for by Washington and his other surviving officers.
+
+They dug him a grave by the roadside, not a stone's-throw from Fort
+Necessity, in the depths of that lonely wilderness; and there, before
+the summer morn had dawned, they buried him. In the absence of the
+chaplain, the funeral service was read by Washington, in a low and
+solemn voice, by the dim and flickering light of a torch. Fearing lest
+the enemy might be lurking near, and, spying out the spot, commit some
+outrage on his remains, they fired not a farewell shot over the grave
+of their unfortunate general,--that last tribute of respect to a
+departed soldier, and one he had himself paid, but a short time
+before, to a nameless Indian warrior. So there they laid him; and, to
+this day, the great highway leading from Cumberland to Pittsburg goes
+by the name of Braddock's Road.
+
+I would, my dear children, have you dwell on these glimpses of a more
+manly and generous nature that brightened the closing hours of
+Braddock's life; because it is but Christian and just that we should
+be willing to honor virtue in whomsoever it may be found. With all his
+self-conceit and obstinacy, he had a kindly heart, and was a brave
+man; and had it been his lot to deal with a civilized enemy, instead
+of a savage one, he would, no doubt, have proved himself a skilful
+general. And we should not deal too harshly with the memory of a man,
+whose faults, however great they may have been, were more than atoned
+for by the inglorious death he died, and by "a name ever coupled with
+defeat."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+Here, again, Uncle Juvinell paused in his story, and looked beamingly
+around on his little auditors. They were all sitting with their eyes
+bent earnestly on the burning logs, thinking deeply, no doubt, and
+looking as sober as tombstones in the light of a spring morning.
+
+All on a sudden, Willie leaped from his chair, and gave a shrill
+Indian war-whoop, that threw the whole bevy into a terrible panic;
+making some of the smaller fry scream outright, and even Uncle
+Juvinell to blink a little. "There," said the youngster, "is something
+to ring in your ears for weeks hereafter, and never to be forgotten
+even to your dying day. I heard it the other night at the Indian
+circus, and have been practising it myself ever since. I fancy it must
+be a pretty fair sample of the genuine thing, or it wouldn't have
+scared you all up as it did." Whereupon Uncle Juvinell, frowning over
+his spectacles with his brows, and laughing behind them with his eyes,
+bade the young blood to pack himself into his chair again, and be
+civil; at the same time threatening to put him on a water-gruel diet,
+to bring his surplus spirits within reasonable bounds. Then all the
+little folks laughed, not so much at what their uncle had said, as to
+make believe they had not been frightened in the least; in which
+Willie, the cunning rogue, joined, that, under cover of the general
+merriment, he might snicker a little to himself at his own smartness.
+
+"And now, my dear children," continued the good man, "hand me the
+notes you have written down, that I may see what it is you would have
+me explain."
+
+"In five minutes' time after you began," said rattle-brained Willie,
+"I became so much interested in the story, that I quite forgot all
+about the notes, till it was too late to begin; but I was thinking all
+along, that I should like to understand more clearly the difference
+between a province and a colony, and"--
+
+"Indeed, uncle," broke in Dannie, "you made every thing so clear and
+plain as you went along, that I, for one, didn't feel the need of
+writing down a single note."
+
+"Then, Dannie," said his uncle, "that being the case, you can perhaps
+enlighten your cousin Willie as to the difference between a colony and
+a province."
+
+Had his uncle called upon him to give the difference between Gog and
+Magog, Daniel would have made the venture. So he promptly answered,--
+
+"A province is a country, and a colony is the people of it."
+
+Uncle Juvinell would have laughed outright at this answer; but he knew
+it would mortify the young historian: so he only smiled, and said,--
+
+"That will do pretty well, Dannie, as far as it goes; but it does not
+cover more than an acre of the ground. Now, a colony, you must know,
+Willie, is a settlement made by a country--called, in such cases, the
+mother-country--in some foreign region at a distance from it, but
+belonging to it; as, for example, the English colonies in America,
+which are separated from the mother-country, England, by the great
+Atlantic Ocean. A province, on the other hand, is a similar extent of
+foreign territory, belonging to a nation or a kingdom, either by
+conquest or purchase or settlement; and it may also be a division or
+district of the kingdom or nation itself. Thus, you see, a foreign
+region, settled and owned by the mother-country, may, with nearly
+equal propriety, be called either a colony or a province; while one
+that belongs to a nation or a kingdom by conquest or purchase is a
+province, and nothing else. Thus, for example, Canada is a province of
+Great Britain, won from the French by conquest, as you will learn
+to-morrow evening. From this you may see, that although a province
+may, yet a colony can no more exist within the boundaries of a
+mother-country, than can a man live at home and abroad at one and the
+same time."
+
+The other children were then called on to produce their notes. Laura
+said, that, after she had written two or three, she found she was
+losing more than she was gaining; for, when she stopped to take down
+any item she wished to remember, she did not hear what came right
+after. Ellen chimed in with the same; and Ned said he was not yet out
+of his pot-hooks, and couldn't write; but that he was thinking all the
+time of getting Willie or Dannie to tell him all about it after they
+went to bed. So, what with this excuse, and that, and the other, not a
+single note was forthcoming, except a few that Master Charlie, the
+knowing young gentleman, had written on a very large slate, in letters
+quite of his own inventing, which he now laid before his uncle. To set
+off his penmanship to the best advantage, and couple the ornamental
+with the useful, he had drawn just above it a picture of Gen.
+Braddock, mounted on his dashing white charger, and waving aloft a
+sword of monstrous length. One unacquainted with the subject, however,
+would sooner have taken it for a big baboon, geared up in a cocked hat
+and high military boots, with a mowing-scythe in his hand, and
+astraddle of a rearing donkey heavily coated with feathers instead of
+hair. The old gentleman's spectacles seemed to twinkle as he ran his
+eye over the slate; and after making out two or three rather
+savage-looking _s_'s, as many long-legged _p_'s, a squat _h_ or two, a
+big bottle-bellied _b_, three or four gigantic _l_'s, a broken-backed
+_k_ or two, a high-shouldered _w_, a heavy-bottomed _d_, and a long
+slim-tailed _y_, it struck him, at length, that speech-belt, Long
+Knife, knapsack, Silver Heels, wigwam, and powder-monkey, were the
+items concerning which Master Charlie desired further enlightenment.
+
+"For information touching these matters, my dear Charles," then said
+Uncle Juvinell, "I will pass you over to Willie and Dannie, who, I
+dare say, are quite as well posted up in matters of this kind, as your
+old uncle; for, if I mistake not, they have just been reading Catlin's
+book on the Indians, and Gulliver's Travels in Brobdignag."
+
+"How is it," inquired Ellen, "that Washington, being the good man that
+he was, could have taken part in that wicked war between the French
+and English about a country that didn't belong to either of them, but
+to the poor Indians?"
+
+Now, although Uncle Juvinell was satisfied in his own mind that
+Washington's conduct in this matter was just what it should have been,
+yet, for all that, he was a little puzzled how to answer this question
+in a way that the little folks would rightly understand.
+
+"This very thing, my dear niece," replied he after a moment's pause,
+"grieved and troubled his mind a great deal, as you may well believe:
+but he knew, that, if the English did not get possession of this land,
+the French would; and this, by increasing the strength of the enemy,
+would by and by endanger the safety of his own native land, and even
+the lives and liberties of his countrymen. And he also knew that it
+would be far better for the spread of useful knowledge and the true
+religion, that all this rich country should be in the hands of some
+Christian people, who would make it a place fit to live in, and to be
+peaceful and prosperous and happy in, than that it should be left
+entirely to those barbarous savages, who only made of it a place to
+hunt and to fish in, to fight and scalp, and to burn and torture each
+other like devils in. Besides this, it is the duty of every true
+patriot (and no one knew this better than he) to serve and defend the
+country, under the protection of whose laws he has lived in peace and
+plenty, against all her enemies, whether at home or abroad, even
+should she now and then be a little in the wrong; for, by so doing, he
+defends his own home and family, rights and liberty,--objects that
+should be as dear to him as life itself."
+
+"O uncle!" exclaimed Ned with a start, as if he had just caught a
+passing recollection by the tail as it was about skedaddling round the
+corner, "tell me, will you? what kind of a life a charmed life is."
+
+"Really Ned," cried Uncle Juvinell, "I am very glad that you mentioned
+it; for it puts me in mind of something I should have told you before,
+and which I might else have forgotten. This, however, is as good a
+time as any; and, when you hear what I am now going to tell you, you
+will readily understand, without further explanation, what is meant
+when it is said of a man that he bears a charmed life about him. To do
+this, I must anticipate a little, or, to speak more clearly, take time
+by the forelock, and, going forward a little in our story, tell you of
+a circumstance which your Uncle Juvinell, when a boy, often heard
+related by Dr. Craik, who was then an aged and venerable man.
+
+"Fifteen years after poor Braddock had been laid in his unhonored
+grave, Col. Washington, taking with him his friend Dr. Craik, went on
+an exploring expedition to the Ohio, in behalf of the brave soldiers
+who had served under him at the Great Meadows, and to whom, it must be
+remembered, Gov. Dinwiddie had promised two hundred thousand acres of
+the best land to be found on this great river or its branches. There
+was peace then along the border, and little or no danger was to be
+apprehended from the Indians. They travelled in a large canoe, rowed
+by two or three hunters; and what with fishing in the streams (for
+they took with them their fishing tackle), what with hunting in the
+woods (for they took with them their hunting rifles), what with
+camping on the green shore at night (for they took with them their
+camp utensils), and what with the comfortable thought that there was
+not an Indian warrior within a hundred miles whose fingers were
+itching for their scalps (for they took with them this and many other
+pleasant thoughts besides), they had, you may depend upon it, a
+glorious time.
+
+"One day, there came to their camp, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha,
+a party of Indians, headed by an old chief of grave and venerable
+aspect, who approached Washington with deep reverence, as if entering
+the presence of some superior being. After several pipes of tobacco
+had been smoked, and several haunches of venison had been eaten,--the
+first to show that they had come friendly, the last to show that they
+came hungry,--the old chief addressed Washington in a speech, which
+your Uncle Juvinell cannot repeat to you word for word as he heard it
+from the lips of the worthy old doctor; but he well remembers the
+substance thereof, and will give it you as nearly as he can in the
+Indian style of oratory.
+
+     "'They came and told me,' began the old chief, 'that the great
+     Long Knife was in our country; and I was very glad. I said to
+     them, though I be old and feeble, though the way be long, and
+     the hills many and high, and the rivers many and wide, yet must
+     I go and see him once more before I die; for it is the young
+     warrior, whom, years ago, I saw shielded from our bullets by
+     the hand of the Great Spirit. Let the pale-faces hear my words.
+     Fifteen summers ago, when the woods and thickets were dense and
+     green, the French and Indians went out to lay in ambuscade for
+     the big English general, among the Monongahela hills. I took my
+     warriors, and went along, and we lay in wait together. The
+     English were many and strong; we were few and weak: thus we had
+     no thought of victory in our minds, but only to give our
+     enemies a little trouble, and keep them back a while till the
+     big French army came down from the Great Lakes. We saw the
+     English army cross the river and come up the hill; yet they
+     suspected not. We saw them walk into our snare, up to the very
+     muzzles of our guns; nor did they dream of danger, till our
+     war-whoop went up, and our bullets began to fly as fast as
+     winter hail. I saw the red-coats fall, and strew the ground
+     like the red leaves of the woods nipped by an untimely frost,
+     and smitten by the unseen hands of a mighty wind. The snows of
+     eighty winters have fallen upon my head. I have been in many a
+     bloody battle; yet never saw I the red life-stream run as it
+     that day ran down Braddock's Hill from English hearts. Listen!
+     I saw that day, among the English, a young warrior who was not
+     an Englishman. I singled him out as a mark for my rifle; for he
+     was tall and strong, and rode grandly, and his presence there
+     was a danger to us. Seventeen times did I take slow and steady
+     aim, and fire; but my bullets went astray, and found him not.
+     Then I pointed him out to my young men, whose eyes were sharper
+     and whose hands were steadier than mine, and bade them bring
+     him down. It was all in vain: their bullets glanced from him as
+     if he had been a rock. I saw two horses fall under him, shot
+     dead; yet he rose unhurt. Then did I lay my hand on my mouth in
+     wonder, and bade my young men turn their rifles another way;
+     for the Great Spirit, I knew, held that young warrior in his
+     keeping, and that his anger would be kindled against us if we
+     desisted not. That young warrior, the favorite of Heaven, the
+     man who is destined never to fall in battle, now stands before
+     me. Once more mine eyes have seen him, and I shall now go away
+     content.'
+
+"And now, Ned, my boy," said Uncle Juvinell, after he had ended this
+oration, "can you tell me what a charmed life is?"
+
+"One that is bullet-proof, I suppose," replied Ned.
+
+"You don't mean to say that Washington was bullet-proof, do you, Uncle
+Juve?" put in doubting Charlie.
+
+"No, not exactly that, my little nephew," replied his Uncle Juvinell;
+"and yet a great deal more: for, beyond all doubt, an all-wise
+Providence raised up George Washington to do the good and great work
+that he did, and to this end shielded him when encompassed by the
+perils of battle, strengthened him when beset by the wiles of
+temptation, and cheered him when visited by the trials of adversity.
+Dr. Davis, a famous preacher of that day, seemed to have looked upon
+him, as did the old Indian, as one favored of Heaven; for, in a sermon
+preached by him a few weeks after Braddock's defeat, he spoke of Col.
+Washington as 'that heroic youth, whom, he could not but hope,
+Providence had preserved in so signal a manner for some important
+service to his country.' And now, my little folks, the clock strikes
+nine, and our Christmas logs burn low: so join your old uncle in an
+evening hymn; then haste you to your happy beds to sleep and dream the
+peaceful night away."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+WORK IN EARNEST.
+
+
+Hardly had the last clod been thrown on poor Braddock's grave, when
+his army was seized with a second and most unaccountable panic; for no
+one could tell from whence or how it came. With those horrid yells
+still sounding in their ears, and those ghastly sights of blood and
+carnage still fresh in their memories, they fancied they heard, in
+every passing gust that stirred the dead leaves, warning whispers of
+the stealthy approach of the dreaded enemy, and that in every waving
+thicket he might be lurking for them in ambush.
+
+Col. Dunbar, as next in rank, had, for the time being, taken command
+of the troops; but, cowardly as the old general was rash, he shared in
+the general panic, and could do nothing to re-assure his men or give
+them a little confidence. So, without waiting to know by whose orders,
+or if by any at all, they fell to, and destroyed all the heavy
+baggage, baggage-wagons, and artillery; every thing, in fact, that
+could hinder them in their retreat. Thus disencumbered, they set out
+in hot haste; and after a hurried and disorderly march, or rather
+flight, they reached Fort Cumberland.
+
+Here Col. Washington, who had taken no part whatever in the
+unsoldierly proceedings just mentioned, stopped a few days to recruit
+a little after the severe fatigues he had, for a week past, been
+called upon to undergo, while still too much enfeebled from his
+ten-days' fever. The first use he made of this breathing spell was to
+write an affectionate letter to his much-honored mother to ease her
+mind of the anxiety he knew she would be feeling on his account, when
+rumors of the late disaster should reach her ears. He told her of his
+almost miraculous deliverance from a cruel and bloody death, in
+language full of gratitude to the God of battles, who had shielded him
+in so signal a manner, when his brave comrades were falling by
+hundreds around him. Writing to his brother Augustine at the same
+time, he wittily says, "Since my arrival at this place, I have heard a
+circumstantial account of my death and dying speech; and I take this
+early opportunity of contradicting the former, and assuring you that I
+have not yet composed the latter."
+
+When he had so far regained his strength as to enable him to travel,
+he betook himself once more to the peaceful shades of Mount Vernon. He
+re-entered at once upon his duties as Adjutant-General of the Northern
+District,--a post he still continued to hold, although his connection
+with the regular army had ceased with the death of Braddock.
+
+But we must return for a few moments to Fort Cumberland, where we left
+the valorous Col. Dunbar quite out of breath from the uncommonly brisk
+speed, which seems to have been his habit now and then, of getting
+over very rough and hilly roads. Any soldier, with a spark of manly
+spirit under his sword-belt, would have made a resolute stand at a
+place of so much importance, and held it to the death, rather than
+left the defenceless inhabitants exposed to the horrors of a border
+war. Col. Dunbar was not, by any means, the true soldier just hinted
+at; and consequently did no such thing. Seeing that the sick and
+wounded were but so many clogs to rapid and easy motion, he resolved
+to leave them behind under the care of the slender garrison he had
+placed in the fort, who were expected to defend it against an enemy
+that he, with a force of fifteen hundred strong, had not the courage
+to face. Thus rid of his hinderances to the last degree of
+lightsomeness, he pushed on by forced marches, as if a legion of
+painted savages were yelling at his heels; and never slackened speed
+until he found himself safe within the friendly walls of Philadelphia,
+where he went into comfortable winter-quarters while yet the dog-days
+were at their hottest.
+
+Thus basely deserted by these doughty regulars, who had been sent
+over so many thousand miles of salt water for their protection,
+the colonists saw with dismay the whole line of their vast frontier,
+from Lake Ontario to the Carolinas, open to the inroads of the
+French and their Indian allies. In the long-run, however (as you
+shall see hereafter), two luckier mishaps than Braddock's defeat
+and Dunbar's retreat, that seemed at the time so fraught with evil,
+could not have befallen them. They were thereby taught two wholesome
+lessons, which they might otherwise have been a long time in learning,
+and without which they never could have gained their independence
+and made themselves a nation. The first, by proving that British
+regulars were not, by any means, the never-to-be-beaten, and the
+never-to-be-made-to-skedaddle warriors that they boasted themselves to
+be, and that one-half of the Americans were foolish enough to believe
+them to be. Thus, when the War of Independence broke out, our
+Revolutionary fathers remembered this, and were not afraid to meet the
+English even on such unequal terms. The second, by opening their eyes
+to the fact, that, as they (the colonists) could no longer look to the
+mother-country for protection, they must henceforward rely upon their
+own strength and resources for their defence and safety.
+
+The people of Virginia, seeing the forlorn condition of things, were
+at last awakened to a full sense of the danger that threatened, not
+only their back settlements, but even the heart of the Old Dominion
+itself. They therefore began to bestir themselves in right good
+earnest to put the province in a better posture of defence; and, to
+this end, resolved to send more troops into the field, raise more
+money, procure new arms and fresh supplies of military stores, and
+erect a chain of twenty block-houses, or small forts, stretching along
+the whole line of their frontier, from Pennsylvania to North
+Carolina,--a distance of three hundred and sixty miles. Washington's
+career as a soldier had not, up to this time, been marked by any of
+those daring and brilliant exploits that charm and dazzle vulgar
+minds; but had, on the contrary, been one unbroken train of
+misfortunes and disasters. Notwithstanding this, however, the
+confidence his countrymen had placed in his prudence, courage,
+ability, and patriotism, so far from having been diminished thereby,
+had gone on steadily gaining strength from the very beginning. They
+well knew, that, had the headstrong and unlucky Braddock given heed to
+his prudent and timely counsel, the late campaign could never have
+ended in the disgraceful and disastrous manner that it had. As the
+most flattering proof of their esteem and confidence, they now turned
+to him in their hour of peril, and, although he was not yet
+twenty-four years of age, called upon him, as with one voice, to take
+the chief command of all the forces of the province. After some
+deliberation, being persuaded that it was really their earnest desire,
+he modestly accepted the appointment, on condition that certain
+changes should be made in the military, and that he should be allowed
+to choose his field-officers. This was readily agreed to by the
+Virginia House of Burgesses; who, in addition, voted him fifteen
+hundred dollars by way of compensating him for the many losses he had
+suffered, in horses, baggage, and money since the beginning of the
+war.
+
+Accordingly, early in the autumn, he took up his headquarters at the
+frontier town of Winchester, beyond the Blue Ridge, in the beautiful
+Valley of the Shenandoah. As four great highways met here from as many
+different quarters of the country, it was a post of much importance;
+and he resolved, by strongly fortifying it, to make it the
+rallying-point of all the border. His men were all raw recruits, just
+taken from the plough or forge or carpenter's bench, as the case might
+be; and, to render them fit for the peculiar service in which they
+were to be employed, it became his duty, besides training them in the
+regular military exercises, to instruct them in the arts and
+stratagems of Indian warfare, or bush-fighting, as it is more aptly
+called. Long, however, before he was ready to take the field, the
+French and Indians, made daring and audacious by their great victory
+on the Monongahela, had crossed the mountains at several different
+points in great numbers, and had already begun their bloody work. The
+terrified and defenceless inhabitants dwelling in the distant parts of
+the wilderness now came flocking to the Shenandoah Valley for
+protection from the merciless enemy, some of them never stopping till
+they had passed on over to the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge.
+
+One morning, a rumor found its way to Winchester, that a large party
+of Indians were within twelve miles of that place, pillaging, burning,
+and murdering at a frightful rate. Straightway a great fear fell upon
+the inhabitants. Little children ran, and hid their faces in their
+mothers' aprons, crying piteously; women ran hither and thither,
+screaming, and wringing their hands; and broad-shouldered,
+double-fisted men stood stock-still, and shook in their moccasins.
+Washington tried to prevail upon some of his soldiers to sally out
+with him, and drive the enemy back from the valley; but, being
+strangers to military obedience, not a leather-shirt of all the rabble
+could he get to venture beyond the ditches. When he put them in mind
+of what was expected of them as men and soldiers, they only answered,
+that, if they must die, they would rather stay there, and die with
+their wives and families. Having a lurking suspicion, that, after all,
+there might be more smoke than fire in these flying rumors, he sent
+out a scout to bring him some more certain tidings of the matter. In a
+wonderfully short time, the scout came back, pale and affrighted, with
+the dismal intelligence that he had, with his own ears, heard the guns
+and yells of the Indians not four miles distant, and that Winchester
+would be beset by the savages in less than an hour. Whereupon
+Washington made another appeal to the courage and manhood of his men;
+which proved so far successful, that a forlorn hope of forty finally
+screwed up pluck enough to follow him to the scene of danger. Moving
+with great caution and circumspection, and keeping all their ears and
+eyes about them, the party came at length to the spot mentioned by the
+scout; where, sure enough, they heard a somewhat scattering discharge
+of fire-arms, and divers outlandish noises, that bore, however, but a
+very slight resemblance to the terrific yells and whoops of Indian
+warriors. Advancing a few paces farther, a sudden turn of the road
+brought them in sight of two drunken soldiers, who were cursing and
+swearing and hallooing in a manner quite outrageous and immoral; and
+now and then, by way of adding a little spice to this part of their
+entertainment, firing off their pistols into the tree-tops. And this
+it was that had given rise to those wild rumors that had thrown the
+whole country into such a terrible panic. To this imprudent waste of
+breath and ammunition, the latter of which they had but little enough
+to spare, Washington put a rather sudden stop by ordering the lively
+young blades to be seized, and carried as prisoners to Winchester,
+where he kept them in severe confinement for more than a week after
+they had regained their sober senses. All this was ludicrous enough;
+and you may be sure that Washington, although grave and dignified
+beyond his years, had a hearty laugh over it the first time he found
+himself alone with one or two of his brother-officers.
+
+In addition to his other cares, the duties of his office required him
+to visit, from time to time, the several forts along the frontier, to
+see that those already finished were kept in fighting order, and give
+directions for the proper construction of those still under way. Now,
+the little garrison of forty men, that Col. Dunbar had left to hold
+and defend Fort Cumberland against the combined armies of the French
+and Indians, was commanded by a certain Dagworthy, who, pluming
+himself upon the king's commission as captain, refused to own the
+authority and render obedience to the orders of Washington, who held
+only a governor's commission as colonel. It will be remembered, that
+Washington had a similar misunderstanding with Capt. Mackay, eighteen
+months before, at the Great Meadows, touching this same question of
+rank between royal and provincial officers, which had caused him great
+trouble and annoyance. Matters had now come to such a pass, that a
+little upstart captain of forty men could set at naught the authority
+of the commander-in-chief of the forces of a whole province, merely
+because he could boast a bit of paper embellished with the king's
+name. This was a degradation too grievous to be longer borne by a
+manly, independent spirit. Though sorely vexed and annoyed, Washington
+had too much self-respect and prudence to make a noise about the
+matter; but he inwardly resolved, that, as soon as the coming-on of
+winter would oblige the Indians to recross the mountains to the
+shelter of their homes beyond, he would take advantage of the
+breathing spell thus allowed him to make a journey to Boston, there to
+submit the question for final settlement to Gen. Shirley, who had
+succeeded Braddock to the chief command of all the British forces in
+America.
+
+Accordingly, when the departure of the Indians brought the distressed
+inhabitants of the border the prospect of a few months' peace and
+quiet, he departed for Boston, in company with two of his
+brother-officers, Capts. Stewart and Mercer.
+
+Now, in those days, a journey from the Old Dominion to the Bay City, a
+distance of but five hundred miles, in the depth of winter, when the
+roads were either deep and stiff with mire, or rough and knobby with
+frost, was really a greater undertaking than a voyage in a steamship
+from Boston to Constantinople would now be considered. Our young men
+travelled on horseback, as was the fashion of the day; and took with
+them their negro servants, who, riding behind with their masters'
+saddle-bags and portmanteaus, and dressed in fine livery, with gold
+lace on their fur hats, and blue cloaks, gave quite an air of style
+and consequence to the little cavalcade.
+
+Washington's fame had long since gone before him, as was proved by the
+marked distinction and respect with which he was treated at
+Philadelphia, New York, and other places along the route. All were
+eager to behold with their own eyes the youthful hero, whose gallant
+conduct and wonderful escape at the defeat of Braddock had been so
+noised throughout the Colonies; and when we add to this his tall and
+commanding form, the manly beauty of his face, his dignified bearing,
+his rich and handsome dress, and the unequalled skill with which he
+managed his large and noble horse, we cannot wonder at the interest
+and admiration his appearance awakened in the minds of all who saw
+him.
+
+When he got to Boston, where he likewise met with a flattering
+reception, he lost no time in making known to Gen. Shirley the
+business that had taken him thither. The justness and reasonableness
+of his complaints were promptly acknowledged by this officer, who, to
+place the vexed question beyond dispute, declared, that henceforward
+Capt. Dagworthy and all inferior officers, holding king's commissions,
+should own the authority and render obedience to the orders of all
+provincial officers of superior rank. This, the main object of his
+journey, thus happily disposed of, Col. Washington set out on his
+return to Virginia: but, knowing that the Indian war-whoop was not
+likely soon to be heard in the Shenandoah Valley, he indulged himself
+so far as to tarry two whole weeks at New-York City; and for the best
+of reasons, as I will tell you.
+
+On his way to Boston, he had met here with the beautiful and
+accomplished Miss Phillipps, with whom he was vastly pleased; and it
+was for the nearer study of this young lady's charms, and further
+cultivation of her acquaintance, that our young Virginia colonel was
+now tempted for once in his life thus to linger on his way. Nothing
+came of it, however, that anybody now can tell; although the lady, you
+may stake your heads upon it, must and ought to have been highly
+flattered at being thus singled out by the young hero whose name and
+praise were in everybody's mouth. Perhaps his admiration never ripened
+into love; and, if it did, his modesty, as in the case of the Lowland
+Beauty, must have hindered him from making known his partiality.
+Whatever it may have been, it is, at this late day, of little
+consequence; for long before that year had passed away, with all its
+anxious cares, its perils and privations, and with all its train of
+ghastly Indian horrors, these tender sentiments had become to him
+nothing more than pleasant memories.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+DARK DAYS.
+
+
+It were long to tell you, my dear children, all that happened to
+Washington, and all that he did for the next two or three years of his
+life. I shall, therefore, in as brief and clear a manner as may be,
+present to your minds a picture simply of those scenes in which he
+figured as the chief actor; although there were, it must be
+remembered, others who played a far more important part in this old
+French War than our young Virginia colonel.
+
+The French and Indians, early in the spring of these years, were wont
+to cross the mountains at different points, and for months together
+follow their usual programme of fire, plunder, and massacre, till the
+approach of winter, when, loaded with booty and scalps, they would go
+as they had come, only to return on the opening of the following
+spring. With these cruel savages, and their scarcely less cruel white
+allies, neither age nor sex found mercy; old men, tender women, and
+helpless children, alike falling victims to their murderous tomahawks
+and scalping-knives. Farms were laid waste, crops destroyed, cattle
+butchered; and often, for days and nights together, the smoke could be
+seen in many directions at once, as it rose from burning barns and
+dwellings, and hung like a pall over the ill-fated land. At last, so
+great became the audacity of these pestilent savages, that they
+carried their depredations within cannon range of the very walls of
+Winchester; and, under their destroying hand, the rich and beautiful
+Valley of the Shenandoah seemed likely soon again to become a waste
+and desert place. It was a boast of theirs, that they could take any
+fort that could be fired; and round these places of refuge they would
+skulk and lurk with the greatest patience for a week at a time, quite
+content could they but get a single shot at such of the garrison as
+dared to show themselves beyond shelter of the walls. Sometimes,
+suddenly darting from their hiding-place, they would pounce upon
+little children playing in the woods, and, in full view of the fort,
+bear them away captives, never more to be seen by their bereaved
+parents, who could only listen in helpless anguish to the piteous
+cries of their little innocents, that grew fainter and fainter as
+their savage captors hurried them farther and farther into the gloomy
+depths of the wilderness.
+
+Often, in their excursions along the frontier, Washington and his men
+would come upon the still smoking ruins of a happy home, or the hacked
+and mangled body of an unfortunate traveller who had been waylaid and
+murdered by the Indians in some lonely mountain glen. In after-life,
+the recollection of these harrowing scenes was to Washington so
+painful, that he could but seldom be brought to speak of them. Now and
+then, however, he would relate to a few friends some of these dark
+experiences; among which is the following, given in his own words, as
+a fair example of all the rest:--
+
+     "One day," said he, "as we were traversing a part of the
+     frontier, we came upon a small log-house, standing in the
+     centre of a little clearing, surrounded by woods on all sides.
+     As we approached, we heard the report of a gun,--the usual
+     signal of coming horror. Our party crept cautiously through the
+     underwood, until we had approached near enough to see what we
+     had already foreboded. A smoke was slowly making its way
+     through the roof of the house; when, at the same time, a party
+     of Indians came forth, laden with plunder,--consisting of
+     clothes, household furniture, domestic utensils, and dripping
+     scalps. We fired, and killed all but one, who tried to get
+     away, but was soon overtaken and shot down. Upon entering the
+     hut, there met us a sight, which, though we were familiar with
+     scenes of blood and massacre, struck us--at least myself--with
+     feelings more mournful than I had ever experienced before. On a
+     bed, in one corner of the room, lay the body of a young woman,
+     swimming in blood, with a gash in the forehead that almost
+     separated the head into two parts. On her breast lay two little
+     babes, less than a twelvemonth old, also with their heads cut
+     open; their innocent blood, that had once flowed in one common
+     vein, now mingling in the same current again. I was inured to
+     scenes of bloodshed and misery; but this cut me to the heart;
+     and never in my after-life did I raise my arm against a savage,
+     without calling to mind the mother and her little twins with
+     their heads cleft asunder. On examining the tracks of the
+     Indians to see what other murders they might have committed, we
+     found a little boy, and, a few steps forward, his father, both
+     scalped, and both stone-dead. From the prints of the boy's
+     feet, it seemed that he had been following the plough with his
+     father, whom he had probably seen shot down; and, in attempting
+     to escape, had been pursued, overtaken, and murdered. The ruin
+     was complete: not one of the family had been spared. Such was
+     the character of this miserable warfare. The wretched people of
+     the frontier never went to rest without bidding each other
+     farewell; for the chances were they might never wake again, or
+     wake only to find their last sleep. When leaving one spot for
+     the purpose of giving protection to another point of exposure,
+     the scene was often such as I shall never forget. The women and
+     children would cling around our knees, and mothers would hold
+     up their little babes before our eyes, begging us to stay and
+     protect them, and, for God's sake, not leave them to be
+     butchered by the savages. A hundred times, I declare to Heaven,
+     I would have laid down my life with pleasure under the tomahawk
+     and scalping-knife, could I, by the sacrifice, have insured the
+     safety of these suffering people."
+
+The little folks can well imagine how scenes like these must have
+pained and wrung a heart like Washington's. But what could he do? His
+whole force did not exceed one thousand fighting men; with which he
+had to man more than twenty forts, and guard a frontier of nearly four
+hundred miles' extent. In addition to this, his men had been so
+scattered all the while at these different points, as to have placed
+it altogether beyond his power to give that attention to their
+military training which he had had so near at heart when he first
+entered upon his command. It naturally followed, then, that there was
+among the greater number an almost total want of order and discipline.
+They came and went when and where it suited their humor best; were
+impatient of control; wasted their ammunition, of which there was a
+great scarcity, in target-shooting; were far more ready to trouble
+their officers with good advice than aid them by prompt obedience to
+orders; and, if their sagacious counsels went unheeded, they would,
+without more ado, shoulder their rifles in high dudgeon, and tramp
+home. And, withal, so tender were they of what they were pleased to
+call their _honor_, that they would take it as quite an insult to be
+put on soldiers' rations; and were too proud or lazy--which with them
+was the same thing--to carry their own provisions while on the march;
+choosing, rather, to risk what chance might bring them, in the shape
+of bullocks, sheep, or pigs, which they would knock down, without a
+"By your leave" to the owner, and, after eating as much as satisfied
+their present hunger, would throw the rest away. Thus, between their
+wasteful defenders and their wasting invaders, the poor distressed
+inhabitants were brought to the verge of starvation.
+
+The forts were too far apart to prevent the Indians from passing
+between; and the garrisons were too weak to lend each other aid when
+any of them chanced to be in hard, besetting need. This plan of giving
+defence to the border had been strongly opposed by Washington, who
+foresaw the disadvantages just hinted at, and had urged the exact
+contrary. This was, instead of having so many small forts, with but a
+handful of men in each, to fortify Winchester in the completest manner
+possible, with a view of making it the only stronghold and
+rallying-point of all the border, and to be manned by the main body of
+the troops, who were to give support to the smaller parties in their
+excursions against the enemy. Long before the war was ended, it was
+clearly to be seen, that, had this plan been adopted, much useless
+expenditure of money and shedding of blood would have been avoided. As
+it was, the cunning and watchful foe, whose motions were swift as the
+birds, and secret as death, could pass between these forts, not only
+unopposed, but even unobserved, and, without let or hinderance, lay
+waste the country for the protection of which they had been built.
+Under this most melancholy state of things, all the region west of the
+Blue Ridge was fast becoming the dreary and silent wilderness it had
+been in days gone by. Scarcely a shadow of its former population was
+left: some had fled to the forts for refuge; some had resettled in the
+eastern parts of the province; some had been carried away into cruel
+captivity; and many, very many, had met with a horrible death at the
+hands of the merciless invaders.
+
+As if all this we have just related were not enough to try the
+patience and fortitude of young Washington, evil reports, injurious to
+his character, and charging him with being the author of all these
+failures and calamities, were set agoing by secret enemies at home.
+Foremost among these, you will be surprised and sorry to learn, was
+Gov. Dinwiddie, who had for some time past regarded with a jealous and
+envious eye this rising hope of the land, and was now seeking, by a
+variety of underhand means, to have him disgraced from the service,
+that Col. Innez, a particular chum of his, might be advanced to the
+chief command of the Virginia troops instead. The lower offices of the
+army he was zealous to bestow upon a knot of needy adventurers, who,
+being Scotchmen like himself, were in high favor with him, and
+scrupled not to make his likes and dislikes their own, if, by so
+doing, they could further their own private advantage. Perhaps Gov.
+Dinwiddie himself may not have been the direct author of these
+reports; but it is quite certain that his hungry hangers-on would
+never have dared whisper them had they not been fully aware of the
+ill-will he bore the person by whose injury they hoped to profit, and
+that they had but to do the thing, when their patron would not only
+wink at it, but even give it his secret approval.
+
+When these malicious whisperings came to the ears of Washington, he
+was stung to the quick by such unfair and unmerited treatment. Feeling
+assured in his own conscience that he had done his whole duty as far
+as in him lay, all his strong and manly nature was roused to indignant
+anger, that his fair name should thus become the target of these
+arrows flying in the dark, without an opportunity being allowed him of
+a fair and open hearing in his own defence. He would have left the
+service at once,--the very end his enemies had been plotting so hard
+to bring about,--had not the frontier settlements, just at that
+moment, been threatened with more than usual peril; and to have
+deserted his post at such a time would have given his accusers real
+grounds for the charges, which heretofore had been but a mere
+pretence. Before the immediate danger was past that kept him at his
+post, many of his warmest and most influential friends, residing in
+different parts of the province, had written to him, earnestly
+entreating him not to think of resigning his command; assuring him, at
+the same time, that the base slanders of those evil-minded men had
+found no place whatever in the minds of his fellow-countrymen. On the
+contrary, beholding the courage, patience, and humanity with which he
+was discharging the high and sacred duties they had intrusted to him,
+they felt their love for him, and confidence in him, increasing every
+day. With this gratifying assurance that his conduct and motives were
+rightly understood by those whose approbation he was most desirous of
+winning, Washington now held on his course with renewed hope and
+spirit.
+
+Thenceforward, Gov. Dinwiddie, as if to revenge himself for this
+failure of his base and selfish design, never let an opportunity slip
+of thwarting or annoying the man whose high public character his petty
+malice could not reach, and whose private worth his mean envy could
+not tarnish. His letters to Washington, the tone of which heretofore
+had been uncivil enough, now became harsh and insolent, full of
+fault-finding, and bristling all over with biting reproofs and unmanly
+insinuations. Although wretchedly ignorant of military matters, and at
+a distance from the seat of active operations, yet he must needs take
+upon himself the full control of all the troops of the province,
+without seeming to trouble his mind as to what might be the wishes and
+opinions of him who was in fact their true leader. Whether from a
+spiteful desire to perplex the object of his dislike, or natural
+fickleness of character, every letter from him brought with it some
+new plan. To-day, he ordered this; to-morrow, he ordered that; and,
+the next day, upset the other two by something quite different from
+either: so that Washington was often left completely in the dark as
+to what the uncertain meddler's wishes or plans really were.
+
+At last, from being thus harassed in mind by these petty annoyances,
+and worn in body by the hardships of such rough service, his health
+failed him; and he was advised to repair to Mount Vernon, and there
+remain until his disease should take a more favorable turn. Here he
+lay for four long, weary months, before he could rejoin big regiment;
+during much of which time, his friends, who nursed and watched him,
+really regarded his recovery as doubtful. This is another instance of
+what so often seems to us a matter of wonder,--the power of a
+narrow-minded, mean-spirited, ill-tempered, false-hearted man to
+inflict pain on a noble and lofty nature.
+
+A short time before the close of the war, it becoming quite certain
+that he had been putting public money, intrusted to his keeping, to
+private or dishonorable uses, Gov. Dinwiddie was recalled, and another
+sent over to fill his place. Being the man here described, and a petty
+tyrant withal, nobody was sorry to see him go, except the needy
+toadies who had hung about him, and who, seeing that nothing was
+likely to turn up for them in the New World, packed off to Scotland
+with their patron, as hungry and empty-handed as they came.
+
+By the by, I must not forget to tell you of the heroic conduct of old
+Lord Fairfax. Greenway Court, as you no doubt remember, was in the
+Shenandoah Valley, not many miles from Winchester; and, situated on
+the very edge of a vast forest, was quite open to the inroads of the
+Indians, any one of whom, would have risked limb or life to get his
+bloody clutches on the gray scalp of so renowned a Long Knife. To meet
+this danger, as well as do his part towards the general defence, he
+mustered his hunters and negro servants, to the number of a hundred or
+thereabouts, and formed them at his own expense into a company of
+horse, with which the keen old fox-hunter, now as daring a trooper,
+scoured the country from time to time, and did good service.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+A NEW ENTERPRISE.
+
+
+And thus these melancholy years came and went, with all their dark and
+painful experiences. A firm and self-reliant spirit like Washington's,
+however, could not be long cast down by even severer trials than those
+by which we have just seen his strength and manhood tested: so, from
+that time forward, come what might, he resolved to hold right on, nor
+bate a jot of heart or hope or zeal or patience, till the coming-on of
+better days, when, God willing, he might render a good and faithful
+account of this, his country's trust.
+
+But the little folks must not suppose that Col. Washington and Gov.
+Dinwiddie were by any means the only persons of consequence who
+figured in this Old French War. On the contrary, there were others of
+far more importance at the time than they, not so much from any
+peculiar merit of their own, as from the part they played in those
+events; and upon whom, as such, I must needs bestow some passing
+notice, were it but to give to our story greater clearness and
+completeness. What concerns you to know of them at present I will
+briefly sum up in a few words, and make it as plain to you as a table
+of simple addition.
+
+As Commander-in-chief of all the British forces in America, Braddock,
+as I have told you elsewhere, was succeeded by Gen. Shirley; who,
+proving himself unfit for the place, was soon recalled, and Lord
+Loudoun sent over from England instead; who, proving himself equally
+unfit, was dealt with in the same manner, and Gen. Abercrombie sent
+over instead; who also, proving himself incompetent, was also
+recalled, and Gen. Amherst sent over; who, proving a wiser choice,
+there followed happier results; and it fell to him, and to the brave
+young general, Wolfe, his next in rank, to bring this long and irksome
+war, in due course of time, to a glorious end. After the failure of
+Braddock's designs against Fort Duquesne, the conquest of Canada was
+made the chief object of the British Government; and the regions of
+the North thenceforth became the seat of war. While our young Virginia
+colonel, making the best use of the slender means allowed him, was
+struggling to keep back the pestilent savages and their pestilent
+white allies from his long line of frontier in the South and West,
+some of these leaders with their red allies, and some of the French
+leaders with their red allies, were, with various fortunes and
+misfortunes on either side, carrying on the war along the borders of
+the great Lake Ontario, the little Lakes Champlain and George, and up
+and down the mighty St. Lawrence.
+
+Of these English leaders, I will mention Lord Loudoun merely, as being
+the only one with whom Washington had any special dealings. Had this
+nobleman come up to the hopes and expectations which many of the
+colonists were at first wild enough to entertain respecting him, he
+would have regained what Braddock had lost, overrun and conquered
+Canada, and made a clean finish of the whole French empire in America,
+in less than six months' time. They soon discovered, however, that he
+was one of those unlucky persons, who, knowing much, seldom know what
+use to make of their knowledge; who, having no will that they can call
+their own, can never turn the will of others to any good or seasonable
+purpose; and who, making a great show of doing, have never any thing
+to show in the end what they have done. In this last particular, Dr.
+Franklin, with that peculiar humor all his own, likened him to the
+picture of St. George on the sign, that was always on horseback, but
+never riding on.
+
+Now, the recapture of Fort Duquesne, ever since the disgraceful
+failure of that first attempt, had been the one object nearest to
+Washington's heart. Foreseeing that there could never be peace or
+safety for the back settlements of the middle provinces so long as
+this stronghold of the enemy sent out its savage swarms to scourge
+and waste the border, he had repeatedly called Lord Loudoun's
+attention to the fact, and most earnestly urged its seizure as the
+only remedy. It was not, however, until early in the autumn of 1758,
+that an expedition, having for its object his long-cherished scheme,
+was set on foot. It was undertaken with a force of three thousand
+Pennsylvanians, twelve hundred North Carolinians, Washington's
+detachment of nineteen hundred Virginians, seven hundred Indians, and
+a few hundred regulars,--numbering in all seven thousand men, or
+thereabouts,--with Gen. Forbes for their chief commander.
+
+As an easy and rapid communication between the back settlements of
+Virginia and Pennsylvania would greatly lessen the difficulties of the
+coming campaign, this officer caused a road to be opened between Fort
+Cumberland and Raystown, a frontier post of the last-named province,
+where he had fixed his headquarters. Before the expedition could be
+put in motion, it was necessary that Col. Washington should go to
+Williamsburg to make known to the Virginia Legislature the needy
+condition of his soldiers, and make a call upon them for fresh
+supplies of tents, blankets, clothing, wagons, arms, &c.
+
+Accordingly, attended by his trusty negro servant Bishop, and mounted
+on his splendid white charger,--both of which had been bequeathed to
+him by poor Braddock,--he set out on his journey, which proved an
+eventful one indeed to him, as you shall directly see. At the ferry of
+the Pamunkey, a branch of York River, he fell in with Mr. Chamberlin,
+an acquaintance of his, who, according to the hospitable customs of
+those good old times, invited him to call at his house, not far
+distant, and be his honored guest till morning. The young colonel
+would be only too happy to do so: but the nature of his business was
+such as would not admit of an hour's delay; indeed, it was quite out
+of the question, and he must hasten on. But, his friend repeating the
+invitation in a manner too earnest to be mistaken, he felt it would be
+uncourteous to refuse; and consented to stop and dine with him; on
+condition, however, that he should be allowed to proceed on his
+journey that same evening. At his friend's hospitable mansion he met
+with a gay and brilliant throng of ladies and gentlemen, who, though
+strangers to him, knew him well by reputation, and were but too proud
+to be thus unexpectedly thrown in his company. Among them was Mrs.
+Martha Custis, a young and beautiful widow of good family and large
+fortune. Her husband had died three years before; leaving her with two
+small children, a girl and a boy. She is said to have been a lady of
+most winning and engaging manners, and of an excellent and cultivated
+understanding. In stature she was a little below middle size, and of a
+round and extremely well-proportioned form; which, on this occasion,
+was set off to the best advantage by a dress of rich blue silk. Her
+hair was dark; her features were pleasing and regular; and there was a
+look of earnest, womanly softness in her hazel eyes, that found its
+way at once to the heart and confidence of all on whom it chanced to
+rest.
+
+The little folks will not, I hope, suffer their admiration and respect
+for our young hero to be lessened in the least, if I tell them, that,
+like the rest of mankind who came within the magic circle of those
+bewitching charms, he was first surprised into admiration, and then
+led, whether or no, at a single step, into the enchanted realms of
+love. You have seen, how that, in his boyhood, he wrote broken-hearted
+verses to his Lowland Beauty; and how that, two or three years before,
+he had nearly yielded himself captive to the beautiful Miss Phillipps:
+which ought to prove to the satisfaction of all reasonable minds, that
+Washington, like other men, had a heart of real human flesh, that now
+and then gave him not a little trouble, despite that grave and
+dignified reserve which hung about him like a spell, and, even at that
+early age, was something to many quite overawing. The dinner, that had
+at first, in his hurry, seemed so long in coming on, seemed now quite
+as fast in going off. Not that I would have you suppose by this, that
+he thought the guests were showing any indecent haste to make way with
+the dishes that were set before them without number, and heaped up
+without measure, on Mr. Chamberlin's ample board. On the contrary,
+they partook of the good things of the table with a well-bred
+slowness, that would have been beyond his endurance to bear, had Mars
+been thundering with his iron fist at the gates of his fortress. But
+as it was Cupid, only tapping with his rosy knuckles at the casement
+of his heart, that dinner seemed no longer to him than, no, not half
+so long indeed as, the shortest snack he had ever eaten on horseback
+in the hurry of a forced march. The dinner over, Washington seemed in
+no haste to depart.
+
+The trusty Bishop, knowing well what a punctual man his master always
+was, had appeared, according to orders, with the horses; and was
+plainly enough to be seen from the parlor window, had any one cared to
+look that way, patiently waiting with them in the pleasant shade of an
+apple-tree. The fiery white charger soon began to paw the ground,
+impatient at his master's unwonted tardiness; but no rider came.
+Bishop Braddock shifted his place once, twice, thrice, to keep himself
+and horses in the shade of the apple-tree; but still his master
+lingered: and the ivory grin that settled by degrees on his ebony mug
+showed that he had a sly suspicion of what was going on in the house.
+The afternoon sped away as if old Time, all of a sudden forgetting his
+rheumatism, had reached sunset at a single stride. Of course, they
+would not suffer him to depart at this late hour: so Bishop was
+ordered to restable the horses, and make himself easy and snug for the
+night with the colored folks down at their quarters. The next morning,
+the sun was hours on his journey to the west, before our love-smitten
+hero was on his way to Williamsburg.
+
+Once in the saddle, however, all his yesterday's impatience returned
+upon him with redoubled force; and, giving his fiery white charger the
+spur, he dashed away at a break-neck speed on the road to the Virginia
+capital. It is said, so fast did he travel on that day, that, to keep
+up with him, Bishop Braddock ran serious risk of having his woolly nob
+shaken from his shoulders by the high, hard trotter he rode; and so
+sore was he made by the jolting he got, that, for a week thereafter,
+it was quite as much as he could do to bring his legs together. This
+last, by the way, is merely traditional, and must be received by the
+little folks with some caution.
+
+Luckily, the White House, the residence of Mrs. Custis, was situated
+within a very few miles of Williamsburg; which gave young Washington
+many opportunities, during his two-weeks' stay at that place, of
+seeing her, and still further cultivating her acquaintance.
+Experience, that sage teacher who never spoke to him in vain, had
+taught him, that although there are many blessings of this world which
+seem to come of their own accord, yet there are a few that never come
+except at the asking for; and the chiefest of these is woman's love.
+So, resolving to profit by this knowledge, he did precisely what any
+wise and reasonable man would have done in his place,--overcame his
+troublesome bashfulness, and made the lady an offer of marriage; which
+she, precisely as any wise and reasonable woman would have done in her
+place, modestly accepted. The business that had called him to
+Williamsburg being at last disposed of, Washington took leave of his
+intended, after it had been agreed between them to keep up an
+interchange of letters until the close of the present campaign, when
+they were to be united in the holy bonds of wedlock.
+
+Upon his return to Winchester, he was dismayed to find that the
+English generals had taken it into their inexperienced heads to cut a
+new road from Raystown to Fort Duquesne by the way of Laurel Hill,
+instead of marching there at once by the old Braddock Road, as he
+naturally supposed had been their intention from the beginning.
+Foreseeing the consequences, he, in an earnest and forcible manner,
+hastened to represent to them the difficulties and disadvantages of
+such an undertaking. Cold weather would be setting in, he urged, long
+before they could cut their way through so many miles of that mountain
+wilderness to the point in question; and they would be obliged either
+to winter at Laurel Hill, or fall back upon the settlements until
+spring. This would give the enemy time to get full intelligence of
+their threatened danger, and send to Canada for re-enforcements. Their
+Indian allies too, as was their wont, would grow impatient at the long
+delay that must needs attend this plan if carried out; and, returning
+to their homes in disgust, would fail to render to the expedition
+their valuable services as scouts and spies, as had been expected of
+them. On the other hand, by taking the old road, they could march
+directly to the fort; which, being at that time but feebly garrisoned,
+must fall almost without a blow, and this, too, in less than half the
+time, and with less than half the trouble and expense. This prudent
+counsel, coming from one, who, from his knowledge of the country, had
+so good a right to give it, was nevertheless overruled. The English
+generals had gathered a most appalling idea of the difficulties and
+dangers of this route from the account Braddock had given of it in his
+letters. He had therein described it as lying through a region where
+the mountains were of the highest and steepest, the forests of the
+thickest and tallest, the rocks of the most huge and rugged, the
+swamps of the deepest, and the torrents of the swiftest. The route for
+the new road, on the contrary, according to the Pennsylvanians, who
+saw in it a great advantage to themselves, lay through a region where
+the mountains were not by far so lofty, the woods so thick, the rocks
+so huge, the swamps so deep, nor the streams so swift, or half so
+given to running rampant over their banks. All these advantages this
+route had, besides being fifty miles shorter. So, under the mistaken
+notion that more was to be gained by following a short road that would
+take them a long time in getting over, than by following a long one
+that would take them but a short time in getting over, they resolved
+to cut the new road.
+
+This was a sore disappointment to Col. Washington; for he saw in it a
+likelihood of Braddock's folly being played all over again, and that,
+too, on a still larger scale. The tidings of glorious victories won by
+British arms in the North had filled the whole country with triumph
+and rejoicing, that rendered him all the more impatient at the
+tardiness with which their own expedition was moving forward. "He
+wished to rival the successes of the North by some brilliant blow in
+the South. Perhaps a desire for personal distinction in the eyes of
+the lady of his choice may have been at the bottom of his impatience."
+This last, it is but fair to say, is an assertion of our great
+countryman, Washington Irving; who, being a wise and learned
+historian, would not have made it, you may be sure, had not his deep
+insight into the workings of the human heart given him a perfect right
+so to do. If this be not enough to convince you that such was really
+the case, know that your Uncle Juvinell is entirely of the same
+opinion.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+MORE BLUNDERING.
+
+
+At last, about the middle of September, the expedition was set in
+motion. Gen. Forbes sent Col. Boquet in advance, with nearly two
+thousand men, to open and level the road. In order to get more certain
+information touching the condition of the enemy,--his number,
+strength, and probable designs,--it was thought advisable by some of
+the officers to send out a large party of observation in the direction
+of Fort Duquesne. It was to be made up of British regulars, Scotch
+Highlanders, and Pennsylvania and Virginia rangers,--eight hundred
+picked men in all. Washington strongly disapproved the plan, on the
+ground that the regulars, being wholly unacquainted with the Indian
+mode of fighting, and unable to operate at so great a distance without
+taking with them a cumbrous train of baggage, would prove a
+hinderance, instead of a furtherance, to an enterprise which must
+needs owe its success to the caution, silence, secrecy, and swiftness
+on the part of those engaged. He therefore advised the sending-out of
+small companies of rangers and Indian hunters, who, knowing the
+country well, could spy out the enemy with less risk of detection to
+themselves, and, moving without baggage, could make far better speed
+with the tidings they may have gathered. The like advice, you may
+remember, he gave to Braddock. It met with a like reception, and the
+like disaster was the consequence.
+
+The party set out from Laurel Hill, and began its tedious tramp across
+the fifty miles of wilderness that lay between that point and Fort
+Duquesne. It was headed by Major Grant, a noisy, blustering braggart,
+who, hankering after notoriety rather than seeking praise for duty
+well and faithfully done, went beyond the limits of his instructions;
+which were simply to find out all he could about the enemy, without
+suffering the enemy to find out more than he could help about himself,
+and, by all possible means, to avoid a battle. But, instead of
+conducting the expedition with silence and circumspection, he marched
+along in so open and boisterous a manner, as made it appear he meant
+to give the enemy timely notice of his coming, and bully him into an
+attack even while yet on the way. The French, keeping themselves well
+informed, by their spies, of his every movement, suffered him to
+approach almost to their very gates without molestation. When he got
+in the neighborhood of the fort, he posted himself on a hill
+overlooking it, and began throwing up intrenchments in full view of
+the garrison. As if all this were not imprudence enough, and as if
+bent on provoking the enemy to come out and give him battle on the
+instant, whether or no, he sent down a party of observation to spy out
+yet more narrowly the inside plan and defences of the fort; who were
+suffered not only to do this, but even to burn a house just outside
+the walls, and then return to their intrenchments, without a hostile
+sign betokening the unseen foe so silent yet watchful within.
+
+Early the next morning, as if to give the enemy warning of the
+threatened danger, the drums of the regulars beat the _réveille_, and
+the bagpipes of the Highlanders woke the forest-echoes far and wide
+with their wild and shrilly din. All this time, not a gun had been
+fired from the fort. The deathly silence that reigned within was
+mistaken for fear, and made the fool-hardy Grant so audacious as to
+fancy that he had but to raise his finger, and the fort must fall. As
+Braddock's day had begun with martial parade and music, so likewise
+did this. As on that day the regulars were sent in advance, while the
+Virginians were left in the rear to guard the baggage, so was likewise
+done on this. On this day, as on that, not an enemy was to be seen,
+till, all of a sudden, a quick and heavy firing was opened upon them
+by Indians lurking in ambush on either side; while, at the same
+moment, the French flung open their gates, and, rushing out, mingled
+their loud shouts with the horrid yells of their savage allies. On
+this day, as had been done on that, the regulars, surprised,
+bewildered, panic-stricken, were thrown at once into disorder, and
+began firing their pieces at random, killing friend as well as foe.
+Unlike them, however, the Highlanders stood their ground like men,
+and, fighting bravely, cheered each other with their slogan, or wild
+battle-cry. On this day, as on that, the Virginians came up in the
+very nick of time to rescue the helpless regulars from utter
+destruction. On this, as on Braddock's day, the Indians, seeing the
+hopeless confusion into which the English had fallen, rushed out from
+their ambush with yells of triumph, and fell upon them, tomahawk and
+scalping-knife in hand. Major Lewis, the brave leader of the
+Virginians, fought hand to hand with a tall warrior, whom he laid dead
+at his feet; but, soon overpowered by numbers, he was forced to
+surrender himself to a French officer, who received his sword. The
+blustering Grant, more lucky than the headstrong Braddock, saved his
+life by yielding himself up in like manner.
+
+And now the rout became general, and the slaughter dreadful. Seeing
+the unlooked-for turn affairs had taken, Capt. Bullitt, whom Major
+Lewis had left to guard the baggage, gathered a few of his brave
+Virginians about him, and prepared to make a desperate stand. Sending
+back the strongest horses with the baggage, he blocked up the road
+with the wagons, and, behind the barricade thus formed, posted his
+men, to whom he gave a few brief orders how to act. These scanty
+preparations were hardly made, when the Indians, having finished the
+work of plunder, had sprung into swift pursuit, and were now close
+upon them, the wild woods ringing with their terrible whoops and
+yells. When they had come within short rifle-range, Capt. Bullitt and
+his men met them with a well-aimed volley of musketry from behind the
+shelter of their wagons; which, however, checked the savages but for a
+moment. Rallying on the instant, they were pressing forward in still
+greater numbers; when Capt. Bullitt held out a signal of surrender,
+and came out from behind the barricade at the head of his men, as if
+to lay down their arms: but no sooner were they within eight yards of
+the enemy, and near enough to see the fierce light that shone in their
+eyes, than they suddenly levelled their pieces, and poured a murderous
+fire into the thickest of them; then, charging bayonets, scattered
+them in every direction, and sent them yelling with astonishment and
+dismay. Before they could rally again, and renew the pursuit, Capt.
+Bullitt, having picked up many more of the fugitives, began a rapid
+but orderly retreat.
+
+For several days thereafter, the fugitives, singly or in squads, came
+straggling into camp at Loyal Hannon. Of the eight hundred picked men
+who had been sent out with such good promise of success, twenty
+officers and two hundred and seventy-three privates had been left
+behind, either killed or taken prisoners. The whole force of the
+enemy, French and Indians, did not exceed that of the English: their
+loss in the battle is not known; but, as the Highlanders fought well
+and the Virginians fought well, it must have been heavy. The disaster
+foreboded by Washington had thus in reality fallen upon them. He was
+at Raystown when the dismal tidings came; and, although complimented
+by Gen. Forbes upon the bravery his rangers had displayed, was deeply
+grieved and mortified. In secret, many a man would have been gratified
+at beholding a prophecy he had uttered thus fulfilled; but Washington,
+incapable of such selfish and unnatural vanity, could but sorrow
+thereat, although it must needs increase his reputation for foresight
+and sagacity. As the only good thing that came from this defeat, I
+must tell you (and you will be glad to hear it) that Capt. Bullitt was
+rewarded with a major's commission for the gallant and soldierly
+conduct he had shown on that disastrous day in the midst of such
+fearful perils.
+
+It was not until the middle of November that the whole army came up to
+Loyal Hannon, a little distance beyond Laurel Hill. Winter was coming
+on apace. What with rain and snow and frost, the roads would soon be
+rendered impassable, not only to wheeled carriages, but to pack-horses
+also. Fifty miles of unbroken wilderness lay between them and Fort
+Duquesne,--so long the goal of their hopes and toils, that seemed to
+recede as they advanced, like some enchanted castle we have read of
+before now in books of fairy tales, that poor benighted travellers
+never reach, although, in fancy, every step they take brings them
+nearer. The leaders began to talk seriously of going into
+winter-quarters at that place until the return of spring; and it
+seemed as if another of Washington's prophecies were likely to be
+fulfilled. But, about this time, two prisoners from Fort Duquesne were
+brought into camp; from whom they drew such an account of the weakness
+of the French, and the discontent and daily desertions of their Indian
+allies, as determined them to push forward without further delay, in
+spite of the wintry weather, and, at one fell blow, make a finish of
+the campaign. So, leaving behind them their tents and baggage, and
+taking with them but a few pieces of light artillery, they once more
+resumed their toilsome march. Col. Washington was ordered to go on in
+advance with a part of his detachment, to throw out scouts and
+scouting parties, who were to scour the woods in every direction, and
+thereby prevent the possibility of an ambuscade. This new arrangement,
+which showed that Gen. Forbes had the wisdom to profit by the folly of
+those who had gone before him, was a signal proof of the high esteem
+in which provincial troops were at last beginning to be held; and to
+which, by their courage, skill, and hardihood, they had, even years
+before, won so just a title.
+
+When within a few miles of the French fort, the road began to show
+signs of the late disaster. Here and there were to be seen the
+blackened and mangled bodies of men, who, while fleeing for their
+lives, had been overtaken, and cut down by the murderous tomahawk; or,
+exhausted from the loss of blood, had there, by the lonely wayside,
+laid them down to die of their wounds. As they advanced, these ghastly
+tokens of defeat and massacre were to be met with at shorter and
+shorter intervals, till at length they lay thickly scattered about the
+ground.
+
+Being now in close neighborhood with the enemy, the English moved with
+even greater caution and wariness than before; for they had every
+reason to suspect, that, as he had suffered them to come thus far
+without molestation, he meant to meet them here, under shelter of his
+stronghold, with a resistance all the move determined. When come in
+sight, however, what was their surprise, instead of beholding the high
+ramparts and strong walls, grim and frowning with cannon, which they
+had pictured to their minds, to find a heap of blackened and smoking
+ruins!
+
+Deserted by his Indian allies, threatened with famine, cut off from
+all hope of aid from the North (where the English were everywhere
+gaining ground), and with a force of but five hundred men wherewith to
+defend the post against ten times that number, the French general had
+seen that the attempt to hold it would be but folly; and, like a
+prudent officer, had resolved to abandon it as his only chance of
+safety. Waiting, therefore, until the English were within a day's
+march of the place, he blew up the magazine, set fire to the works,
+and, embarking in his bateaux by the light of the flames, retreated
+down the Ohio.
+
+Col. Washington, still leading the advance, was the first to enter;
+and, with his own hand planting the British banner on the still
+smouldering heaps, took formal possession thereof in the name of his
+Britannic majesty, King George the Second. And thus this stronghold of
+French power in the Ohio Valley, so long the pest and terror of the
+border, fell without a blow. Under the name of Fort Pitt, it was soon
+rebuilt, and garrisoned with two hundred of Washington's men; and,
+from that time to the war of the Revolution, it was held by the
+English, chiefly as a trading-post; and hence the dingy, smoky, noisy,
+thriving, fast young city of Pittsburg.
+
+They now had leisure to pay the last sad duty to the dead who had
+fallen in the two defeats of Braddock and Grant. For three long years,
+the bodies of Braddock's slaughtered men had lain without Christian
+burial, bleaching in the sun of as many summers, and shrouded in the
+snows of as many winters. Mingled with the bones of oxen and horses,
+or half hidden in heaps of autumn leaves, they lay scattered about the
+stony hillsides,--a spectacle ghastly indeed, and most melancholy to
+behold. With many a sigh of pity for the hapless dead, and many a
+shudder of dark remembrance on the part of those who had been present
+at the scenes of rout and massacre, they gathered together the
+blackened corpses of Grant's men and the whitened bones of Braddock's
+men, and, digging a huge pit, buried them in one common grave. In this
+pious duty all took part alike, from the general down to the common
+soldier.
+
+With the fall of Fort Duquesne, ended, as Washington had years ago
+foreseen, the troubles of the Western and Southern frontiers, and with
+it the power so long held by the French in the Ohio Valley. The
+Indians, with that fickleness of mind peculiar to savage races, now
+hastened to offer terms of amity and peace to the party whom the
+fortunes of war had left uppermost.
+
+Having done his part, and so large a part, towards the restoration of
+quiet and security to his native province, the cherished object of his
+heart, for which he had so faithfully and manfully struggled,
+Washington resolved to bring his career as a soldier to a close. In
+his very soul, he was sick and weary of strife, and longed for peace.
+The scenes of violence and bloodshed had become loathing and painful
+to him beyond the power of words to tell; and, now that his country
+had no longer need of his services, he felt that he could, without
+reproach, retire to the tranquil shades of private life he loved so
+much, and had looked forward to with such earnest longings. He
+therefore, at the end of the year, gave up his commission, and left
+the service, followed by the admiration and affection of his soldiers,
+and the applause and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen.
+
+With the fall of Quebec in the course of the following year (1759),
+this long and eventful Old French War was brought to a close, and
+French empire in America was at an end.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+WASHINGTON AT HOME.
+
+
+Having done all that a brave and prudent man could for his country's
+welfare, Col. Washington now lost no time, you may depend upon it, in
+doing what every wise and prudent man should for his own: by which you
+are to understand, that on the sixth day of January, 1759, when he
+wanted but a few weeks of completing his twenty-seventh year, he was
+joined in the holy bonds of marriage with Mrs. Martha Custis, the
+blooming and lovely young widow, and mother of the two interesting
+little children,--to all of whom you had a slight introduction a short
+time ago.
+
+The nuptials were celebrated at the White House, the home of the
+bride, in the presence of a goodly company of stately dames and fine
+old gentlemen, fair maidens and handsome youth,--the kith and kin and
+loving friends of the wedded pair. Had some belated traveller been
+overtaken by the little hours of that night, as he chanced to pass
+that way, he might have guessed, from the soft, warm light that shone
+from all of the many windows, and sounds of sweet music that came
+through the open doors, mingled with peals of joyous laughter, and the
+light tripping of numerous feet in the merry dance, that it must be a
+much-beloved and fortunate couple indeed that could draw together so
+happy and brilliant a throng under that hospitable roof. Had this same
+belated traveller wanted further proof of this, he had but to turn a
+little aside, and take a peep into the negro quarters, where he would
+have seen the colored folks in a jubilee over the grand occasion, and,
+to all appearances, quite as jolly as if the wedding had been an
+affair of their own getting-up, and in which each son and daughter of
+ebony had a personal interest. He would have seen them feasting on the
+abundant leavings that came down from the great house, till their
+faces shone again; and dancing to the music of Bishop Braddock's
+fiddle in a fashion all their own, and nobody's else.
+
+First and foremost among these, with his wool combed the highest, his
+breeches the reddest, and manners the genteelest, might have been
+spied Black Jerry (who, when a negroling, had been saved from a
+thrashing by little George, as you well remember), showing off his
+heels to the envy of all male and the admiration of all female
+beholders. This last, it is but fair to say, is merely a fancy sketch
+of your Uncle Juvinell's, conjured up by recollections of certain long
+talks he often had, when a boy, with Black Jerry himself, at that time
+a very old negro of most excellent morals, who never failed, when his
+honored master's name was mentioned, to show his yellow ivory, and,
+for very respect, uncover his head, the wool of which was then as
+white as a Merino ram's.
+
+This joyous event having passed thus happily off, Col. Washington, a
+short time after, repaired to Williamsburg to take his seat in the
+Virginia Legislature, or House of Burgesses as it was then called, to
+which he had been elected while absent on the last campaign; without,
+however, any particular desire or effort on his part, but by that of
+his numerous friends. Hardly had his name been enrolled as a member of
+that honorable body, when Mr. Robinson, Speaker of the House, by
+previous agreement arose and addressed him in a short but eloquent
+speech; thanking him, in the name of the rest, for the many and
+valuable services he had rendered his country during the past five
+years, and setting forth the gratitude and esteem with which he was
+regarded by his fellow-countrymen. Surprised out of his usual
+composure and self-possession by the honor thus unexpectedly done him,
+Washington, upon rising to thank the House, could only blush, stammer,
+and stand trembling, without the power to utter a single word. Seeing
+his painful embarrassment, Mr. Robinson hastened to his relief by
+saying with a courteous smile, "Sit down, Mr. Washington: your modesty
+equals your valor; and that surpasses the power of any language I
+possess." From that time till near the breaking-cut of the
+Revolution,--a period of fifteen years, he remained an active and
+influential member of this body; being returned from year to year by
+the united voice of the good people whose district he represented.
+Always thorough in whatever he undertook, he rested not until he had
+made himself muster of every point and question touching the duties of
+his new office; and, for method, promptness, prudence, and sagacity,
+soon proved himself quite as good a civilian as he had been a soldier.
+
+Early in the following spring, his first session ended, he betook
+himself to the sweet retirement of Mount Vernon; where, cheered by the
+company of his beautiful young wife and her interesting little
+children, he once more resumed those peaceful pursuits and innocent
+amusements to which he had looked forward with such bright
+anticipations amidst the perils and hardships of a soldier's life.
+War, as war, had already, young and ardent as he was, lost for him its
+charms; and he had learned to look upon it as a hard and terrible
+necessity, ever to be avoided, except in cases where the safety of his
+country should demand it as a last desperate remedy. Unlike most men
+of a bold and adventurous disposition, he all his life long took the
+greatest pleasure in the pursuits of a husbandman; and, to his manner
+of thinking, there was no lot or calling in life so happy, and none
+more honorable. Having now ample time for the indulgence of his
+tastes, he set about improving and beautifying his plantations, of
+which he had several, in the most approved style of that day. He
+planted orchards of various fruits; set his hillsides in grass;
+drained his marshes, and turned them into rich meadow-lands; built
+mills and blacksmith-shops; enlarged his family mansion to a size
+better befitting his elegant and hospitable style of living; adorned
+the grounds about it with shrubbery, trees, and gardens; and converted
+the wild woods hard by into open and verdant parks. To his negro
+slaves he was the kindest of masters; ever mindful of their comfort,
+and extremely careful of them in sickness. Being of industrious habits
+himself, he would not make the least grain of allowance for sloth or
+idleness in them, or indeed in any one about him, but was strict in
+exacting of them the speedy and full performance of their allotted
+tasks; which, however, he always took care should come under rather
+than up to the measure of their strength. In his business habits, he
+was methodical to a nicety; kept his own books, and was his own
+overseer: for, having a strong aversion to being waited on, he never
+suffered others to do for him what he could do for himself. He kept a
+close and clear account, in writing, of the profits arising from the
+grain, tobacco, and other produce of his lands; and also the amount of
+his personal, household, and plantation expenses: by which means he
+could tell at a glance whether he were on the making or losing order,
+and readily detect whether any of whom he had dealings were given to
+careless or dishonest practices. So superior was the quality of every
+thing produced on his estate, and so widely known did he become for
+his honesty and uprightness in all business transactions, that, in
+time, a box of tobacco or a barrel of flour marked "George Washington,
+Mount Vernon, Va.," would be received into many foreign ports without
+the custom-house authorities opening or inspecting it.
+
+He was an early riser. In winter, getting up before day, and lighting
+his own fire, he wrote or read two or three hours by candle-light.
+After a frugal breakfast of two small cups of tea and four small cakes
+of Indian meal, he mounted his horse, and rode about his plantations;
+seeing to every thing with his own eye, and often lending a helping
+hand. This duty done, he returned to the house at noon, and dined
+heartily, as well beseemed the active, robust man that he was, yet
+never exceeding the bounds of temperance and moderation both as to
+eating and drinking. His afternoons he usually devoted to the
+entertainment of his numerous guests, who thronged his hospitable
+mansion almost daily, and, if from a distance, abiding there for weeks
+together. After a supper frugal as his breakfast, if there was no
+company in the house, he would read aloud to his family from some
+instructive and entertaining book, or from the newspapers of the day;
+and then, at an early hour, retire to his room for the night.
+
+Fish and game abounded in the woods and streams of his domain, as well
+as in those of the adjoining plantations; and he was thus enabled to
+indulge his fondness for angling and hunting to the utmost, whenever
+he felt so inclined. Two or three times a week, the shrill winding of
+the hunter's horn and the deep-mouthed baying of the fox-hounds would
+ring out on the clear morning air; when he might be seen at the head
+of a brilliant company of mounted hunters, dashing over the fields,
+across the streams, and through the woods, hot on the heels of some
+unlucky Reynard. I should not say unlucky, however; for although
+Washington was as bold and skilful a rider as could be found in
+thirteen provinces, and kept the finest of horses and finest of dogs,
+yet, for all that, he could seldom boast of any great success as a
+fox-hunter. But having the happy knack of making the best and most of
+every thing, be it toward or untoward, he always consoled himself with
+the reflection, that, if they had failed to catch their fox, they at
+least had their sport and a deal of healthful exercise; which, after
+all, should be the only object of fox-hunting. On such occasions, he
+was either joined by the neighboring gentry, or by such guests as
+chanced at the time to be enjoying the hospitalities of Mount Vernon.
+Among these, it was not unusual to find old Lord Fairfax, the friend
+and companion of his stripling days, who would come down from Greenway
+Court several times a year, with a long train of hunters and hounds,
+and by his presence double the mirth and cheer of all the country-side
+for miles and miles around. The fate of poor Reynard being duly
+settled, they would repair either to Mount Vernon, or to the residence
+of any one else of the party that chanced to be nearest, and wind up
+the sports of the day by a hunting-dinner, at which they were usually
+favored with the company of the ladies. At such times, Washington is
+said to have entered so keenly into the general hilarity, as to quite
+lay aside his accustomed gravity and reserve, and show himself almost
+as jovial as the merry old lord himself. Speaking of these amusements,
+brings to mind an anecdote of him, which I must tell you, as it will
+give you a still more lively idea of the promptness and decision with
+which he was wont to act whenever occasion demanded.
+
+In those old-fashioned times, among many other laws that would seem
+odd enough to us at the present day, there were many very strict and
+severe ones for the protection of game, which made poaching (that is
+to say, hunting on private grounds without leave or license from the
+owner) no less a crime than theft, and punished the poacher as a thief
+accordingly. Now, there was a certain idle, worthless fellow,
+notorious for his desperate character, as being the most daring
+poacher in seven counties, who was known to be much in the habit of
+trespassing on the grounds belonging to Mount Vernon. This had been
+forbidden him by Washington, who had warned him of the consequences if
+he did not cease his depredations, and keep at a safe distance; but to
+this the sturdy vagrant gave little heed. He would cross over the
+river in a canoe, which he would hide, in some secret nook best known
+to himself, among the reeds and rushes that fringed the banks, and
+with his fowling-piece make ruinous havoc among the canvas-back ducks
+that flocked in great multitudes to the low marsh-lands of that
+region.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+One day, as Washington was going his accustomed rounds about the
+plantations, he heard the report of a gun in the neighborhood of the
+river; and, guessing what was in the wind, he forthwith spurred his
+horse in that direction, and, dashing through the bushes, came upon
+the culprit, just as he, paddle in hand, was pushing from the shore.
+The fellow, seeing his danger, cocked his gun, and, with a threatening
+look, levelled it directly at Washington, who, without heeding this in
+the least, rode into the water, and, seizing the canoe by the painter,
+dragged it ashore. Leaping then from his horse, he wrenched the
+fowling-piece from the astonished poacher, and fell to belaboring him
+in so clean and handsome a manner, as to make the unlucky wight
+heartily wish he had the wide Potomac between him and the terrible man
+whose iron grasp was then on his collar. My word for it, he never
+trespassed again on those forbidden grounds; and I dare be sworn, he
+never saw or ate or smelt a canvas-back thereafter, without feeling a
+lively smarting up and down under his jacket, and, it may be, his
+buckskin breeches too. It was not that a few dozen or even a hundred
+ducks had been shot on his premises, that Washington was thus moved to
+chastise this fellow; but that, in spite of wholesome warnings, he
+should go on breaking the laws of the land with such impunity; and
+also, that, instead of seeking to earn an honest livelihood by the
+labor of his hands, he should prefer rather to live in idleness, and
+gain a bare subsistence by such paltry and unlawful means.
+
+Although verging on to middle age, Washington was still very fond of
+active and manly sports, such as tossing the bar and throwing the
+sledge, wrestling, running, and jumping; in all of which he had but
+few equals, and no superiors. Among other stories of his strength and
+agility, there is one which you may come across some day in the course
+of your reading, relating how that, at a leaping-match, he cleared
+twenty-two feet seven inches of dead level turf at a single bound.
+
+Notwithstanding his modesty and reserve, he took much pleasure in
+society, and ever sought to keep up a free and social interchange of
+visits between his family and those of his neighbors. Besides their
+fine horses and elegant carriages, he, and others of the old Virginia
+gentry of that day whose plantations lay along the Potomac, kept their
+own barges or pleasure-boats, which were finished and fitted up in a
+sumptuous style, and were sometimes rowed by as many as six negro men,
+all in neat uniforms. In these, they, with their wives and children,
+would visit each other up and down the river; and often, after
+lengthening out their calls far into the night, would row home by the
+light of the moon, which, lending charms that the sun had not to the
+tranquil flow of the winding stream, and to the waving woods that
+crowned the banks on either hand, caused them often to linger, as
+loath to quit the enchanting scene. A few weeks of the winter months
+were usually spent by Mr. and Mrs. Washington either at Williamsburg
+or at Annapolis, then, as now, the capital of Maryland, where was to
+be found the best society of the provinces, and of which they were the
+pride and ornament. Here they entered into the gayeties of the season,
+such as dinners and balls, with much real relish; and, if the theatre
+added its attractions to the rest, Washington always made it a point
+to attend, as the entertainments there offered were of the sort that
+afforded him much delight. Nor was he loath to join in the dance; and
+your Uncle Juvinell, when a boy, had the rare fortune of meeting, now
+and then, with stately old dames, who had been belles in their days,
+and could boast of having had him for a partner; but, at the same
+time, they were wont to confess, that they were generally too much
+overawed by the gravity and dignity of his demeanor to feel entirely
+at their ease in his company, however flattered they may have been at
+the honor, which he, in his modesty, so little dreamed he was doing
+them.
+
+Washington's marriage was never blessed with children; but he was all
+that a father could be to those of Mrs. Washington, whom he loved and
+cherished as tenderly as if they had been his own. As their guardian,
+he had the care of their education, and also the entire control of the
+immense fortune, amounting, in negroes, land, and money, to nearly two
+hundred thousand dollars, left them by their father, Mr. George
+Custis; and lovingly and faithfully did he discharge this sacred and
+delicate trust. Of these two children, the daughter (who was the
+younger of the two) died, in early maidenhood, of consumption. She had
+been of a slender constitution from her childhood; but, for all that,
+her death was an unexpected stroke, and was long and deeply mourned by
+Mrs. Washington and her husband. He is said to have been absent during
+her illness; but, returning a short time before she breathed her last,
+was so overcome with pity and tenderness upon seeing the sad change
+wrought in so brief a space by this dreadful disease in her fair young
+face and delicate form, that he threw himself upon his knees by her
+bedside, and, in a passionate burst of grief, poured out a fervent
+prayer for her recovery. The son now became the sole object of
+parental love and solicitude; and being, like his sister, of frail and
+uncertain health, was a source of much affectionate anxiety to his
+step-father as well as to his mother.
+
+Both Mr. and Mrs. Washington were members of the Episcopal Church, and
+persons of the truest Christian piety. Every sabbath, when the roads
+and weather permitted, they attended divine worship either at
+Alexandria or at a church in their own neighborhood, and always took
+part in the religious exercises of the day with earnest and solemn
+devotion. In addition to the many charms of mind and person already
+mentioned, Mrs. Washington was a woman of great benevolence, and spent
+much of her time in acts of kindness and charity, which won her the
+love and gratitude of every poor family in the country around.
+
+Thus passed away fifteen tranquil years,--the white days of
+Washington's life. When we behold him as he was then, in the full
+strength and beauty of his ripened manhood, possessed of one of
+the handsomest fortunes in America, living in the bountiful and
+elegant style of those hospitable times, the pride and honor of
+his native province, the object of applause and gratitude to his
+fellow-countrymen, and of esteem and love to all whose privilege it
+was to call him friend; and, above all, blessed, in the partner of his
+choice, with a woman gifted with every grace and virtue that can adorn
+her sex,--when we behold him thus, well may we exclaim, "Verily, here
+was a man favored of Heaven in a special manner, and blessed beyond
+the lot of common mortals here below." But the clouds were gathering,
+and had long been gathering, that were soon to burst in storm and
+tempest over that happy and rising young land, and force him for
+many, many weary years from those, his loved retreats and peaceful
+pursuits, upon a wider, nobler field of action, wherein he was to play
+a part that should, in fine, win for him the name so dear to every
+American heart,--Father of his Country.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+A FAMILY QUARREL.
+
+
+"And now, Dannie, mend the fire with another Christmas log. You,
+Willie, open the windows at top and bottom, to let out the smoke the
+young historian will be sure to raise. Laura, my dear, trim the lamp;
+and you, Ella,--will you have the kindness to put a little sugar in
+your uncle's cider?--there's a darling! Ned, my boy, just tumble
+sleepy-headed Charlie there out of his comfortable nap, and touse him
+into his waking senses again. All right? Now I would have every one of
+you put your thinking-caps square and tight upon your heads, and keep
+all your ears about you; for, depend upon it, what I am now going to
+tell you is so full of hard points and tough knots, that, should you
+but lose the crossing of a 't,' or even the dotting of an 'i,'
+thereof, all the rest will be to you as so much hifalutin
+transcendentalism." (Here Uncle Juvinell took a gigantic swallow of
+cider, and pronounced the sugar a decided improvement; while the
+little folks wrote something on their slates, very long, and which no
+two of them spelt alike. Uncle Juvinell smacked his lips, and then
+resumed.)
+
+Now, you must know, my dear children, that Great Britain, at the time
+of which we are speaking, was, and for many years had been, and, in
+fact, still is, and, in all human likelihood, will ever continue to
+be, burdened with a mountain-load of debt, which has already given her
+a frightful stoop in the shoulders, and may, in time, grow to such an
+enormous bulk as to break her sturdy old back outright. She had, as
+you have seen, added all French America to her dominions; but with
+this increase of power and glory, that made her king and nobles smile
+and sing with joy, came also an increase of debt and trouble, that
+made her common people scowl and growl with want and discontent. The
+expenses of the late war with France had added the weight of another
+Ætna or Sinai to the already staggering load that chafed her back;
+and, sorely grieved thereat, she began casting in her mind what might
+be done to lighten it a little.
+
+"My young Colonies," said our mother to herself, "which were planted
+by my love so many years ago, have grown to a goodly size, and
+prospered in a wonderful manner, under my fostering care, for which
+they owe me many thanks; and, being quite old and strong enough, must
+now repay it by taking their due share of my heavy burden."
+
+Now, in all this, our mother did but deceive herself: for these
+Colonies had been planted by her oppression, not by her love; they
+had grown by her neglect, not by her fostering care. Therefore, they
+did not, as she pretended, owe her either love or thanks, although
+they gave her both; and she had no right to make them carry her burden
+without their consent. Strange as it may appear, these infant Colonies
+loved their mother to distraction, in spite of her unmotherly
+treatment of them; and would have gone any length to serve her,--even
+to the extent of bearing double the burden she would have laid on
+them,--had she been wise enough to consult their wishes about the
+matter, and suffer them to lay it on their own shoulders, in their own
+fashion, and of their own free will. To this the perverse old mother
+would not listen for a moment; and, without pausing to reflect what
+might be the consequences, took an Ætna or a Sinai from the load on
+her own shoulders, and clapped it on those of her children, who sat
+down under it plump, and sturdily refused to budge until they should
+be allowed to put it there themselves. Whereupon, this stiff-necked,
+wrong-headed old Britannia (for such was her Christian name) was
+exceeding wroth, made an outlandish noise among the nations, and even
+went so far (you will be shocked to hear) as to swear a little. Seeing
+there was no help for it but to remove this Ætna, she did so with as
+good a grace as could be expected in a family-quarrel; but was so
+indiscreet and short-sighted as still to leave a very small burden,--a
+mere hillock indeed,--just by way, as she said, of showing that she
+had the right to load and unload them when and how it suited her
+sovereign pleasure best.
+
+Now, be it known, it was not the burden they had to carry of which
+these generous and high-spirited Colonies complained so bitterly; but
+that they should be denied the right of freely judging when and how
+and wherefore they were to be taxed,--a right that had been the pride
+and boast of Englishmen time out of mind. As for the matter of the
+burden, had that been all, they could have danced, ay, and blithely
+too, under Ætna and Sinai both, had the load but been of their own
+choosing, of their own putting-on, and of their own adjusting.
+
+To add to their distress and humiliation, this hardest and
+unnaturalest of mothers now set over them judges, who were strangers
+to them, and loved them not; who were to hold their places, not, as
+theretofore, during good behavior, but at her will and pleasure.
+Another right, as dear to Englishmen as life itself, was taken from
+them,--to wit, the right of trial by jury; which gave every person,
+great or small, suspected or known to be guilty of any crime against
+the laws of the land, the privilege of a speedy trial, in open court,
+in the place where the crime may have been committed, and by a jury of
+honest and impartial men. Instead of this, the person accused was to
+be taken aboard some ship-of-war, likely as not a thousand miles from
+Christian land, and there tried by some authorities of the navy, who
+would know but little, and must needs care still less, concerning the
+person under trial, or his offence.
+
+Under these and many other oppressions and injuries, the young
+Colonies groaned grievously. But, for all that, they were not to be
+subdued or broken. Time and again, they sent petitions to this
+unkindest and wilfulest of mothers, beseeching her, in humble and
+loving and dutiful terms, to remove this degrading burden from their
+shoulders, and once more receive them as children into her maternal
+bosom; warning her, at the same time, of what must be the melancholy
+consequences, if she hearkened not to their prayers. Then was the
+time, if ever, when, by a few kind words betokening a desire for
+reconciliation, she might have secured and made fast the love of these
+devoted and affectionate children for ever; and, had she been as wise
+as she was powerful, even so would she have done. But, like the Egypt
+of olden times, she did but harden her heart against them all the
+more, even to the hardness of the nether mill-stone; and only sought
+how she could the more easily grind them into obedience and
+submission. She had grown to be mighty among the nations, this
+Britannia. Her armed legions told of her power by land; her ships of
+war and her ships of commerce whitened a hundred seas. The great sun,
+that set on every kingdom of the known earth, she boasted never went
+down on her dominion. Wherefore was she swollen and big with pride,
+and from a high place looked haughtily down upon the little nations at
+her feet. What height of presumption was it, then, in these
+insignificant young Colonies, struggling for bare existence off there
+on the uttermost edges of the civilized earth, thus to lift themselves
+against her sovereign will, and dare dispute her high decrees! It was
+not to be borne: she would humble them for this presumption, chastise
+them for their disobedience, and show them what a terrible thing it
+was to provoke her wrath. Her heart thus steeled to mercy, she stayed
+not her hand, but sent her hosts of armed men in her fleets of armed
+ships, to lay her heavy yoke, and fit it firm and fast on the necks of
+her rebellious children.
+
+Beholding this, and that it were vain to hope for reconciliation, the
+Colonies, with one voice, with one indignant voice, exclaimed, "Now,
+since our mother seems bent on treating us as slaves and strangers,
+and not as children, then are we compelled, in our own defence, to
+treat her, not as our mother, but as a stranger and our enemy. And
+bear us witness, O ye nations! how long and humbly and earnestly we
+have prayed that there should be love and peace between us and this
+our mother; and bear us witness also, that, although we now lift our
+rebellious hand against her, there is no hatred in our hearts, even
+now, but rather sorrow unspeakable, that she should at last have
+driven us to this saddest, this direfulest of alternatives." Then,
+moved with one spirit (that of the love of freedom), and bent on one
+purpose (that of the defence of their sacred rights), they rose in
+their young strength, and, commending their just cause to the God of
+hosts, made that last appeal,--which, to a brave and virtuous people,
+has ever been the last,--the appeal to arms. And so they did, while
+the nations looked on in wonder and applause.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+THE CAUSE OF THE QUARREL.
+
+
+But, my children, I must tell you, in other and perhaps plainer words,
+what these measures were that led to such momentous results, why
+resorted to, how carried out, and by whom.
+
+From what you have just been told, you can have no difficulty in
+guessing that Great Britain was desperately in debt, and in the very
+mood to resort to desperate measures of delivering herself therefrom.
+Her being in this particular mood at that particular time (for it is
+only now and then that she has shown herself so unamiable) was owing
+chiefly to the fact, that she was just then under the rule, or rather
+misrule, of that narrow-minded, short-sighted, hard-fisted,
+wrong-headed man, who commonly goes in history by the name of King
+George the Third. Had he been the superintendent of a town workhouse,
+he might perhaps have acquitted himself respectably enough; or, if I
+may be so bold, he might have served a life-term as Governor of London
+Tower, and gone to his grave without any great discredit or reproach:
+but, in all human reason and justice, he certainly had no more
+business on the throne of England than your Uncle Juvinell himself.
+His ministers, who were of his own choosing, were vultures, of the
+same harsh, unsightly plumage, and, at his beck or nod, stood ready to
+do whatever knave's work he might have on hand,--even to the grinding
+of his people's bones to make his bread, should his royal appetite
+turn that way.
+
+With such men at the helm of State, it is no wonder, then, that unwise
+and oppressive measures should be resorted to for raising money, or,
+as it is more properly called in such cases, a revenue, for paying the
+debts and keeping up the expenses of the government. The first pounce
+they made was on their young Colonies in America, whom they sought to
+burden with heavy taxes laid on exports, or articles of commerce sent
+out of the country, and on imports, or articles of commerce brought
+into the country. The principal articles thus taxed were paper,
+painters' colors, glass, sugar and molasses, and tea. The tax-money or
+revenue scraped together from the sale of these articles--and which
+made them dearer to him who bought and him who sold, according to the
+amount of duty laid on--was to be gathered into the public treasury
+for the purposes aforesaid. Another plan for raising revenue, hit upon
+by these ingenious kites, was that famous one called the "Stamp Act,"
+the design of which was to compel the people of the Colonies, in order
+to make their business transactions good and valid, to use a certain
+kind of paper, having on it a certain stamp. Each kind of paper had
+its own particular stamp, and could only be applied to a certain
+purpose specified thereon. Thus there was a deed stamp-paper, the will
+stamp-paper, the note-of-hand and bill-of-exchange stamp-paper, the
+marriage stamp-paper; and, in short, stamp-paper for every concern in
+life requiring an instrument of writing. The paper itself was
+altogether a commodity of the government, by whom it was manufactured,
+and sold at prices varying from a few pence up to many pounds sterling
+of good, hard English money, just according to the magnitude or nature
+of the business in hand. Had it gone into effect, it must needs have
+borne on the dead as well as on the living: for, if the last will and
+testament of a deceased and lamented relative were not written on
+paper with the proper stamp, it could not have been good and valid in
+the king's eyes; and this would have led to grievous misunderstandings
+between the bereaved and affectionate heirs, and perhaps the deceased
+himself, in consequence, would have slept uneasily in his grave.
+
+Another oppressive measure--the design whereof, however, was for
+saving money, rather than for raising revenue--was that of quartering
+troops upon the country in time of peace; by which means they must
+needs be supported to a great extent by the people so sponged upon.
+
+But the most brilliant stroke of all was an act forbidding the
+Colonies from trading with any foreign ports, and from manufacturing
+certain articles, lest the value and sale of the same articles
+manufactured in England, and to be sold in America, might be lowered
+or hindered thereby.
+
+I have already mentioned, how that the right of choosing their judges
+and other civil officers, and the right of trial by jury, had been
+taken from them,--measures that had a meanness and odium quite their
+own; as serving no end of profit, but merely as safety-valves, through
+which the royal bile might find vent now and then.
+
+Now, the good people of the Colonies, as I have hinted elsewhere,
+would not have raised the hue and outcry that they did against these
+measures, had it not been for one thing, which to them, as Englishmen,
+was all in all; to wit, the right of taxing themselves, and
+legislating or making laws for themselves through persons of their own
+choosing, called representatives. And this is, my little folks, what
+is meant by taxation, and legislation by representation, in a nation.
+You will do well to bear this in mind continually; for it is the very
+keystone to the arch of all true government.
+
+This right of representation, however, was denied them; for what
+earthly reason, no one, not in the secret, could imagine. As the king
+himself was never able to render a reason for any thing he did, his
+ministers would not for any thing they did, and the parliament dared
+not for any thing they did.
+
+What could they do, then, but send petitions to the king, and
+remonstrances to the parliament, complaining of, and crying out
+against, their many grievances, and deploring and demanding that they
+be removed and redressed. Although they did this with more dignity and
+respectfulness, with more clearness and ability, than the like thing
+had ever been done before, or has been since, by any people, yet their
+petitions were spurned by the king, because they were just and manly,
+and he was not; and their remonstrances went unheeded by the
+parliament, because they were wise and reasonable, and it was not.
+
+Failing to get redress for their grievances, the colonists resolved
+that the source of these same grievances should not be a source of
+profit to those who imposed them. To bring about this result, they, as
+one man, entered into what was called the "non-importation
+agreement,"--or, in other words, an agreement by which they solemnly
+pledged themselves to abstain from the use of all articles burdened
+with a tax, until such tax should be removed; and, furthermore, that
+they would not buy or use any thing that they were forbidden to
+manufacture themselves; and, still furthermore, that not a ship of
+theirs should trade with British ports, until the act forbidding them
+to trade with foreign ports should be repealed. Some of them, I dare
+say, would have gone so far, had that been possible, as to pledge
+themselves not to die, until the Stamp Act, compelling them to write
+their wills on stamp-paper, was also repealed. This agreement was so
+rigidly observed, that the men took to wearing jeans, and the women
+linsey-woolseys, which they wove in their own looms; the old ladies
+drank sassafras-tea, sweetened with maple-sugar; and old gentlemen
+wrote no wills, but declared them on their death-bed to their weeping
+families by word of mouth. Whether the people stopped marrying or not,
+it is not known with certainty; but from my knowledge of human nature,
+which is extensive, I do not think I should greatly hazard my
+reputation as a historian, were I to state flatly, roundly, and
+emphatically, that it had not the least effect in that way.
+
+The days on which these measures were to go into effect were observed
+by the colonists as days of fasting, prayer, and humiliation. All
+business was laid aside, the shops were closed, the churches opened,
+and the church-bells tolled as on some funeral occasion; and between
+praying at church, and fasting at home, and brooding over their
+grievances, the good people were very miserable indeed. Although they
+suffered great inconvenience from their observance of the
+non-importation agreement, yet they bore it patiently and cheerfully,
+like men who felt that their cause was just and right. But the sudden
+stoppage of the immense trade that flowed from the colonial ports into
+those of the mother-country told dreadfully on the commerce of Great
+Britain; and British merchants and British manufacturers, and British
+people in general, soon began to suffer even more than the colonists
+themselves. Whereupon, a counter stream of petitions and remonstrances
+set in upon the king and parliament from the people at home, who
+declared that the country would be ruined, if these odious measures,
+crippling American commerce, were not speedily withdrawn. Said they,
+"If we cannot sell the Americans our broadcloths, our flannels, and
+our silks, the obstinate men of that country will stick to their
+jeans, and the perverse women to their linsey-woolseys, till we are
+undone for ever. In that one pestilent little town of Boston, our
+trade in silks alone is not so good by fifty thousand dollars a year
+as it has been heretofore: and we humbly entreat that our American
+brothers be allowed to trade with us and foreign nations as in days
+gone by; for you must see by this time with your own eyes, that we, as
+a nation, are growing poorer every day under this state of things,
+instead of richer every year as had been expected."
+
+The commissioners--that is to say, the persons who had been appointed
+by the British Government to bring or receive the stamp-paper, and
+give it circulation throughout the Colonies--were mobbed and pelted by
+the indignant people, whenever and wherever they made the least
+attempt to do their odious work. In consequence of this determined
+opposition, the paper never went into circulation: so it was stocked
+away in outhouses, and there left to mould and to be eaten by rats and
+mice, if their stomachs were not too dainty for such vile provender.
+Thus this famous piece of ingenuity, the Stamp Act, had no other
+effect than that of giving the civilized world a hearty laugh, and
+increasing the British debt just so much as the paper cost, instead of
+lessening it, as its inventors, in their blind confidence, had hoped.
+
+Beholding how utterly had failed all their pet schemes for raising
+revenue, the narrow-minded king, and the king-minded ministry, and the
+many-minded parliament, were, so to speak, thrown on their haunches,
+and forced to eat their own folly; which, I dare say, they found less
+palatable than their roast beef and plum-pudding. In other words, they
+repealed the Stamp Act; with one stroke of the royal pen, struck off
+the taxes laid on the above-mentioned articles; and once more gave the
+Colonies full liberty to manufacture whatsoever, and re-open
+commercial intercourse with whomsoever, they chose. And thus this
+non-importation agreement worked like a charm: it brought about in a
+trice what petitions and remonstrances had failed to accomplish in
+years.
+
+When tidings came of what had been done at home, there was great
+rejoicing throughout the provinces: the church-bells were tolled to
+another tune than that with which they had been tolled a short time
+before; the good people met at church, but this time to give thanks;
+and went home, not to fast, but to feast; and were now quite as
+comfortable as they had before been miserable. But I have gone a
+little too far, however. There was one circumstance that greatly
+dampened the general feeling of joy, and made a mere thanksgiving of
+what might else have been a high-sounding jubilee. This was the tax on
+tea, which had not been struck off along with the rest, but had been
+suffered to remain; not that any great revenue was expected to arise
+therefrom, but simply to show that they--the king and parliament--had
+not disclaimed or yielded up the right to tax and burden the Colonies
+when and how they thought fit and proper. This vexed the American
+people sorely; for though the bulk of the nuisance had been taken
+away, yet all the odor still remained: or, speaking more plainly, the
+right of laying such burdens on themselves, of their own free will,
+was still denied them; and this, in fact, was the very thing that made
+it so intolerable for them to bear. "Is it," said Washington in a
+letter to a friend, "the duty of threepence per pound upon tea that we
+object to as burdensome? No; but it is the right to lay this duty upon
+ourselves for which we contend."
+
+Therefore, as far as the commodity tea was concerned, the people of
+the Colonies still observed the non-importation agreement. From some
+of the ports, the ships that had come over from England laden with
+this delightful plant were sent back, without being suffered to
+discharge their cargoes; in others, where it had been landed, it was
+not allowed to be sold, but was stowed away in cellars and the like
+out-of-the-way places, where it moulded, or became the food of rats
+and mice, whose bowels, if we may trust the testimony of some of our
+great-grandmothers, were so bound up thereby, that a terrible
+mortality set in among them, that swept them away by cart-loads.
+
+Now, the East-India Company, to whom had been granted the sole
+privilege of trading in tea for the space of a hundred years, if I
+remember rightly, were greatly alarmed at the consequences of the
+tea-tax. Enormous quantities of the article had begun to accumulate in
+their London warehouses, now that there was no market for it in
+America, which hitherto had fed the purse in their left-hand pocket,
+as did that in Great Britain the larger one in their right-hand
+pocket. "Something must be done," said they to themselves (they
+certainly said it to nobody else),--"something must be done, or these
+high-spirited women of America will drink their wishy-washy sassafras
+till their blood be no thicker than whey, and the purse in our
+left-hand pocket become as light and lean and lank as when we sent our
+first ship-load thither years ago." This "something to be done" was a
+loud petition to parliament, praying for speedy relief from the ruin,
+which has an uncomfortable fashion of staring at great mercantile
+companies, and was now staring them full in the face.
+
+So, putting their heads together, the king and parliament hit upon an
+ingenious plan, by which they, the East-India Company, could sell
+their tea, and the government collect the duty thereon. It was this:
+The price of the article should be so far reduced, that it would be
+lower, even with the duty on it, than, at the usual rate of sale,
+without any duty at all. This was a brilliant scheme indeed, and would
+have succeeded to admiration, had the good people of America been a
+nation of bats and geese; but, as they were not, the scheme failed
+disgracefully, as you shall presently see.
+
+By way of giving this plan a trial, a few ships loaded with tea were
+sent over to Boston, where they lay for some time in the harbor,
+without being permitted by the people to land their cargoes. One day,
+as if to show the king and ministers and parliament, the East-India
+Company, and the whole British nation, that they, the Americans, were,
+and had been from the very beginning, desperately in earnest in all
+that they had said and done for years past, a party, composed of about
+fifty of the most sober and respectable citizens of Boston and the
+country around, disguised themselves as Indians, and went aboard these
+ships. Not a word was to be heard among them; but, keeping a grim and
+ominous silence, they ranged the vessel from stem to stern, ransacked
+their cargoes, broke open the tea-chests, and, pouring their contents
+into the sea, made the fishes a dish of tea, which is said to have had
+the same effect on them as on the rats and mice. This done with
+perfect coolness and sobriety, the party returned to their homes as
+orderly and silent as they had come; not the first movement towards a
+mob or tumult having been made by the people during the whole
+proceeding.
+
+This affair, commonly known in history as the Boston Tea-party, and
+which took place in 1774, overwhelmed his majesty with stupid
+astonishment, threw his ministers into fits of foaming rage, fell like
+a thunder-clap upon the House of Parliament, and effectually
+demolished the last forlorn hope of the East-India Company. The spirit
+of resistance on the part of the Colonies had now been carried to such
+a length, that the home-government determined to send over the
+military to awe them by the terror of its presence into obedience to
+their unreasonable and oppressive demands; and, should not this be
+found sufficient, to compel them into submission by the force of its
+arms.
+
+Oh, woful, woful, that ever a tyrant should live to keep his
+dragon-watch on the birth of the free-born thought, the independent
+wish, and ere the full, clear light of heaven descend upon it, warming
+it into strength and beauty, to seize and crush it into slavish fear,
+and love and justice without power to stay his impious hand!
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY.
+
+
+With what deep and earnest interest Washington watched the course of
+these momentous events may be readily imagined, if we reflect how much
+of his life had been already spent in the service of the public, and
+how near he had ever kept the good and welfare of his native land at
+heart.
+
+He was not a mere looker-on, but one of those who had in the very
+beginning shown themselves ready to enter, heart and hand and fortune,
+into all just and lawful measures of resistance to oppression in every
+shape and form; but, with his usual modesty, forbearing to push
+himself forward, which served, no doubt, to add to his example still
+greater weight and influence, and make it all the more illustrious. He
+rigidly observed the non-importation agreement, and was, in fact, one
+of the first to propose its adoption; and none of the articles therein
+named were to be seen in his house until the odious burdens laid
+thereon had been removed.
+
+Little or no lasting good, however, could be expected from these, or
+indeed any measures, unless the Colonies should come to a clearer and
+fuller understanding, one with another, touching the troubles that
+concerned all equally and alike. To bring this much-to-be-wished-for
+end about, it was resolved that a general assembly of all the Colonies
+should be called, wherein each province, through its representatives
+chosen by the people thereof, should have a voice. As the first step
+towards this object, conventions were summoned in the various
+provinces, the members whereof had the authority to choose from among
+their number those who were to be their representatives or
+mouth-pieces in this great Colonial Assembly, since known in history
+as the Old Continental Congress.
+
+Patrick Henry (the great American orator), Mr. Pendleton, and
+Washington were those appointed to represent Virginia. Accordingly,
+about the middle of September, 1774, these three Congress-men set out
+together on horseback for Philadelphia, the place of meeting. Arrived
+here, Washington found assembled the first talent, wisdom, and virtue
+of the land. It was to him a sublime spectacle indeed,--that of the
+people of many widely separated provinces thus met together to give
+voice and expression to what they felt to be their sacred rights as
+freemen and free Englishmen. To add still greater solemnity to their
+proceedings, and give their cause the stamp of the just and righteous
+cause they felt it to be, it was resolved to open the business of each
+day with prayer. Next morning, there came a report that Boston had
+been cannonaded by the king's troops, who had been stationed there for
+many weeks past. Although this afterwards turned out to be false, yet,
+at the time, it had a most beneficial effect, in drawing still nearer
+together those who but the day before had met as strangers, by
+impressing their minds with a still deeper sense of the sacredness of
+the trust imposed on them by their country, and by bringing more
+directly home to them their common danger, and dependence one upon
+another. The minister, before offering up his prayer, took up the
+Bible to read a passage therefrom, and, as if providentially, opened
+at the thirty-fifth Psalm, which seemed to have been written expressly
+for this great occasion, and began thus: "Plead my cause, O Lord, with
+them that strive with me; fight against them that fight against me."
+What wonder, then, that, under circumstances like these, they should
+feel their hearts joined together in stronger, holier bonds of union,
+as they knelt side by side on that memorable morning, commending their
+just cause to the Ruler of nations? For several minutes after they had
+resumed their seats, a profound and solemn silence reigned throughout
+the house; each looking the other in the face, as if uncertain how to
+set about the great work that had brought them together, and no one
+willing to open the Assembly. The silence was becoming painful and
+embarrassing; when Patrick Henry at length arose, and began addressing
+the House, at first in a faltering voice and hesitating manner, which
+soon, however, as he warmed with his subject, gave place to a bolder,
+higher strain, till, long before he had ended, the hearts of his
+hearers were thrilled with a flow of eloquence, the like of which none
+present had ever heard before; and, when it ceased, each felt that he
+had just been listening to the greatest orator, not of Virginia only,
+but of all America. The burden of his declamation was the oppressive
+and unlawful system of taxation devised by Great Britain against her
+American Colonies; the severe restriction laid on their commerce; the
+abolition of the right of trial by jury, and of choosing their own
+judges; the danger that must ever threaten their liberties, if they
+suffered troops of war to be quartered upon them in times of peace;
+and, above all, that they should be denied the right of taxing
+themselves, of making their own laws, and of regulating their internal
+concerns, as seemed to their judgment wise and proper, through
+representatives of their own choosing. To get redress for these and
+similar grievances, was the chief, and, I may say, the only object for
+which this first Congress had been called; for at that time, and for a
+long time after, no one harbored such a thought as that of breaking
+with the mother-country, with a view of achieving their independence.
+To this end, they now applied themselves with deep and sober
+earnestness, and brought to their work all the resources that their
+wisdom and experience could command.
+
+The first session of the Old Continental Congress lasted fifty-one
+days. Such was the decorum with which they conducted their
+proceedings, such the eloquence, force, and precision with which they
+set forth their grievances, such the temperate and dignified tone that
+marked their petitions to the king, and such the manliness, firmness,
+and unwavering constancy with which they persisted in battling for
+their right as freemen to be represented in the councils of the
+nation, that thousands of their brothers across the Atlantic were
+filled with wonder and admiration. And here, for once and for all, be
+it known to you, my dear children, and, in justice to the British
+nation as a people, never fail hereafter to bear it in mind, that
+there were many, very many, perhaps a large majority, of our English
+uncles, who deeply sympathized with our fathers in their troubles, and
+heartily condemned the oppressive burdens heaped upon them by the king
+and his ministers. Even in the House of Parliament itself were there
+many of the greatest spirits of that age, who had all along opposed
+these harsh and unjust measures of the government towards the
+Colonies, and were now so impressed with all that marked the
+proceedings of this first Colonial Congress, that they exerted
+themselves in behalf of their oppressed brothers in America with more
+zeal than ever before, and pleaded their cause in strains of eloquence
+that shall ring in our ears, and dwell in our hearts, till history
+shall tell us we have ceased to be a nation.
+
+And well indeed they might admire and praise; for what with the
+eloquence of such men as Henry and Rutledge, the learning of such men
+as Hancock and Adams, the wisdom of such men as Washington, and the
+pure and exalted character of them all, it was a body of men, the like
+of which had never before assembled together in any age or country.
+
+Patrick Henry, upon being asked who was the greatest man in the
+Congress, replied, "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South
+Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but, if you speak of solid
+information and sound judgment, Col. Washington is, beyond all
+question, the greatest man on that floor." Had Mr. Rutledge been asked
+the same question, he would as readily have pronounced Patrick Henry
+the greatest orator, as indeed he was.
+
+Bent on one common object, encompassed by dangers that threatened all
+alike, and glowing with the same ardent and heroic spirit, they seemed
+for the time to have quite forgotten that they were the natives and
+representatives of many different and widely separated provinces, and
+to think that they were, as Patrick Henry happily expressed it, not
+Carolinians, not Pennsylvanians, not Virginians, so much as that they
+were Americans; and had been sent there, not so much to represent the
+will and wishes of the people of their respective provinces, as of
+those of the whole American people. Thus Union became the watchword
+throughout the Colonies. And by union alone were they able to make a
+stand against tyranny; by it alone came off victorious in the end; by
+it alone won for themselves a place among the nations; and by it alone
+can their posterity hope to hold that place as a powerful, free, and
+happy people.
+
+Having done all that could be done for the present, the Congress was
+adjourned, and the members returned to their homes to await the result
+of the petitions and remonstrances they had sent on to the king and
+parliament. Although these were couched in moderate and respectful
+terms, expressing their unaltered attachment to the king and his
+family, deploring that there should be aught but peace and good-will
+between them, and entreating him not to drive his children to the
+dreadful alternative of taking up arms in their defence, yet, like
+those that had gone before them, they were received with contempt or
+indifference, and failed to awaken in the king's mind any sentiment of
+mercy, or desire on the part of the parliament for reconciliation with
+their younger brothers in America. Here was the last, the golden
+opportunity, wherein, by an act of simple justice, by an expression of
+Christian kindness, they might have won back to obedience and love
+this much-injured people; but under the mistaken and fatal belief
+that they were all-powerful, and that, if they yielded up these
+pretended rights, the colonists would never rest until they had thrown
+off and trampled under foot all authority, they suffered it to pass
+unheeded, lost for ever.
+
+A short time after the adjournment of Congress, at a second Virginia
+Convention, held at Richmond, Patrick Henry, in closing one of the
+grandest efforts he ever made, thus boldly declared his mind: "The
+time of reconciliation is past; the time for action is at hand. It is
+useless to send further petitions to the government, or to await the
+result of those already addressed to the throne. We must fight, Mr.
+Speaker: I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the
+God of hosts is all that is left us!" The great orator did but give
+voice to the feelings and sentiments of thousands of pure patriots,
+among whom was Washington, who represented his district in this
+convention also. No one regretted more sincerely than he that they
+were thus compelled to take up the sword as the only remedy of their
+wrongs and grievances. In his own mind, he had fully resolved, if
+needful, to devote his life and fortune to the cause; and was willing,
+he told his brother, to arm and equip a thousand men at his own
+expense, and lead them to the succor of Boston, at that time blockaded
+by the British fleet. Grave and thoughtful, and pondering deeply all
+these things, he went to his home; and, in this frame of mind, the
+winter months passed slowly by.
+
+It was now apparent to all, that open hostilities between the Colonies
+and the mother-country were no longer avoidable; and on the nineteenth
+of April, 1775, the battle of Lexington announced to the world that
+the first blood of a desperate struggle had been shed, and that civil
+war, with all its train of horrors, had begun.
+
+When the tidings reached Mount Vernon, the impressions made on
+Washington's mind were solemn and profound, if we may judge from a
+letter written at the time, in which he says, "Unhappy it is to
+reflect, that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's
+breast, and that the once-peaceful plains of America are to be
+drenched with blood, or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can
+a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?" Early in May, as he was just
+on the eve of setting out for Philadelphia to take his seat in the
+second session of the Congress, news reached him of the capture of
+Ticonderoga by Col. Ethan Allen. It was a brilliant little exploit
+enough, and the very kind to raise undue expectations in the many, who
+looked no further into the future than to-night, when it is yet
+evening; but it could have no other effect than to deepen the
+thoughtfulness of a mind like Washington's, that could look through
+the glare of these accidental hits of war, and behold the untried
+perils still further beyond.
+
+As the war had now begun in earnest, so dreaded and deeply deplored by
+all the good men, as the only remedy left to their distress, the
+deliberations of the second Congress turned chiefly on the devising of
+means for their defence and safety. Towards this object, nothing
+effectual could be done till some person was fixed upon to be the
+leader of the army, which they had yet, in large measure, to raise,
+arm, and equip.
+
+There were not a few, who, for age, talent, experience, fortune, and
+social position, as well as for the sacrifices they had already made
+to the cause, were, in the opinion of their friends, and perhaps in
+that of their own, justly entitled to this high distinction. After
+some time spent in viewing the matter in all its bearings, and
+carefully weighing the claims of each, without being able to fix upon
+a choice, John Adams decided the question by addressing the House to
+the following effect: That the person intrusted with a place of such
+importance to Americans must be a native-born American; a man of large
+fortune, in order to give him a strong personal interest in the issue
+of the contest, and the means of carrying it on; he should be a man of
+military experience, and accustomed to the government of large bodies
+of men; he should be of tried integrity and patriotism, of great
+courage and bodily endurance, and known ability; and a resident of
+some central province, that in him might be blended the extreme
+interests of North and South, which would tend to lessen the
+jealousies of the two sections, and harmonize them, as it were, into
+one. Such a province was Virginia, and such a man was Col. Washington;
+whom, therefore, he commended to the favor and consideration of the
+Honorable House.
+
+Before this address was ended, Washington, perceiving that he was the
+person on the point of being singled out, rose from his seat, much
+agitated and embarrassed, and hastily quitted the House.
+
+Next morning, Mr. Adams's recommendation was acted upon; and the
+House, without a single dissenting voice, chose GEORGE WASHINGTON to
+be _Commander-in-chief_ of all the army of the United Colonies, with
+the salary of six thousand dollars a year. In his reply, Washington
+expressed his grateful sense of so signal a proof of the confidence
+reposed in him by his countrymen, and added,--
+
+     "But lest some unfortunate event should happen, unfavorable to
+     my reputation, I beg that it may be remembered by every
+     gentleman in this room, that I this day declare, with the
+     utmost sincerity, that I do not think myself equal to the
+     command I am honored with. As to pay, I beg leave to assure the
+     Congress, that, as no pecuniary consideration could have
+     tempted me to accept of this employment at the expense of my
+     domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit
+     of it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses: these, I
+     doubt not, they will discharge; and that is all I desire."
+
+In a letter to Mrs. Washington, informing her of the great change thus
+made in his destiny, he deplores the hard necessity that makes it his
+duty to give up the sweet pleasures of home and her society; and
+exhorts her, in affectionate language, to bear up under their
+separation with cheerfulness and fortitude; at the same time giving
+her the gratifying assurance, that with her he could have more
+happiness at Mount Vernon in one month, than he could hope to find
+without her, were he to remain abroad seven times seven years. From
+the tone of this letter, she must readily have guessed that the place
+was not one of his own seeking.
+
+Accordingly, on the 21st of June, General Washington,--for so we must
+now call him,--having received his commission, set out to take command
+of the American army, then lying before Boston, which, being occupied
+by the king's troops, was in a state of siege. A company of
+Pennsylvania light-horse escorted him from Philadelphia to New York,
+where he was received with all the honor due, not only to the high
+station he had been called to fill, but also to his exalted character
+and distinguished abilities. Here he heard further particulars of the
+battle of Bunker's Hill, fought near Boston a few days before. From
+New York, the general-in-chief proceeded to Boston, and was greeted
+everywhere on the way with the greatest enthusiasm by the people, who
+came streaming in from all quarters to behold the man into whose
+keeping had been intrusted the destinies of America.
+
+Thus, my dear children, I have brought you, step by step, up to that
+great event in Washington's life when his character and actions were
+to be subjected to the gaze and scrutiny, not only of his own age and
+country, but of all ages to come, and of all the nations of
+Christendom.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+Here Uncle Juvinell paused, and, with a countenance of undisturbed
+sobriety, emptied his ninth mug. In justice, however, to the good man,
+this pattern of old-fashioned gentility, it must be borne in mind,
+that the mug was a Dutch mug, and consequently a small one (as indeed
+are all things Dutch, from clocks to cheeses); and also that, small as
+it was, he never more than half filled it, except once or twice in the
+course of an evening, when he would gird up his loins, as it were,
+with a brimmer to help him over some passage in his story of unusual
+knottiness and difficulty.
+
+Willie (whose surname should have been fox or weasel or lynx), having
+heretofore divided his attention between what his uncle imparted and
+what he imbibed, had, by careful counting, discovered that the ninth
+mug invariably closed their evening lessons: so, without waiting for
+any further signal that such was now the case, he alertly bounced from
+his chair, and, snatching up a basket of big red apples that black
+daddy had just brought in and set on the hearth, began handing them
+round to the rest of the company with a great show of playing the
+polite and obliging, but taking care, when unobserved, to pick out the
+largest and mellowest one of them all for himself, and smuggle it
+under his coat-tail. When all were helped, he reset the basket on the
+hearth, and with a grand flourish, unmasking his royal red, opened
+wide his mouth, as if he would have bolted it whole: but, seeming to
+think better of it, he carefully laid it in Uncle Juvinell's mug,
+which it exactly filled, saying as he did so, "It goes to my heart to
+part with you; but only the king of historians is worthy to enjoy the
+queen of apples." Then, plunging his hand into the basket, he snatched
+up another, hap-hazard, and began eating it with savage voracity, as
+if made reckless by this act of self-denial. Re-seating himself as he
+had chosen his apple, hap-hazard, he missed his chair, and keeled
+over, bringing his heels in the air where his head should have been,
+and his head on the rug where the dog and cat were, and the
+half-munched plug in his mouth, plump into his windpipe, so as to
+almost strangle him out of his breeches, and cause his buttons to fly
+like grains from a corn-cob when thrown into a corn-sheller. Of
+course, all the little folks fairly screamed with laughter, in which
+even Uncle Juvinell could not help joining right heartily: nor would
+he venture upon the broad wedge which he had cut out of his apple,
+till his chuckle was well ended; when he remarked, that "Willie was
+one of the boys we read about." To which Willie, picking himself up
+again, replied, that "he rather thought he was not, just then, but
+perhaps would be as soon as he could get back some of the breath he
+had lost, and gather up the buttons he had shed." Then, drawing down
+his waistcoat from under his arm-pits to hide a breadth of white
+muslin not usually intended for the eyes of a mixed company, he
+reseated himself with such care and circumspection, that the middle
+seam of his breeches tallied exactly with the middle round of the
+chair-back, and began mincing and nibbling his apple delicately like a
+sheep, as if to show that he meant to profit by the lesson his fit of
+strangling had taught him.
+
+After a little while, when he saw that the children had had their fill
+of laughter and red apples, Uncle Juvinell wiped the blade of his
+knife with his bandanna, and said, "And now, my darlings, don't you
+think we are getting along swimmingly?"
+
+"Swimmingly!" they all chimed in with one voice.
+
+"Gloriously?" again inquired Uncle Juvinell.
+
+"Gloriously!" cried all the children at once, as pat to their uncle's
+words as an echo to the sound. Whereupon the old gentleman's
+spectacles shone with a lustre that was charming to see. In a moment
+after, however, Bryce, the pugnacious urchin of ten, expressed himself
+a little disappointed that they had had so much building of forts, and
+digging and cutting of roads, and so much scouting and marching, and
+so much getting ready to fight, and yet withal so little downright
+fighting.
+
+"You quite forget, Bryce, that affair of Grant's defeat there at Fort
+Duquesne," said Willie. "In my opinion, that was a very decent,
+respectable piece of bloodshed; and quite as good as Braddock's
+disaster, as far as it goes."
+
+"How heartless you must be, Willie, to speak so lightly of such
+horrible things!" exclaimed Miss Laura with a look of refined disgust.
+"To my mind, Washington's courtship and wedding, and the pleasant life
+he led at Mount Vernon, are more entertaining than all your dismal
+battles."
+
+"And those charming barge-rides by moonlight," chimed in Ella, "that
+the old Virginia planters used to take when they visited each other up
+and down the Potomac."
+
+"You are welcome to your courtships and your weddings and your
+boat-rides by moonlight," cried Willie, turning up his nose; "but I
+would not have given a good fox-hunt with old Lord Fairfax for any of
+them: and what a glorious fellow Washington must have been, with his
+fine horses and his fine dogs, and his jumping twenty-one feet seven
+inches at a bound!"
+
+"Oh, Willie! how can you be so wanting in respect as to call such a
+man as Washington '_fellow_'?" exclaimed Laura, with a look of pious
+horror. "I am astonished at you!"
+
+"But I said he was glorious; didn't I now, Miss Over-nice?" retorted
+Willie.
+
+"Your Cousin Laura, William, is quite right in what she says,"
+observed Uncle Juvinell, with something like severity in his look and
+tone. "We should never speak of the good and great in other terms than
+those of esteem and reverence; for the effect of such a habit is to
+cultivate in ourselves those very qualities of mind and heart which
+make them worthy of our love and admiration."
+
+Willie was somewhat abashed by this mild rebuke, and apologized in a
+dumb way by coughing a time or two behind his slate.
+
+"Uncle," inquired Ella, "is transcendentalism an art or a science?"
+
+"I think I can tell you what that is, Ella," Daniel made haste to put
+in; for he never let an opportunity slip of showing off what he knew
+to the best advantage.
+
+"I did not call upon you for information, Mr. Wiseacre," said Ella, a
+little nettled at her brother's air of superior wisdom.
+
+"Nevertheless," cried Uncle Juvinell, "let us listen, and be wise.
+Come, give us the benefit of your knowledge, Daniel, touching this
+important matter."
+
+"I overheard father say to you the other day," replied Daniel, without
+hesitation, "that your transcendentalism, uncle, was an equal mixture
+of opium, moonshine, fog, and sick-man's dreams."
+
+"Good! you have hit it exactly!" cried Uncle Juvinell; "and, to reward
+you for your diligence in picking up and storing away such precious
+bits of knowledge, I promise you for your next Christmas present a
+gilt-edged copy of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"
+
+"I thank you very much, dear uncle," replied Dannie; "but, if it makes
+no difference with you, I would prefer 'Josephus' to 'Bunyan.'"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, my dear nephew; it shall be as you wish,"
+replied Uncle Juvinell, a little provoked with himself for having been
+so thoughtless as to overlook the fact, that Daniel, being a
+curly-headed, Jewish boy, was not likely to be much interested in the
+ups and downs of good old Christian's doleful pilgrimage.
+
+"Tell me, uncle," cried John, who had an ear for rhyme, "what is meant
+by taxation, and legislation by representation, in a nation. Is it
+sense, or only poetry?"
+
+"Bad poetry, but mighty good sense, my little boy," replied Uncle
+Juvinell; "and, if you will be right attentive, I will endeavor to
+make clear to you what is meant thereby. In a popular form of
+government,--such as the one we live under,--the people tax
+themselves, and make laws for themselves, through persons chosen by
+themselves, and from among themselves, to serve for a certain term of
+months or years in our State Legislatures or in our National
+Congress, as the case may be. The persons whom the people thus
+authorize to tax them and make laws, or, as it is otherwise termed, to
+legislate for them, representing, as they do, the will, desires, and
+wants of the communities by whom they are chosen, are called
+representatives; and hence the phrase, 'taxation, and representation
+by legislation.'"
+
+"In a nation," added Johnnie, by way of giving it a finish, and to
+show that it was all as clear as day to him.
+
+"Yes, in a nation and a state too," rejoined Uncle Juvinell, with a
+merry twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Will you have the kindness, uncle," said Dannie, "to tell us the
+difference between a legislature and a congress and a parliament?"
+
+"In our own country," replied Uncle Juvinell, "a legislature is the
+law-making assembly of a State, and Congress is the law-making
+assembly of the whole nation; while Parliament is the great law-making
+or legislative assembly of Great Britain and Ireland. The rules and
+regulations in all these bodies are quite similar; and, besides being
+vested with the power of laying taxes and making laws, they perform
+other services necessary to the safety and welfare of the state or
+nation. Thus the old Continental Congress was composed of
+representatives from all the thirteen States, which entitled each,
+through its representation, to one vote, and to equal weight and
+influence with the rest, in the acts and deliberations of this
+assembly, no matter what may have been its size and population,
+whether large or small; nor what the number of its representatives,
+whether one or several."
+
+"And will you also tell me, uncle, wherein a convention differs from
+all these legislative assemblies?" said Daniel, grappling manfully
+with the tall words, but staggering under them nevertheless.
+
+"Simply not being legislative at all, as the term is now generally
+used in our country," replied Uncle Juvinell. "A convention is a body
+of men assembled together as representatives of a party or state or
+nation, for some special purpose, such as the formation of a new State
+Constitution, or for making changes in an old one, or to give
+expression to the views and designs of a party, and to nominate
+candidates to the various offices of the government; which purpose
+being effected, they are dissolved, and cease to exist or to have any
+legal force."
+
+"And why, uncle, was the name 'Continental' given to our first
+Congress?" inquired Willie.
+
+"To distinguish it from the Congress of the several States, and as the
+one in which the common interest and welfare of all the States of the
+continent were represented," was Uncle Juvinell's reply; and then he
+added, "And hence the same term was applied to whatever belonged to
+the States conjointly, and grew out of their union or confederation.
+Thus, for example, besides the Continental Congress, there was a
+Continental Army, raised, equipped, and supported at the joint expense
+of all the States, and subject in a great measure to the control of
+the Continental Congress. And there was the Continental uniform, which
+was the uniform worn by an officer or a soldier of the Continental
+Army. And there was the Continental currency, which was the
+paper-money issued and put into circulation by the Continental
+Congress, all the States unitedly holding themselves accountable for
+its redemption in specie; or, in other words, binding themselves,
+after having gained their independence as a nation, to take it back at
+the value specified thereon, and giving to those who held it gold and
+silver in exchange. But more of this in another place."
+
+"And what is a minister, uncle?" inquired Laura. "And what is a
+commissioner, uncle?" chimed in Ella. "And what is a revenue, uncle?"
+put in Charlie. "And what is a remonstrance, uncle?" inquired Bryce,
+following up the attack.
+
+"Hold, you rogues! and one at a time!" cried Uncle Juvinell. "A
+minister, Laura, in the sense in which we have been using the term, is
+a high officer of State, intrusted with the control and management of
+some office or department of the national government, such as that of
+the navy or war or treasury or commerce or foreign affairs. All the
+ministers, taken collectively, make up what is called the ministry;
+who, besides discharging the duties of their respective offices, are
+also expected to serve as counsellors to the king, and aid him in
+carrying out the measures of the government. A commissioner, Ella, is
+an agent appointed and authorized by another, or a number of others,
+or a State, to transact some business of a private or public
+character, as the case may be. A revenue, Charlie, is the income or
+yearly sum of money of a State, raised from taxes on the people or
+their property, from duties on foreign merchandise imported into the
+country, and from the sale of public lands and other sources, to meet
+the expenses of the government. A remonstrance, Bryce, is a
+setting-forth in strong terms, either by writing or by word of mouth,
+the facts and reasons against something complained of or opposed, as
+unjust, unwise, or unadvisable."
+
+"I can't imagine," said Daniel, with the air of one who had weighed
+well in his own mind a matter of importance, "what advantage to
+themselves or to the nation George the Third and his ministers could
+have expected, when they laid those heavy taxes on their American
+Colonies, then took from them the power to pay them by crippling their
+commerce and putting a stop to their manufactures; and it seems
+strange to me that Englishmen could ever have denied to Englishmen the
+rights and liberties of Englishmen, without having something more to
+gain." Here Daniel broke down, and scratched his head; and Uncle
+Juvinell, with an approving, good-humored smile, replied, "Those very
+questions, Daniel, have puzzled many an older head than yours, and
+many a wiser head than mine; and, indeed, some of the most learned
+historians, who have written about these matters, have expressed
+themselves perplexed at this strange conduct of the king and his
+ministers, and have been able to account for it only on the
+supposition, that they were all, for the time being, bereft of their
+wits, and therefore rendered incapable of foreseeing the tremendous
+consequences of their unjust and ill-judged measures."
+
+Much gratified at the interest the little folks had taken in such dry
+matters, and seeing that they had no more questions to put to him, and
+that some of the smaller ones were already nodding in their chairs,
+Uncle Juvinell, by way of winding up the evening's entertainment,
+concluded thus:--
+
+"Some of you, my dear children, have read how good Christian, in his
+pilgrimage to the Celestial City, went on sometimes sighingly,
+sometimes comfortably, until he came to the foot of a hill called
+Difficulty, where he found three roads to choose between. The one to
+the right went around the bottom of the hill, and led into a
+wilderness of dark woods, out of which no one ever found his way again
+after venturing therein. The one to the left went likewise around the
+bottom of the hill, and led into a wilderness of dark mountains, which
+was even more difficult to escape from than the one to the right. But
+the middle road, which was narrow and straight, went right up the
+steep and flinty sides of the hill, and was the route that led direct
+to Mount Zion. Not being the man to flinch from any difficulty,
+however great, good Christian hesitated not a moment to choose the
+middle road; and accordingly he fell from running to walking, and from
+walking to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and
+knees, till he had made his way to the top. Here, as you must well
+remember, there met his view a stately palace called Beautiful, kept
+by a company of prim, precise, proper, prudent, and pious maiden
+ladies, who gave our weary pilgrim a cordial but well-considered
+reception, and, besides admitting him to the hospitalities of the
+house gratis, entertained him with a variety of pleasing and edifying
+discourse. And you have not forgotten, either, how, when they had a
+clear morning, these discreet and well-ordered damsels, to reward him
+for the zeal and diligence with which he had heretofore pursued his
+journey, as well as to encourage him to still further effort, led him
+up to the top of their house, whence he might have a delightful view
+of the Delectable Mountains, far, far away. And you also still hear in
+mind, how poor Christian must needs pass through the dismal Vale of
+Humiliation, and there meet in deadly fight the terrible monster
+Apollyon; then through the Valley and Shadow of Death, with all its
+doleful sights and sounds; then through the wicked city of Vanity
+Fair; then through the gloomy domains of Doubting Castle and Giant
+Despair,--all before he could hope to set foot on these Delectable
+Mountains of Emanuel's land.
+
+"Now, do you not see, my dear children, that not altogether unlike
+good Christian's case, at this stage of his journey, is that of our
+own at this point of our story? But a little while ago we were
+trudging along, sometimes heavily, sometimes swimmingly, till by and
+by we reached the bottom of our Hill Difficulty; by which, of course,
+you understand me to mean the causes that brought about our
+Revolutionary War. And here, had we gone to the right or the left, we
+should most assuredly have wandered into a wilderness of romance and
+Brobdignagian wonders, among whose mazes we would have become
+entangled beyond all reasonable hope of escape. But our eyes were
+opened to our danger; and like good Christian, by whose example we
+might profit oftener than we do, we knew in what direction lay our
+best interest, and were not to be enticed astray by the prospect of
+ease or novelty, nor turned back by flinty facts and rough realities.
+So straightway up the difficult hill we marched, lofty and steep as it
+was; and hardly left a stone unturned till we had scrambled to the
+top. This gained, we have felt it our privilege to halt and rest a
+while, and refresh ourselves with a little pleasing and edifying
+discourse, one with another, touching what we have seen or heard in
+the course of our journey.
+
+"We have thus surmounted the most tedious and difficult part of our
+story. But still there lies before us many a hard-fought battle, many
+an irksome siege, many a forlorn retreat, many a gloomy winter-camp,
+and many a season of doubt and discouragement, privation and dire
+calamity, through which we must pass before we can hope to set our
+weary feet on the Delectable Mountains of Freemen's Land, smiling
+invitingly beyond. But to reward you for the diligent attention with
+which you have followed me thus far, as well as to entice you to
+trudge on to the end, I will, from this elevated point, unfold to your
+view a glimpse of this glorious region, ere 'the war-clouds rolling
+dun' from the plains of Lexington and the heights of Bunker's Hill
+have too much obscured our morning sky.
+
+    "See yon land of shining mountains,
+      Stately forests, verdant dells,
+    Sun-bright rivers, sparkling fountains,
+      Healthful breezes, balmy smells,
+    Golden grain-fields, pleasant meadows,
+      Fruitful orchards, gardens fair,
+    Lasting sunshine, fleeting shadows!
+      Freedom dwells for ever there!
+
+    Hark! what song is that high swelling,
+      Like an anthem dropped from heaven,
+    Of some joyful tidings telling,
+      Some rich boon to mankind given?
+    'Tis a happy people, singing
+      Thanks for Freedom's victory won;
+    Valley, forest, mountain, ringing
+      With one name,--great Washington.
+    Through distress, through tribulation,
+      Through the lowering clouds of war,
+    They have risen to be a nation:
+      Freedom shines, their morning-star.
+    Would we reach those realms of glory,
+      Would we join that righteous band,
+    We must speed us in our story:
+      Come, let's on to Freemen's Land!"
+
+The next evening, the little folks, upon repairing to the library,
+found their Uncle Juvinell seated, as was his wont, cross-legged in
+his great arm-chair, looking with a fixed and absent gaze into 'the
+glowing embers of the fire,' as if his thoughts were far away.
+
+In his hand he held an open letter which he had just brought from the
+post-office, in the contents whereof, it was evident, he had found
+somewhat of a painful character; for a slight shadow had dimmed the
+brightness of his otherwise placid countenance. So rare a thing as
+that of a cloud on their good old uncle's sunny face caught their
+notice at once; and instead of gathering round him in their usual
+coaxing, teasing, bantering, frolicsome way, they seated themselves
+quietly on either hand, and awaited in respectful silence until he
+should rise to the surface of the deep brown-study into which he
+seemed to be plunged. But the longer he sat, the harder he looked at
+the fire, and the deeper he sank into his revery, till the little
+folks began to fear that it would be a full hour before he would reach
+the bottom and come up again.
+
+Daniel, the young historian, sat watching his uncle's countenance with
+his sharp black eyes, expecting each moment to hear him break the
+silence with, "After the battle of Bunker's Hill;" or, "Washington,
+upon his arrival at Boston;" or something to that effect. But, last in
+his own thoughts, Uncle Juvinell still sat cross-legged in his
+arm-chair, and spoke not a word. At last, just by way of reminding him
+that a select and highly enlightened audience were in waiting to hear
+him, Willie softly arose from his chair, and, filling the little Dutch
+mug to the brim with rich brown cider, offered it to his uncle, with a
+forward duck of the head and a backward jerk of the heel, which he, no
+doubt, intended for a genteel bow. Uncle Juvinell took it; but set it
+again, with an absent air, untasted on the table. Then, drawing his
+spectacles down from his forehead, he again perused the letter he held
+in his hand, with earnest attention, the shadow on his brow deepening
+as he read.
+
+When he had finished, he laid it on the table, and finally broke the
+long silence; his first words falling like ice-water on the ears of
+the little folks.
+
+"Sad news for you, my dear children; sad news for us all! I have just
+received a letter from my old friend and kinsman, Peter Parley, of
+whom you have all heard so much, and to whom, for the many delightful
+books he has written, the younger generations of America are more
+indebted than perhaps to any man now living. In his letter he tells
+me, that, owing to his declining health, and increasing years, he has
+ceased his literary labors altogether, and betaken himself to New
+Orleans, in whose milder climate he hopes he may, in some measure,
+recruit his failing powers. What he says in addition to this I will
+give you in his own words:--
+
+     "The effects of that unlucky fall on the ice, while crossing
+     Boston Common, so many years ago, I have felt in my right hip,
+     to a greater or less degree, ever since; and within the past
+     year my lameness has so much increased as to have become a
+     matter of much anxiety to my friends, and some uneasiness to
+     myself. Taking this in connection with the growing infirmities
+     of age, I sometimes have a foreboding that I shall never return
+     to Boston alive.
+
+     "Under this impression, I now write you, my Cousin Juvinell,
+     entreating you, as my nearest living kinsman and much-beloved
+     friend, to come and see me at this place, and sojourn here with
+     me, until, in the wisdom of a kind Providence, it be determined
+     whether my span of life is to be shortened or lengthened yet a
+     little more. It will be a comfort to me to have you by my side
+     at the closing scene; and it may be that your cheerful presence
+     and sunny humor will do more to revive me than I can hope for
+     even from this mild, pleasant Louisiana air.
+
+     "I know that your compliance with my request will for a season
+     prove a serious interruption to the enjoyment of the little
+     folks in your vicinity, whom you have taken under your wing,
+     and to whose entertainment and instruction so much of your
+     useful life is devoted. But they will, I am sure, without
+     hesitation, make this sacrifice in behalf of one who has for
+     many long years labored so hard and faithfully for their
+     happiness and improvement. Commend me kindly to them. Hoping to
+     see you at an early day, I remain, as ever, your affectionate
+     friend and kinsman,
+
+     "PETER PARLEY."
+
+Uncle Juvinell went on: "I am gratified, my dear children, to see in
+your grateful and sympathetic looks, saddened and disappointed though
+I know you really to be, that you are ready and willing to sacrifice
+what pleasure and entertainment my company and conversation may afford
+you, to the comfort and wishes of this venerated and excellent man. My
+going-away at this moment will, it is true, cause a sad interruption
+to our story of the life of Washington; but next Christmas, if we all
+be spared, and your Uncle Juvinell keep his memory fresh and green, we
+will gather together again in this very room, and take it up where we
+now drop it, and follow it through all its eventful changes to the
+glorious and happy end. Meanwhile, ponder well in your minds what I
+have already told you of the childhood, youth, and early prime of this
+illustrious man. And after all, now that I give the matter a second
+thought, we could not have been interrupted at a more suitable place;
+for the account I have given up to this point needs scarcely a single
+important particular to make it a complete and separate story. We
+have followed him step by step, and seen how he rose, first from the
+boy-farmer to the youthful surveyor, from that to the young colonel,
+from that to the legislator of more mature years, and lastly from that
+to commander-in-chief of the armies of a young and rising nation.
+
+"The history of his career after this period is, in fact, so closely
+connected with that of his country, as to be altogether inseparable
+from it.
+
+"And again I repeat, ponder well in your minds what I have already
+told you, as being, after all, the part most necessary for you at
+present to know. Ever strive to keep his example before your eyes,
+ever to cherish his virtues in your hearts. Like him, be industrious
+in your habits, diligent in your studies, polite in your manners,
+orderly in your dress, peaceable in your disposition, upright in your
+dealings, faithful in your friendships, patient under trials,
+persevering under difficulties, strangers to covetousness, content
+with little, moderate with much, generous, self-denying, courageous in
+well-doing, pure in heart, devout in spirit, modest before men,
+reverent to your parents, respectful to your superiors, humble before
+God; and, like him, let the clear light of truth shine forth in all
+your words, in all your actions, in all your looks and gestures, in
+all your secret thoughts, and in your very souls. Be all this, that
+men may reverence you, that angels may honor you, that God may bless
+and reward you."
+
+Here Uncle Juvinell paused; and, as he looked round on the saddened
+faces of his little auditors, a moisture crept out softly upon his
+eyelashes, and dimmed the brightness of his spectacles. "It grieves me
+much, my dearest children," said he, after a moment or two,--and there
+was a tremor of deep fatherly feeling in his voice,--"it grieves me
+much, that our happy little circle must be broken up. It will be but
+for a season, however; and, when we meet again, we shall be happier
+than had we not parted at all. On Monday, I take the stage-coach for
+Louisville; and there I take the steamer 'Eclipse' for New Orleans. As
+it is a long journey I have before me, I must needs write many
+letters, and do a deal of packing, before setting out: so we will sing
+our evening hymn now, and separate for the night."
+
+Then, joining their voices together, they sang that beautiful hymn,
+"Though far away from friends and home." At the second line,
+however,--"A lonely wanderer I may roam,"--the little folks fairly
+broke down; their hearts rising into their throats from very grief,
+and choking their voices: but, with all the ease of a professed
+singing-master, Uncle Juvinell, though his heart was full too, glided
+at once from the lowest bass to the highest treble, which he carried
+alone, until some of the children, getting the better of their
+feelings, chimed in with him, when he softly dropped to the very
+bottom of his bass again.
+
+The hymn ended, the little folks came one by one, and, without
+speaking a word, embraced and kissed their dear old uncle, this best
+of men; he laying his gentle hand upon their bowed heads, and blessing
+them with more than his usual fervor.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Farmer Boy, and How He Became
+Commander-In-Chief, by Morrison Heady
+
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diff --git a/27012-8.zip b/27012-8.zip
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Farmer Boy, by Uncle Juvinell.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<!--
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Farmer Boy, and How He Became
+Commander-In-Chief, by Morrison Heady
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-Chief
+
+Author: Morrison Heady
+
+Editor: William M. Thayer
+
+Release Date: October 24, 2008 [EBook #27012]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FARMER BOY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Karen Dalrymple, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="250" height="242" alt="Shield and clouds logo" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="550" height="671" alt="Boys playing soldier" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="550" height="794" alt="The Farmer Boy" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>
+<small>THE</small>
+<br /><br />
+FARMER BOY,
+<br /><br />
+<small>AND</small>
+<br /><br />
+<span class="medium">HOW HE BECAME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.</span>
+</h1>
+
+<hr class="tenth" />
+
+<h3>BY UNCLE JUVINELL.</h3>
+
+<hr class="tenth" />
+
+<h3>
+<small>EDITED BY</small>
+<br />
+WILLIAM M. THAYER,
+<br />
+<small>AUTHOR OF "THE PIONEER BOY," ETC.</small><br />
+</h3>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<br /><br />
+<small>SEVENTH THOUSAND.</small>
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+BOSTON:
+<br />
+WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,
+<br />
+<small>245, <span class="smcap">Washington Street</span>.</small>
+<br />
+1864.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<small>
+<br /><br />
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by<br />
+WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,<br />
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
+of Massachusetts<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+BOSTON:<br />
+STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON.<br />
+No. 5, Water Street.<br />
+</small>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY REV. WILLIAM M. THAYER.</h3>
+
+<hr class="tenth" />
+
+<p>The reader will remember, that, in the preface of "<span class="smcap">The Printer Boy</span>," I
+promised the next volume should be "<span class="smcap">The Farmer Boy; or, How George
+Washington became President</span>." That pledge has never been redeemed,
+though some labor has been performed with reference to it. And now
+Providence seems to direct the fulfilment of the promise by the pen of
+another, soon to be well known, I doubt not, to thousands of young
+readers;&mdash;"Uncle Juvinell."</p>
+
+<p>The advance sheets of a volume from his pen, upon the early life of
+Washington, have been placed in my hands for examination. I have
+carefully perused the work, and find it to be of so high a character,
+and so well adapted to the exigencies of the times, that I voluntarily
+abandon the idea of preparing the proposed volume myself, and most
+cordially recommend this work to the youth of our beloved land. I take
+this step with all the more readiness, when I learn that the author
+has persevered in his labors, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> totally blind and almost deaf;
+and I gladly transfer the title which I proposed to give my own book
+to his excellent work, well satisfied that the act will prove a public
+benefit.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will find that Mr. Heady (Uncle Juvinell) has produced a
+very entertaining and instructive volume. It is written in a racy,
+sprightly style, that cannot fail to captivate the mind. Partaking
+himself of the buoyancy and good humor of boyhood, the author is able
+to write for the boys in a manner that is at once attractive and
+profitable. He has written a live book of one, who, "though dead, yet
+speaketh." It is replete with facts, and lessons of wisdom. The
+virtues are taught both by precept and example, and the vices are held
+up in all their deformity to warn and save. Religion, too, receives
+its just tribute, and wears the crown of glory.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of this volume is timely. Adapted as it is to magnify
+the patriotic virtues, and the priceless worth of the government under
+which we live, it will prove a valuable contribution to the juvenile
+literature of the land. In this period of mighty struggles and issues,
+when our nation is groaning and travailing in pain to bring forth a
+future of surpassing renown and grandeur, it is important to inspire
+the hearts of American youth by the noblest examples of patriotism and
+virtue. And such is <span class="smcap">Washington</span>, the "Father of his Country." It is
+best that the young of this battling age should study his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> character
+and emulate his deeds. His life was the richest legacy that he could
+leave to unborn generations, save the glorious Republic that he
+founded; and well will it be for the youth of our country when that
+life becomes to them the stimulus to exalted aims. Then loyalty will
+be free as air, and rebellions be unknown; then treason will hide its
+hydra-head, and our insulted flag wave in triumph where the last chain
+of slavery is broken.</p>
+
+<p>This volume will do its part to hasten this consummation of our
+patriot-hopes. Over its pleasant pages, then, we extend the right hand
+of fellowship to its author, though a stranger to us. Long may his
+able pen hold out! Widely may this his last work circulate! Blessed
+may be the fruits!</p>
+
+<div class="right">W. M. T.</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Franklin, Mass.</span>, October, 1863.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+<hr class="tenth" />
+
+<p>Our beloved country, my dear young readers, has passed through one
+great revolution; and it is now in the midst of another, which
+promises to prove even more momentous in its consequences.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing, therefore, the deep and lasting impression the great events
+of the day must needs produce upon your opening minds, the author of
+this book has been casting about him how he might contribute to your
+and the nation's good. As he is altogether bereft of sight, and nearly
+so of hearing, he is, of course, unable to lift a hand in his
+country's defence, or raise his voice in her justification. But she
+has a future; and for that he entertains an earnest hope, that through
+you, the rising generation, he may do something.</p>
+
+<p>To this end, therefore, he has written this volume, wherein he has
+endeavored to set forth, in a manner more calculated to attract and
+impress the youthful mind than has perhaps been heretofore attempted,
+the life and character of our good and great George Washington.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p>
+<p>By so doing, he hopes to awaken in your minds a desire to imitate the
+example and emulate the virtues of this greatest and wisest of
+Americans. For should he succeed in this, and thereby influence a
+thousand of you, when arrived at man's estate, to remain loyal to your
+country in her hour of peril (who might else have been tempted to turn
+their hand against her), then shall his humble pen have done more for
+her future welfare than he could have done for her present
+deliverance, had he the wielding of a thousand swords.</p>
+
+<p>And, should he ever have reason to suppose that such were really the
+case, far happier would he be, even in the dark and silent depths of
+his solitude, than the renowned victor of a hundred battle-fields, in
+all the blaze and noise of popular applause. Hoping that this little
+book may, for your sakes, fulfil the object for which it was written,
+and prove but the beginning of a long and pleasant acquaintance, he
+will conclude by begging to subscribe himself your true friend and
+well-wisher,</p>
+
+<div class="right">MORRISON HEADY.</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Elk Creek, Spencer County, Ky., 1863.</span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="tenth" />
+
+<p><i>Introduction</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN IT WILL APPEAR WHO UNCLE JUVINELL IS, AND HOW
+HE CAME TO WRITE THE LIFE OF "THE FARMER BOY" FOR THE
+LITTLE FOLKS.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />I.</div>
+<p><i>George at School</i>,<span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND SOME ACCOUNT OF
+THE BIRTH, CHILDHOOD, AND EARLY EDUCATION OF GEORGE
+WASHINGTON, AND THE STORY OF HIS LITTLE HATCHET; FROM
+WHICH HE MAY DRAW A WHOLESOME MORAL, IF HE BE DESIROUS
+OF GROWING IN VIRTUE; TOGETHER WITH OTHER MATTERS OF
+INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE HARDLY TO BE FOUND ELSEWHERE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />II.</div>
+<p><i>The First Sorrow</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>SHOWING HOW GEORGE MET WITH THE FIRST GREAT SORROW
+OF HIS LIFE IN THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER; AND HOW HIS MOTHER
+WAS LEFT A YOUNG WIDOW, WITH THE CARE OF A LARGE FAMILY;
+WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE PRUDENCE AND WISDOM SUE DISPLAYED
+IN THE REARING OF HER CHILDREN; TOGETHER WITH THE
+STORY OF THE SORREL COLT, WHICH UNCLE JUVINELL INTRODUCES
+BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATING THE CHARACTERS OF BOTH MOTHER
+AND SON.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />III.</div>
+
+<p><i>Playing Soldier</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND HOW GEORGE FIGURED
+AS A LITTLE SOLDIER AT SCHOOL; WITH SOME REMARKS TOUCHING
+HIS WONDERFUL STRENGTH AND ACTIVITY OF BODY, AND COURAGE
+OF SPIRIT; AND HOW HE WOULD HAVE FIGURED AS A LITTLE SAILOR,
+HAD HE NOT BEEN PREVENTED BY A MOTHER'S ANXIOUS LOVE;
+WHICH INFLUENCED NOT ONLY THE WHOLE COURSE OF HIS FUTURE
+LIFE, BUT ALSO THE DESTINY OF HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, AND, IT
+MAY BE, THAT OF THE WHOLE WORLD; AS THE LITTLE READER
+WILL FIND OUT FOR HIMSELF. IF HE BUT HAVE THE PATIENCE TO
+BEAR UNCLE JUVINELL COMPANY TO THE END OF THIS INTERESTING
+HISTORY.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />IV.</div>
+
+<p>"<i>Rules of Behavior</i>"<span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>AFFORDING TO THE READER ANOTHER AND HIS LAST GLIMPSE
+OF WASHINGTON AS A SCHOOL-BOY. HERE HE WILL LEARN OF
+WASHINGTON'S MANY INGENIOUS MODES OF GAINING AND RETAINING
+KNOWLEDGE, AND HIS HABITS OF PUTTING IT TO PRACTICAL
+USES; AND WILL FIND HIS RULES OF BEHAVIOR IN COMPANY AND
+IN CONVERSATION, WRITTEN AT THE AGE OF THIRTEEN, WHICH
+UNCLE JUVINELL WOULD EARNESTLY RECOMMEND HIM, AND, IN
+FACT, ALL HIS READERS, BE THEY BOYS OR GIRLS, MEN OR WOMEN,
+TO STORE AWAY IN THEIR MEMORIES, IF THEY BE DESIROUS OF
+GROWING IN VIRTUE. AND OF DEPORTING THEMSELVES IN SUCH
+A MANNER AS TO GAIN THE GOOD-WILL AND ESTEEM, AND CONTRIBUTE
+TO THE HAPPINESS, OF ALL AROUND THEM.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />V.</div>
+
+<p><i>In the Wilderness</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>IN WHICH WILL BE SEEN HOW GEORGE BECAME ACQUAINTED
+WITH OLD LORD FAIRFAX, AND WAS EMPLOYED BY THIS GREAT
+NOBLEMAN TO ACT AS SURVEYOR OF ALL HIS WILD LANDS; WITH
+SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE HE LED IN THE WILDERNESS, AND
+A SOMEWHAT HIGHLY COLORED PICTURE OF A WAR-DANCE PERFORMED
+BY A PARTY OF INDIANS FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF HIM
+AND HIS FRIENDS.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />VI.</div>
+
+<p><i>The Young Surveyor</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>REVEALING STILL FURTHER GLIMPSES OF WASHINGTON AS A
+YOUNG SURVEYOR,&mdash;IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE HOW THAT
+GREAT MAN BROUGHT HIS LABORS IN THE WILDERNESS TO AN
+END; WITH SOME REMARKS RESPECTING THE LOWLAND BEAUTY,
+AND HOW LITTLE IS KNOWN OF HER.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />VII.</div>
+
+<p><i>First Military Appointment</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL LEARN HOW WASHINGTON,
+AT THE EARLY AGE OF NINETEEN, BECAME ONE OF THE ADJUTANT-GENERALS
+OF THE PROVINCE OF VIRGINIA; AND HOW HE WENT ON
+A VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES IN COMPANY WITH HIS BROTHER
+LAWRENCE, WHO, BEING IN QUEST OF HEALTH, AND FAILING TO
+FIND IT THERE, RETURNED HOME TO DIE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />VIII.</div>
+
+<p><i>Important Explanations</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_96'>96</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS TALK TOGETHER,
+IN A PLEASING AND FAMILIAR STYLE OF CERTAIN MATTERS
+CONTAINED IN THE FOREGOING PAGES; WHICH, BEING SOMEWHAT
+DIFFICULT OF COMPREHENSION, NEED TO BE MORE FULLY AND
+CLEARLY EXPLAINED, THAT THEY MAY THE BETTER UNDERSTAND
+WHAT IS TO COME HEREAFTER IN THIS INTERESTING HISTORY.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />IX.</div>
+
+<p><i>Indian Troubles</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_165'>165</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL GOES ON WITH HIS STORY, AND TELLS
+THE LITTLE FOLKS ALL THAT IS NEEDFUL FOR THEM TO KNOW
+CONCERNING THE CAUSES THAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE OLD FRENCH
+WAR; TO WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL DO WELL TO PAY VERY
+PARTICULAR ATTENTION.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><br />X.</div>
+
+<p>"<i>Big Talk" with "White Thunder</i>"<span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>EXPLAINING HOW MAJOR WASHINGTON CAME TO BE SENT BY
+GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE ON A MISSION TO THE FRENCH, NEAR LAKE
+ERIE.&mdash;HOW HE SET OUT.&mdash;WHAT BEFELL HIM BY THE WAY.&mdash;HOW
+HE STOPPED AT LOGSTOWN TO HAVE A BIG TALK WITH THE
+HALF-KING, WHITE THUNDER, AND OTHER INDIAN WORTHIES.&mdash;HOW
+HE AT LAST REACHED THE FRENCH FORT, AND WHAT HE DID
+AFTER HE GOT THERE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XI.</div>
+
+<p><i>Christmas in the Wilderness</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_126'>126</a></span></p>
+<p><small>ENABLING THE YOUNG READER TO FOLLOW MAJOR WASHINGTON
+TO HIS JOURNEY'S END, AND SEE HOW HE AND HIS PARTY SPENT
+THEIR CHRISTMAS IN THE WILDERNESS.&mdash;HOW HE TWICE CAME
+NEAR LOSING HIS LIFE, FIRST BY THE TREACHERY OF AN INDIAN
+GUIDE, AND THEN BY DROWNING; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS
+INTERVIEW WITH THE INDIAN PRINCESS, ALIQUIPPA.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XII.</div>
+
+<p><i>Washington's First Battle</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_134'>134</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER, AFTER GETTING A HINT OF THE
+TREMENDOUS CONSEQUENCES THAT ENSUED FROM THE FRENCH
+GENERAL'S LETTER, WILL FIND SO MUCH TO ENTERTAIN HIM, THAT
+HE WILL READILY EXCUSE UNCLE JUVINELL FROM GIVING THE
+REMAINING HEADS OF THIS CHAPTER; FURTHER THAN TO SAY, THAT
+IT WINDS UP WITH QUITE A LIVELY AND SPIRITED ACCOUNT OF
+WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XIII.</div>
+
+<p><i>Fort Necessity</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_146'>146</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHAT BEFELL COLONEL WASHINGTON IN AND AROUND FORT NECESSITY,
+AND HOW HE SUSTAINED HIS FIRST SIEGE; WHICH WILL
+BE FOUND EVEN MORE ENTERTAINING THAN THE ACCOUNT OF HIS
+FIRST BATTLE, NARRATED IN THE LAST CHAPTER.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XIV.</div>
+
+<p><i>General Braddock</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER AND COLONEL WASHINGTON FORM
+THE ACQUAINTANCE OF GENERAL BRADDOCK, AND COME TO THE
+SAME CONCLUSIONS REGARDING HIS CHARACTER; AND IN WHICH
+THE READER IS HONORED WITH A SLIGHT INTRODUCTION TO THE
+GREAT DR. FRANKLIN, WHO GIVES SOME GOOD ADVICE, WHICH
+BRADDOCK, TO HIS FINAL COST, FAILS TO FOLLOW; AND IS ENTERTAINED
+WITH A FEW GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN CAMP.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XV.</div>
+
+<p><i>Rough Work</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>THE READER WILL SEE HOW GENERAL BRADDOCK AT LAST SET
+OUT ON HIS MARCH TO FORT DUQUESNE.&mdash;HOW HE GOT ENTANGLED
+IN THE WILDERNESS, AND WAS FORCED TO CALL UPON THE YOUNG
+PROVINCIAL COLONEL FOR ADVICE. WHICH, THOUGH WISELY GIVEN,
+WAS NOT WISELY FOLLOWED.&mdash;HOW CAPTAIN JACK MADE AN OFFER,
+FOR WHICH HE GOT BUT SORRY THANKS; AND WILL FIND A SPRINKLING
+OF WAYSIDE ITEMS HERE AND THERE; WHICH SAVES THIS
+CHAPTER FROM BEING CONSIDERED A DULL ONE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XVI.</div>
+
+<p><i>Braddock's Defeat</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE BLOODIEST PAGE IN THE ANNALS
+OF AMERICA; OR, TO EXPRESS IT OTHERWISE, AN ACCOUNT OF THE
+FAMOUS BATTLE OF THE MONONGAHELA, COMMONLY CALLED BRADDOCK'S
+DEFEAT; WHICH, IT WILL BE SEEN AT A GLANCE, MIGHT
+HAVE TURNED OUT A VICTORY AS WELL, HAD WASHINGTON'S ADVICE
+BEEN FOLLOWED.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XVII.</div>
+
+<p><i>Explanations</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_200'>200</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS DISCOURSE
+TOGETHER, IN A LIVELY AND ENTERTAINING STYLE, OF DIVERS MATTERS
+TO BE FOUND, AND NOT TO BE FOUND, IN BOOK THURSDAY;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>WHICH MAY SEEM OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE TO THOSE ELDERLY
+PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO WISE TO BE AMUSED, AND WHO WOULD, ANY
+TIME, RATHER SEE A FACT BROUGHT OUT STARK NAKED THAN
+DRESSED HANDSOMELY. SUCH OWLS ARE REQUESTED TO PASS OVER
+THIS CHAPTER, AND PERCH UPON BOOK FRIDAY, PORTIONS OF WHICH
+WILL, BE FOUND QUITE AS DRY AS THEY COULD POSSIBLY DESIRE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XVIII.</div>
+
+<p><i>Work in Earnest</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_210'>210</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>SHOWING HOW BRADDOCK'S ARMY CONTINUED ITS FLIGHT TO
+PHILADELPHIA.&mdash;HOW WASHINGTON RETURNED TO MOUNT VERNON,
+AND WAS SHORTLY AFTERWARDS MADE COMMANDER OF ALL THE
+FORCES OF VIRGINIA; AND HOW HE WENT TO BOSTON, AND WHY;
+WITH OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XIX.</div>
+
+<p><i>Dark Days</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_222'>222</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>STILL FARTHER ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S TROUBLES WITH THE
+INDIANS AND WITH HIS OWN MEN, AND NOTICE OF HIS MISUNDERSTANDING
+WITH GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE; ALL OF WHICH, COMBINED,
+RENDER THIS THE SADDEST AND THE GLOOMIEST PERIOD OF HIS
+LIFE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XX.</div>
+
+<p><i>A New Enterprise</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_233'>233</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>CONTAINING GLIMPSES OUTSIDE OF THE DIRECT LINE OF OUR
+STORY, WITH A MORE MINUTE AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF
+HOW WASHINGTON WOOED AND WON A FAIR LADY THAN IS TO BE
+MET WITH ELSEWHERE; WITH SOME PARTICULARS TOUCHING AN
+INTENDED EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XXI.</div>
+
+<p><i>More Blundering</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_244'>244</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>SHOWING HOW BRADDOCK'S FOLLY WAS REPEATED BY MAJOR
+GRANT, AS FOREBODED BY WASHINGTON; AND ALSO WHAT CAME
+OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XXII.</div>
+
+<p><i>Washington at Home</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_255'>255</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S MARRIAGE WITH MRS.
+CUSTIS.&mdash;HIS RECEPTION BY THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BURGESSES.&mdash;HIS
+HABITS AS A MAN OF BUSINESS.&mdash;HIS RURAL PURSUITS AND
+AMUSEMENTS.&mdash;HIS LOVE OF SOCIAL PLEASURES.&mdash;HIS ADVENTURE
+WITH A POACHER; AND MANY OTHER ITEMS; ALL OF WHICH, COMBINED,
+MAKE THIS CHAPTER ONE OF THE MOST PLEASING AND
+ENTERTAINING OF THE WHOLE BOOK.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XXIII.</div>
+
+<p><i>A Family Quarrel</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_269'>269</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND WHAT WILL BE EXPLAINED
+MORE TO HIS SATISFACTION IN CHAPTER XXIV.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XXIV.</div>
+
+<p><i>The Cause of the Quarrel</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_276'>276</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>AFFORDING A MORE CLEAR, AND SATISFACTORY ACCOUNT OF THE
+CAUSES THAT BROUGHT ABOUT OUR REVOLUTIONARY WAR THAN
+WAS GIVEN IN CHAPTER XXIII; BUT CHAPTER XXV. MUST NEEDS
+BE READ, BEFORE A FULL AND COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF
+THESE MATTERS CAN BE ARRIVED AT.</small></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XXV.</div>
+
+<p><i>Resistance to Tyranny</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_288'>288</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>ILLUSTRATING WHAT PART WASHINGTON TOOK IN THESE MEASURES
+OF RESISTANCE TO BRITISH TYRANNY.&mdash;HOW HE BECAME A
+REPRESENTATIVE OF VIRGINIA IN THE GREAT COLONIAL ASSEMBLY,
+OTHERWISE CALLED THE OLD CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; AND HOW,
+UPON THE BREAKING-OUT OF HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE COLONIES
+AND THE MOTHER-COUNTRY, HE WAS MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
+OF ALL THE FORCES OF THE UNITED COLONIES; WITH OTHER ITEMS
+TOUCHING THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, AND
+PATRICK HENRY, THE GREAT VIRGINIA ORATOR.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="center"><br />XXVI.</div>
+
+<p><i>Conclusion</i><span class="linenum"><a href='#Page_301'>301</a></span></p>
+
+<p><small>WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL BE ENTERTAINED WITH
+THE PLEASING AND EDIFYING CONVERSATION WHICH TOOK PLACE
+BETWEEN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS, TOUCHING
+DIVERS MATTERS IN BOOK FRIDAY; WHICH DEMAND FURTHER CONSIDERATION
+FOR A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF OUR HISTORY,
+PAST AND TO COME.</small></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h1><a name="THE_FARMER_BOY" id="THE_FARMER_BOY"></a>THE FARMER BOY.</h1>
+<hr class="tenth" />
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Somewhere in green Kentucky, not a great many years ago, the ruddy
+light of a Christmas sunset, streaming in at the windows of an
+old-fashioned brick house, that stood on a gentle hillside, half
+hidden by evergreens, shone full and broad on a group of merry little
+youngsters there met together to spend the holiday with their Uncle
+Juvinell, a charming old bachelor of threescore and ten.</p>
+
+<p>What with "blind man's buff," "leap-frog," "hide-and-seek," "poor
+pussy wants a corner," Mother Goose, dominos, sky-rockets and squibs,
+and what with the roasting of big red apples and the munching of
+gingerbread elephants, the reading of beautiful story-books,&mdash;received
+that morning as Christmas presents from their Uncle Juvinell and other
+loving relatives,&mdash;these little folks had found this day the most
+delightful of their lives.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+<p>Tired at last of play, and stuffed with Christmas knick-knacks till
+their jackets and breeches could hold no more, they had now betaken
+themselves to the library to await the return of their Uncle Juvinell,
+who had gone out to take his usual evening walk; and were now quietly
+seated round a blazing winter fire, that winked and blinked at them
+with its great bright eye, and went roaring right merrily up the wide
+chimney. Just as the last beam of the setting sun went out at the
+window, Uncle Juvinell, as if to fill its place, came in at the door,
+all brisk and ruddy from his tramp over the snow in the sharp bracing
+air, and was hailed with a joyous shout by the little folks, who,
+hastening to wheel his great arm-chair for him round to the fire,
+pushed and pulled him into it, and called upon him to tell one of his
+most charming stories, even before the tingling frost was out of his
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>As this worthy old gentleman has done much for the entertainment and
+instruction of the rising generations of the land, it is but due him
+that some mention, touching his many amiable traits of character and
+his accomplishments of mind and person, should be made in this place
+for the more complete satisfaction of those who may hereafter feel
+themselves indebted to him for some of the most pleasant moments of
+their lives.</p>
+
+<p>In person, Uncle Juvinell is stout and well-rounded. His legs are fat,
+and rather short; his body is fat,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> and rather long; his belly is snug
+and plump; his hands are plump and white; his hair is white and soft;
+his eyes are soft and blue; his coat is blue and sleek; and over his
+sleek and dimpled face, from his dimpled chin to the very crown of his
+head,&mdash;which, being bald, shines like sweet oil in a warm
+fire-light,&mdash;there beams one unbroken smile of fun, good-humor, and
+love, that fills one's heart with sunshine to behold. Indeed, to look
+at him, and be with him a while, you could hardly help half believing
+that he must be a twin-brother of Santa Claus, so closely does he
+resemble that far-famed personage, not only in appearance, but in
+character also; and more than once, having been met in his little
+sleigh by some belated school-boy, whistling homeward through the
+twilight of a Christmas or New Year's Eve, he has been mistaken for
+the jolly old saint himself. In short, his whole appearance is in the
+highest degree respectable; and there is even about him an air of
+old-fashioned elegance, which of course is owing chiefly to the
+natural sweetness and politeness of his manners, and yet perhaps a
+little heightened withal by the gold-bowed spectacles that he wears on
+his nose, the heavy gold bar that pins his snowy linen, the gold
+buttons that shine on his coat, his massive gold watch-chain (at the
+end of which hangs a great red seal as big as a baby's fist), and by
+his gold-headed ebony cane, that he always carries on his shoulder
+like a musket when he walks, as much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> as to say, "Threescore and ten,
+and no need of a staff yet, my Christian friend." No man is more
+beloved and esteemed by all who know him, old and young, than he; for
+like Father Grimes, whose nephew he is by the mother's side.&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"He modest merit seeks to find,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And give it its desert;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He has no malice in his mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">No ruffles on his shirt.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">His neighbors he does not abuse;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is sociable and gay:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He wears large buckles in his shoes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And changes them, each day."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>If there is one thing about Uncle Juvinell that we might venture to
+pronounce more charming than another, it is the smile of mingled fun,
+good-humor, and love, with which his countenance never ceases to
+shine, save when he hears the voice of pain and his breast with pity
+burns. Touching this same trait of his, a lady once said in our
+hearing, that she verily believed a cherub, fresh from the rosy
+chambers of the morning, came at the opening of each day to Uncle
+Juvinell's chamber, just on purpose to dash a handful of sunbeams on
+his head; and, as there were always more than enough to keep his face
+bathed with smiles for the next twenty-four hours, they were not
+wasted, but, falling and lodging on his gold spectacles, his gold
+breast-pin, his gold buttons, his gold watch-chain, and the gold head
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> his ebony cane, washed them with lustre ever new, as if his face,
+bright and broad as it was, were not enough to reflect the love and
+sunshine ever dwelling in his heart. We will not undertake to vouch
+for the truth of this, however. As the young lady was a marriageable
+young lady, and had been for a number of years, it would not be
+gallant or generous for us to mention it; but of this we are certain,
+that, when this good old gentleman enters a room, there is a warmth
+and brightness in his very presence, that causes you to look round,
+half expecting to see the tables and chairs throwing their shadows
+along the floor, as if, by the power of magic, a window had suddenly
+been opened in the wall to let in the morning sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>If the affections of Uncle Juvinell's heart are childlike in their
+freshness, the powers of his intellect are gigantic in their
+dimensions. He is a man of prodigious learning: for proof of which,
+you have but to enter his library, and take note of the books upon
+books that crowd the shelves from the floor to the ceiling; the maps
+that line the walls; the two great globes, one of the earth and the
+other of the heavens, that stand on either side of his reading-desk;
+and the reading-desk itself, whereon there always lies some book of
+monstrous size, wide open, which no one has ever had the courage to
+read from beginning to end, or could comprehend if he did.</p>
+
+<p>In the languages he is very expert; speaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> French with such
+clearness and distinctness, that any native-born Frenchman, with a
+fair knowledge of the English, can with but little difficulty
+understand more than half he says; and in German he is scarcely less
+fluent and ready; while his Latin is the envy of all who know only
+their mother-tongue. In mathematics, his skill is such, that you might
+give him a sum, the working-out of which would cover three or four
+large slates; and he would never fail to arrive at the answer, let him
+but take his time.</p>
+
+<p>In astronomy, he is perfectly at home among the fixed stars; can
+distinguish them at a single glance, and that, too, without the help
+of his spectacles, from the wandering planets; and is as familiar with
+the motion and changes of the moon, as if he had been in the habit for
+the last forty years of spending the hot summer months at some of the
+fashionable watering-places of that amiable and interesting orb. But
+it is in the history of the nations and great men of the earth that
+Uncle Juvinell most excels, as shall be proved to your entire
+satisfaction before reaching the end of this volume.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, notwithstanding the vastness of his learning and the gigantic
+powers of his mind, he can, when it so pleases him, disburden himself
+of these great matters, and descend from his lofty height to the
+comprehension of the little folks, with as much ease as a huge
+balloon, soaring amidst the clouds, can let off its gas, and sink down
+to the level of the kites,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> air-balls, and sky-rockets wherewith they
+are wont to amuse themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Being an old bachelor, as before noticed, he, of course, has no
+children of his own; but, like the philosopher that he is, he always
+consoles himself for this misfortune with the reflection, that, had he
+been so favored, much of his love and affection must needs have been
+wasted on his own six, eight, or ten, as the case might have been,
+instead of being divided without measure among the hundreds and
+thousands of little ones that gladden the wedded life, and fill with
+their music the homes of others more blessed.</p>
+
+<p>Living, as all his brothers do, in easy circumstances, he has abundant
+time and leisure to devote himself to the particular interest and
+enjoyment of these little ones; and is always casting in his mind what
+he may be doing to amuse them, or make them wiser, better, and
+happier.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the ease, heartiness, and familiarity with which he demeans
+himself when among them, and enters into all their little pastimes and
+concerns, that they stand no more in awe of him than if he were one of
+their own number; and make him the butt of a thousand impish pranks,
+at which he laughs as heartily as the merriest rogue among them. And
+yet it is for that very reason, perhaps, that they love him so
+devotedly, and would give up their dog-knives or wax dolls any day,
+sooner than show themselves unmindful of his slightest wishes, or do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+aught that could bring upon them even his softest rebuke. They make
+nothing of taking off his gold spectacles, and putting them on their
+own little pugs to look wise; or running their chubby fists into the
+tight, warm pockets of his breeches, in quest of his gold pencil or
+pearl-handled knife; or dashing like mad over the yard, with his
+gold-headed cane for a steed; or stealing up behind him, as he stands
+with his back to the fire, and slyly pulling out his big red bandanna
+handkerchief, wherewith to yoke the dog and cat together as they lie
+sociably side by side on the hearth-rug. In short, he will suffer them
+to tease him and tousle him and tumble him to their hearts' content,
+and set no limits to their liberties, so long as they are careful not
+to touch his snowy linen with their smutched fingers; for, if Uncle
+Juvinell has one fault in the world, it is his unreasonable partiality
+for snowy linen. But, were we to go on with our praises and
+commendations of this best of men, we should fill a large volume full
+to overflowing, and still leave the better half unsaid: so we must
+exercise a little self-denial, and forego such pleasing thoughts for
+the present, as it now behooves us to bring our minds to bear upon
+matters we have more nearly in view.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing how earnestly the little folks were bent upon drawing out of
+him one of his longest stories, Uncle Juvinell now bade them sit down
+and be quiet till he should have time to conjure up something more
+charming than any Arabian tale they had ever heard;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> and throwing
+himself back in his great arm-chair, and fixing his eyes on the
+glowing coals, that seemed to present to his fancy an ever-shifting
+panorama, was soon lost in profound meditation. And the longer he
+thought, the harder he looked at the fire, which knowingly answered
+his look with a winking and blinking of its great bright eye, that
+seemed to say, "Well, Uncle Juvinell, what shall we do for the
+entertainment or instruction of these little people to-night? Shall we
+tell them of that crew of antic goblins we wot of, who are wont to
+meet by moonlight, to play at football with the hanged man's head,
+among the tombstones of an old graveyard? Or may be that dreadful
+ogre, with the one fiery eye in the middle of his forehead, who was in
+the habit of roasting fat men on a spit for his Christmas dinners,
+would be more to their taste. Or, if you prefer it, let it be that
+beautiful fairy, who, mounted on a milk-white pony, and dressed in
+green and gold, made her home in an echoing wood, for no other purpose
+than to lead little children therefrom, who might by some ill chance
+be separated from their friends, and lose their way in its tangled
+wilds. Or perhaps you are thinking it would be more instructive to
+them were we to conjure up some story of early times in green
+Kentucky, when our great-grandfathers were wont to take their rifles
+to bed with them, and sleep with them in their arms, ready to spring
+up at the slightest rustling of the dry leaves in the woods, and
+defend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> themselves against the dreaded Indian, as with panther-like
+tread he skulked around their lonely dwellings."</p>
+
+<p>To each and all of these, Uncle Juvinell shook his head; none of them
+being just exactly the thing he wanted. At length, finding that the
+fire hindered rather than helped him to make a choice, he rose from
+his seat, turned his back upon it, and looked from one bright face to
+another of the circle before him, till his eye rested on Daniel, who
+was among the oldest of the children, and was, by the way, the young
+historian of the family, and, in his own opinion, a youth of rather
+uncommon parts. He had that morning received from his uncle, as a
+Christmas present, that most delightful of story-books, "Robinson
+Crusoe;" but having seen the unlucky sailor high, but not dry, on his
+desert island, and having run his eye over all the pictures, he had
+laid it aside, and was now standing at the reading-desk, looking as
+wise as a young owl in a fog over a very large book indeed, in which
+he pretended to be too deeply interested to finish a slab of
+gingerbread that lay half munched at his side.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing his little nephew thus engaged, Uncle Juvinell smiled a quiet
+smile all to himself, and, after watching him a few moments, said,
+"Dannie, my boy, what book is that you are reading with so much
+interest that you have forgotten your gingerbread?"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Irving's Life of Washington, sir," replied Daniel with an air.</p>
+
+<p>"A good book, a very good indeed; but too hard for you, I fear," said
+Uncle Juvinell, shaking his head. "Tell me, though, how far you have
+read."</p>
+
+<p>"To Braddock's defeat, sir," replied Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been getting over the ground rather fast, I am thinking; but
+tell me how you like it," said Uncle Juvinell, by way of drawing his
+little nephew out.</p>
+
+<p>"Here and there, I come to a chapter that I like very much," replied
+Daniel: "but there are parts that I don't understand very well; and I
+was just thinking that I would point them out to you some time, and
+get you to explain them to me; as you will, I am certain; for you know
+every thing, and are so obliging to us little folks!"</p>
+
+<p>At this, Uncle Juvinell's face lighted up as with a brilliant thought;
+but, without seeming to notice his little nephew's request just then,
+he reseated himself, and again began looking hard at the fire. The
+fire opened its great bright eye more widely than before, and looked
+as if it were putting the question, "Well, sir, and what is it now?
+Out with it, and I will throw what light I can on the matter." After a
+few moments, there appeared to be a perfect understanding between
+them; for the fire with a sly wink seemed to say, "A happy thought,
+Uncle Juvinell,&mdash;a very happy thought indeed: I was just on the point
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> proposing the very same thing myself. Come, let us go about it at
+once, and make these holidays the brightest and happiest these little
+folks have ever known, or ever could or would or should know, in all
+their lives." And the fire fell to winking and blinking at such an
+extravagant rate, that the shadows of those who were seated round it
+began bobbing up and down the wall, looking like misshapen goblins
+amusing themselves by jumping imaginary ropes, the gigantic one of
+Uncle Juvinell leaping so high as to butt the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>After several minutes of deep thought, the old gentleman rose, and
+stood on his short fat legs with the air of a man who had made up his
+mind, and with a smile on his face, as if sure he was just on the
+point of giving them all a pleasant surprise. "Laura, my dear," said
+he, "take down that picture from the wall you see hanging to the right
+of the bookcase; and you, Ella, my darling, take that bunch of
+feathers, and brush off the dust from it. Now hand it to me. This, my
+cherubs," he went on, "is the portrait of the good and great George
+Washington, who is called the Father of our country. It is to him,
+more than to any other man, that we owe the blessings of freedom,
+peace, and prosperity, we now enjoy in larger measure than any other
+people of the wide earth; and it was for these same blessings that he
+fought and struggled through all the weary years of our Revolutionary
+War, amidst difficulties, dangers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> and discouragements such as never
+before tried the strength of man. And when, in the happy end, he, by
+his courage, skill, and fortitude, and abiding trust in the protection
+of an all-wise Providence, had come out victorious over all, and
+driven our cruel enemies from the land, so that our homes were once
+more gladdened with the smiles of peace and plenty,&mdash;then it was that
+a grateful people with one voice hailed him chosen of the Lord for the
+salvation of our beloved country. Blessed be the name of George
+Washington,&mdash;blessed for evermore!" And a big tear of love and
+thankfulness started from each of Uncle Juvinell's mild blue eyes,
+trickled slowly over his ruddy cheek, and, dropping thence, went
+hopping and sparkling down his large blue waistcoat.</p>
+
+<p>At this the little folks looked very grave, and thought to themselves,
+"What a good man Washington must have been, and how much he must have
+done and suffered for the welfare of his fellow-beings, thus to have
+brought the tears to our dear old uncle's eyes!" After looking at the
+picture for some moments in silence, they began talking about it, each
+in his or her own fashion; while Uncle Juvinell listened with much
+interest, curious to see what different impressions it would produce
+on their minds.</p>
+
+<p>"That scroll he holds in his left hand must be his farewell address to
+his army," said Daniel, the young historian, looking very wise.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fine long sword he carries at his side!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> said Bryce, a
+war-like youngster who had just climbed to the summit of his ninth
+year, and had, as you must know, a wooden sword of his own, with which
+he went about dealing death and destruction to whole regiments of
+cornstalks and squadrons of horse-weeds, calling them British and
+Tories.</p>
+
+<p>"How tall and grand and handsome he looks!" said Laura, a prim and
+demure little miss of thirteen: "in his presence, I am sure I could
+never speak above a whisper."</p>
+
+<p>"That, yonder, among the trees and evergreens on the hill, must be the
+house where he lived," said Ella, a modest, sweet-mannered little lady
+of twelve. "What a beautiful place it is! and what a happy home it
+must have been when he lived in it!"</p>
+
+<p>"And see how the hill slopes down to the river, so grassy and smooth!
+and such a nice place for little boys to roll over and over down to
+the bottom!" said Ned, a rough-and-tumble youngster of ten, who spent
+one-half of the sunshine with his back to the ground and his heels in
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>"And see the beautiful river so broad and so smooth, and the great
+ships afar off going down to the sea!" said Johnnie, a little poet of
+eight, who passed much of his time dreaming with his eyes open.</p>
+
+<p>"And such a pretty play-house as I see there among the bushes on the
+hillside!" said Fannie, a stout little matron of five, the mother of a
+large and still increasing family of dolls.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+<p>"That is not a play-house, Fannie, but the tomb where Washington lies
+buried," said Dannie with an air of superior wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"What a splendid white horse that black man is holding for him! How he
+bows his neck, and champs his bit, and paws the ground!" said Willie,
+a harum-scarum, neck-or-nothing young blade of fourteen, who would
+have given his best leg to have been the owner of a galloping,
+high-headed, short-tailed pony.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he doing so far away from home without his hat, I wonder?"
+said Master Charlie, a knowing young gentleman of eight, who was much
+in the habit of doubting everybody's eyes and ears but his own.</p>
+
+<p>"How kind and good he looks out of his eyes, just like father!" said
+Mary, an affectionate and timid little creature of seven.</p>
+
+<p>Just then, Addison, a plump little fellow of four, in all the glory of
+his first new jacket and his first new breeches, who was standing on
+the top round of Uncle Juvinell's chair, suddenly cried out in a very
+strong voice for his age, "Oh! he looks just like Uncle Juvinell: now
+don't he, Cousin Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>For a man of his appearance to be thus compared with so stately and
+dignified a man as Washington was a thing so ludicrous, that Uncle
+Juvinell was surprised into the heartiest fit of laughter that he had
+enjoyed that day. When it was over, he bade Laura hang up the picture
+again in its accustomed place,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> and began where he had left off some
+time before: "Now, my dear children, it came into my mind, while I was
+talking with your Cousin Dannie a little bit ago, that I could not
+tell you any thing more entertaining and instructive than the story of
+Washington's life. It will, I am quite sure, interest you much: for
+although he was such a great man,&mdash;the greatest, no doubt, that ever
+lived,&mdash;and so awful to look upon, yet, for all that, his heart was
+full to overflowing with the most tender and kindly affections, and,
+if you can believe it, quite as fond of little children as your Uncle
+Juvinell; often joining in their innocent sports for a whole hour at a
+time. Let me see. This is Wednesday; and we have seven, eight, long
+holidays before us to be as happy as skylarks in. Now, I am thinking,
+that, if we would have next New Year's Day find us better and wiser,
+we could not hit upon a more proper plan for beginning so desirable an
+end than by spending a part of each day in making ourselves acquainted
+with the life and character of this good and great man, and, at the
+close of each evening's lesson, talking over what we have learned, to
+our more complete understanding of the same. And now, my merry ones,
+speak out, and tell me what you think of it."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be just exactly the very thing," said wise Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>"Glorious!" said rollicking Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Charming!" said prim and demure Miss Laura.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+<p>"'Twill be delightful, I am sure," said modest Ella.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing could please me better, if we have a good big battle now and
+then," said war-like Bryce.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if it will be as interesting as 'Robinson Crusoe'?" put in
+doubting Charlie.</p>
+
+<p>"Or 'Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp'?" chimed in dreaming Johnnie.</p>
+
+<p>"And we'll all listen, and be so good!" said timid, loving little
+Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment for me, uncle, till I run down to the cabin, just to
+see how Black Daddy's getting along making my sled," said hair-brained
+Ned.</p>
+
+<p>"And wait a little bit for me too, uncle, till I go and put my dolly
+babe to bed; for she might take the measles if I keep her up too
+long," said motherly Fannie.</p>
+
+<p>"And let me sit on your knee, uncle; Cousin Mary wants my chair," said
+Addison, the youngest one of them all, at the same time climbing up,
+and getting astride of Uncle Juvinell's left fat leg.</p>
+
+<p>"Then settle yourselves at once, you noisy chatterboxes," said Uncle
+Juvinell with a shining face; "and mind you be as quiet and mute as
+mice at a cat's wedding while I am telling my story, or I'll"&mdash;His
+threat was drowned in the joyous shouts of the children as they
+scrambled into their chairs. When they had all put on a listening
+look, he poured out a little yellow, squat, Dutch mug brimful of rich
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>brown cider from a big blue pitcher that Black Daddy had just placed
+on a table close at hand, and, having wet his whistle therewith, began
+his story. And now and then, as the story went on, the fire, keeping
+its bright, watchful eye upon the old gentleman, would wink at him in
+a sly manner, that seemed to say, "Well done, Uncle Juvinell,&mdash;very
+well done indeed. You see, sir, I was quite right in what I told you.
+We have hit upon the very thing. The little folks are enchanted: they
+are drawing in wisdom with every breath. A merry Christmas to us all!"
+Pop, pop! hurrah! pop!</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2>
+
+<h3>GEORGE AT SCHOOL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A hundred years ago or more, there stood on the green slopes of the
+Potomac, in the county of Westmoreland, Va., an old red farmhouse,
+with a huge stone chimney at each end, and high gray roof, the eaves
+of which projected in such a manner as to cover a porch in front and
+two or three small shed-rooms in the rear. Now, although this house
+was built of wooden beams and painted boards, and was far from being
+what could be called, even for those times, a fine one,&mdash;looking as it
+did more like a barn than a dwelling for man,&mdash;yet, for all that, it
+had the honor of being the birthplace of the good and great George
+Washington, who is said, by many very wise persons who ought to know,
+to have been the greatest man that ever came into this pleasant and
+glorious world of ours.</p>
+
+<p>His father, Augustine Washington, was married early in life to Jane
+Butler, who died after having borne him two sons, Lawrence and
+Augustine. In a year or two after this loss, feeling the want of some
+one to gladden his lonely heart and home, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> married Mary Ball, the
+belle of Horseneck, and said to have been the most beautiful young
+lady in all that part of the country. By this union he was blessed
+with six children, of whom our George, the eldest, was born on the
+twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+seven hundred and thirty-two.</p>
+
+<p>It has often appeared strange to me that nothing should be known of
+this great man's life up to the completion of his fifth year: and I am
+sorry for your sakes, my little ones, that such is the case; for it
+would be such a nice beginning to our story, could we say with
+certainty that he distinguished himself by walking alone at the age of
+five months; that he could pronounce "Mother" and "Good" with perfect
+distinctness when but one year old; that his mother taught him at the
+age of two to kneel by her side, and lisp, before going to his evening
+rest, that beautiful prayer, beginning with, "Now I lay me down to
+sleep;" that he rode like mad, at the age of three, round and round
+the yard, on his father's buckhorn-headed cane; and that he rode on a
+real horse at the age of four, and went galloping like a young Tartar
+round and round the meadow in front of the house, to the delight of
+his young mother, who watched him from the window. Of all this, and a
+great deal more of the same sort, you would, I doubt not, like much to
+hear, and I would like much to tell you; but we must keep within the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+bounds of true history, and content ourselves with the knowledge of
+that which really did happen. With this safe rule for our guidance, we
+will therefore proceed at once to take up the thread of our story at
+that period of George's boyhood, concerning which some certain record
+has come down to our time.</p>
+
+<p>At the age of five, when he was old enough to walk all alone for a
+mile or two through the woods and fields, his parents started him to
+school one bright spring morning, with his little basket on his arm,
+containing his dinner and a bran-new spelling-book, to take his first
+tiny steps in the flowery path of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>His first teacher was a Mr. Hobby, an old man, who lived on a distant
+part of his father's plantation, and is said to have been besides the
+sexton or grave-digger of the neighborhood; and was, I have my private
+reasons for thinking, a broken-down old soldier, with a big cocked hat
+that shaded a kindly and weather-beaten face, and a wooden leg,&mdash;an
+ornament for which he was indebted to a cannon-ball, and took more
+pride in than if it had been a sound one of flesh and bone. As it is
+rarely ever the case that men with wooden legs are called upon to
+fight the battles of their country, this worthy old man, who well knew
+how to read and write, and cipher too, must needs earn his livelihood
+by teaching school, and sowing his knowledge broadcast among the
+little children of the neighborhood.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<p>Accordingly, it was to old Mr. Hobby, as everybody called him, that
+George was indebted for his first insight into the mysteries of
+book-learning; and although he was in due time to become the greatest
+man of this or any other age or country, yet he began his education
+by first learning his A B C, just as did other boys of that day,
+just as they are now doing, and just as they will continue to do
+for all time to come. After he had taken his A B C into his memory,
+and set them there in a straight row each in its proper place, he was
+not long, depend upon it, in reaching the middle of his spelling-book;
+and as soon as he could, without anybody's help, climb over tall and
+difficult words of five or six syllables, such as "immortality" or
+"responsibility," his master put him in the English Reader, where
+he soon overtook and went clean ahead of boys a great deal older
+than himself. From reading, he in a short time rose to writing;
+and it was said by those who knew him best, that he learned to write
+a neat round hand without ever once blotting his copy-book; and
+furthermore, that such a thing as a dirty, thumb-worn, dog-eared
+book was never seen in his hand. His next step in the path of
+knowledge was arithmetic; and, in less time than you can well
+believe, he had got the multiplication-table so thoroughly by heart,
+that he could run over it as fast backwards, from twelve times twelve
+to twice one, as common boys straightforward, even with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> open book
+before their eyes. So well did he study, that, in less than four
+years' time after his first starting to school, the single rule of
+three was no more to him than long division to most boys; and he
+could repeat the tables of weights and measures as glibly as you,
+Master Johnnie, can rattle off the charming story of "Old Mother
+Hubbard and her Wonderful Dog."</p>
+
+<p>Now, the rapid progress George made in his studies was owing not so
+much to his uncommon aptitude at learning as to the diligence and
+industry with which he applied himself to them. For example: when
+other boys would be staring out at the window, watching the birds and
+squirrels sporting among the tree-tops; or sitting idly with their
+hands in their pockets, opening and shutting their jack-knives, or
+counting their marbles, or munching apples and corn-dodgers in a
+sneaking and unbecoming manner behind their books; or, more naughty
+still, shooting paper bullets at old Hobby's wooden leg as he eat
+dozing behind his high desk of a drowsy summer afternoon,&mdash;our George,
+with his hands to his ears to keep out the schoolroom buzz, would be
+studying with all his might; nor would he once raise his eyes from his
+book till every word of his lesson was ready to drop from his tongue's
+end of its own accord. So well did he apply himself, and so attentive
+was he to every thing taught him, that, by the time he was ten years
+old, he had learned all that the poor old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> grave-digger knew himself;
+and it was this worthy man's boast in after-years, that he had laid
+the foundation of Washington's future greatness. But what old Wooden
+Leg&mdash;for so they always called him when his back was turned&mdash;could not
+teach him at school, little George learned at home of his father and
+mother, who were well educated for those days; and many a long winter
+evening did these good parents spend in telling their children
+interesting and instructive stories of olden times, far-off countries,
+and strange people, which George would write down in his copy-book in
+his neatest, roundest hand, and remember ever afterward.</p>
+
+<p>A more prudent and careful father, and a more discreet and
+affectionate mother, than Mr. Washington and his wife Mary, perhaps
+never lived. So earnest and watchful were they to bring up their
+children in the fear of the Lord, and in the practice of every noble
+virtue, that their dutiful behavior and sweet manners were the talk
+and praise of the good people for miles and miles around. They taught
+them to be neat and orderly in their dress, as well as civil and
+polite in their manners; to be respectful to their elders; to be kind
+to one another, and to every thing God hath made, both great and
+small, whether man or bird or beast: but chiefly were they concerned
+to teach them the love of truth, and to tell it at all times when it
+should be their duty to speak out, let the consequences be what they
+might. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> show you that such wise and careful training was not lost
+on the tender mind of George, I will tell you the story of his little
+hatchet, as it may serve you good stead in the day when you may be
+tempted to wander astray from the path of truth and virtue.</p>
+
+<p>One Christmas Eve, when the sharp, frosty air made the blood brisk and
+lively in the veins, little George, who was then about six years old,
+hung up his stocking on the mantel of the huge chimney, saying to
+himself as he did so, "Good Santa Claus, be kind to me while I am
+sleeping peacefully." Next morning, bright and early, just as a great
+Christmas log had begun to blaze and crackle on the hearth, he jumped
+spryly from his bed, and, without stopping to put on his clothes, ran
+to his stockings to see what good old Santa Claus had brought him
+while he slept. I leave you to picture to your minds his delight upon
+finding therein a little Indian tomahawk, with a bright keen edge and
+long red handle. It would have done all your hearts good to have seen
+how he skipped and danced around the room, and flourished his hatchet
+high over his head; how he went showing it to every one about the
+house, white and black; praising good old Santa Claus to the very
+skies, and never once feeling the want of his breeches. But, between
+you and me, I am rather inclined to suspect, that, if we had any means
+of arriving at the facts of the case, it would be found that Santa
+Claus had no more concern in this matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> than your Uncle Juvinell
+himself. To my mind, there is more reason in the supposition, that his
+father, seeing the jolly old saint pass by at a late hour of the night
+in an empty sleigh, and that the children were not likely to have
+their stockings filled for that once, got up early in the morning, and
+put the hatchet in there himself, rather than that his little son
+should be disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>Be this as it may, it was all the same to George; and he was as happy
+as happy could be. At the breakfast-table, he could hardly eat his
+bread and milk for looking at his shining axe, which he had laid
+beside him on the table; and, before it was fairly broad daylight, he
+was out at the wood-yard, ankle-deep in snow, cutting and chopping
+away at the hard-seasoned beech and maple logs, as if it lay with him,
+for that day at least, to keep the whole family, white and black, from
+freezing. By and by, however, he found this more work than play, and
+began to cast his earnest young eyes about him for something green and
+soft whereon to try the edge and temper of his hatchet. Presently, as
+ill-luck would have it, a fine young English cherry-tree, just over
+the fence hard by, caught his attention, which, without further ado,
+he fell to hacking might and main; and the way he made the little
+chips fly was a thing surprising to see.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, his father, passing by that way, saw the mischief that
+had been done, and was sorely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>displeased: for he had planted and
+reared this selfsame tree with the tenderest care; and, of all the
+trees in his orchard, there was not one other he prized so highly.
+Being quite sure that it was the work of some of the black children,
+he went straightway down to the negro quarter, bent on finding out,
+and bringing the unlucky culprit to a severe account.</p>
+
+<p>"Dick," said he to the first one he met, "did you cut that
+cherry-tree?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mauster; don't know nothin' 'bout it," said Dick, showing the
+whites of <i>his</i> eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you, Sam?" said Mr. Washington, putting the same question to
+another little woolly-head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, mauster; don't know nothin' 'bout it," said Sam, likewise showing
+the whites of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The same question was put to Harry, who gave Dick and Sam's answer
+word for word, and, to add force to his denial, showed the whites of
+his eyes in like manner; and so on, till more than a dozen had been
+questioned with the same result; when it came to Jerry's turn to make
+denial, and show the whites of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Now, you must know there was not a more audacious, mischief-making,
+neck-or-nothing black brat than this same Jerry to be found on the
+banks of the Rappahannock, which is a very long river indeed. As a
+fish lives in water, or a salamander in fire, so did Jerry live and
+breathe, and have his being, in mischief; or, in other words, mischief
+was the element<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> in which Jerry found his chief delight. If any mishap
+befell anybody or any thing, at any hour of the day or night, on any
+part of the plantation, on foot or on horseback, at rest or in motion,
+it was sure to be brought and laid at Jerry's door. Being aware of all
+this, Mr. Washington was now quite sure, that, as none of the rest had
+cut the cherry-tree, Jerry himself must be the offender; and so he put
+the question to him; to which Jerry, showing the whites of his eyes,
+made answer, "No, mauster; I didn't cut the cherry-tree: indeed,
+indeed, and double deed, I didn't cut the cherry-tree."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Jerry," said his master, "if you always told the truth, I should
+know when to believe you; but, as you do not, you must take the
+consequences of your evil ways, and blame nobody but yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Upon hearing this, Jerry began dancing and hopping around the room in
+a very brisk and lively manner, even before his master was within ten
+feet of him, as if he already felt the switch about his legs.</p>
+
+<p>Just then, in the very nick of time, George came walking leisurely by,
+hatchet in hand; who, upon seeing how matters stood, without a
+moment's hesitation, ran up to his father, and, dropping his hatchet,
+caught him round the leg, just as the first stroke of the switch was
+about to descend on the calves of the unlucky Jerry.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+<p>"O papa, papa!" cried he, "don't whip poor Jerry: if somebody must be
+whipped, let it be me; for it was I, and not Jerry, that cut the
+cherry-tree. I didn't know how much harm I was doing; I didn't
+indeed." And the child began crying piteously.</p>
+
+<p>With a look of glad surprise, his father, dropping the switch, caught
+his brave little boy in his arms, and folded him tenderly, lovingly,
+to his bosom. "Now, thanks be to God," cried he, "thanks be to God,
+that I have a son whose love of truth is greater than his fear of
+punishment! Look on him, my black children, look on him, and be as
+near like him as you can, if you would have the love of your master
+and the good-will of all around you."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing the unlooked-for turn the affair had taken, and not having the
+words to express the feelings of joy and thankfulness that swelled
+almost to bursting in his little black breast, Jerry darted through
+the door, out into the yard, kicked up his heels, yelped like a young
+dog, threw a somerset in the snow, and went rolling over and over down
+to the bottom of the hill, and ever after loved his noble little
+master to distraction.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST SORROW.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When George had learned all that poor old Hobby could teach him, his
+father, to reward him for his diligence and good behavior at school,
+indulged him in two or three weeks' holidays, which he went to spend
+at a distance from home, among some friends and relatives. Here, as
+usual, he was made much of; for, being a great favorite with all who
+knew him, he met with a cordial reception wherever he went; and what
+with hunting and fishing, riding and visiting, the time spent here was
+the most delightful he had ever known. But hardly had half the happy
+days flown by, when word came that his father was sick, even unto
+death; and that, of all things, he most desired to look upon his noble
+boy once more before he died. With a sadness and heaviness of heart he
+had never before experienced, George set out on his return home, where
+he arrived just in time to receive his dying father's blessing. Long
+and deeply did he mourn his loss; for his father was most tenderly
+beloved by his children, and greatly esteemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> by his friends and
+neighbors as a useful member of society, and a man of many sterling
+traits of character.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Washington was thus left a young widow with a large family of
+young children, whom it now became her duty to provide for and educate
+in a manner becoming a Christian mother; and how well and faithfully
+and lovingly she discharged this sacred trust, is most beautifully set
+forth in the life and character of her great son. She was a woman of
+uncommon strength and clearness of understanding, and her heart was
+the home of every pure and noble virtue. She was mild, but firm;
+generous, but just; candid whenever she deemed it her duty to speak
+her mind, but never losing sight of the respect and consideration due
+to the feelings and opinions of others. She was gentle and loving with
+her children, yet exacting from them in return the strictest obedience
+to her will and wishes. But of all virtues most sacred in her eyes was
+that of the love of truth, which she ever sought to implant in their
+minds; assuring them, that, without it, all other virtues were but as
+unprofitable weeds, barren of fruits and flowers. She was simple and
+dignified in her manners, and had a hearty dislike for every thing
+savoring of parade and idle show. She always received her friends and
+visitors with a cordial smile of welcome, spreading before them with
+an unsparing hand the best her house afforded: but, when they rose to
+depart, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> would invite them once, and once only, to stay longer;
+and, if after this they still seemed bent on going, she would do all
+in her power to speed them on their journey. With so many traits
+betokening strength of mind and character, she had but one weakness;
+and this was her excessive dread of thunder, caused in early
+maidenhood by seeing a young lady struck dead at her side by
+lightning.</p>
+
+<p>And such was Mary, the mother of Washington; and seldom indeed has her
+like been seen. As her husband, by industry and prudent management,
+had gathered together enough of the riches of this world to leave each
+of his children a fine plantation, she was not hindered by straitened
+circumstances, or anxiety as to their means of future support, from
+giving her chief attention to such bodily and mental training as
+should have a lasting tendency to make them, in more mature years,
+healthy, virtuous, and wise.</p>
+
+<p>It has been often remarked, that those men who have most distinguished
+themselves in the world's history for noble thoughts and heroic deeds,
+have, as a general thing, inherited those qualities of mind and heart
+which made them great, from their mothers, rather than from their
+fathers; and also that their efforts to improve and elevate the
+condition of their fellow-beings have been owing in a larger measure
+to the lessons of truth, piety, and industry, taught them by their
+mothers in childhood and early youth. If this be the case, then how
+much are we indebted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> for the freedom, prosperity, and happiness we
+now enjoy above other nations of the earth, to Mary, the mother of
+Washington! Perhaps, to give you a still more forcible idea of the
+characters of both mother and son, and of the wholesome effects on him
+of her judicious training, I ought to relate in this place the story
+of his attempt at taming the sorrel horse.</p>
+
+<p>A fine horse was an object that afforded Mrs. Washington, as it did
+the other substantial Virginia ladies of that day, quite as much, if
+not more, real pleasure than their more delicate grand-daughters of
+the present now find in their handsome carriages, lap-dogs, and
+canary-birds. So great was her fondness for this noble animal, that
+she usually suffered two or three of her finest to run in a meadow in
+front of the house, where she might look at them from time to time as
+she sat sewing at her dining-room window. One of these was a young
+sorrel horse, of great beauty of form, and fleetness of foot, but of
+so wild and vicious a nature, that, for fear of accident, she had
+forbidden any one to mount him, although he had already reached his
+full height and size.</p>
+
+<p>Now, you must know that a bolder and more skilful rider than George
+was not to be found in all the Old Dominion, as Virginia is sometimes
+called; and it was this early practice that afterwards won for him the
+name of being the finest horseman of his day. Often, as we may very
+naturally suppose to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> have been the case, would he reason thus with
+himself, as, sitting on the topmost rail of a worm fence, he watched
+the spirited young animal frisking and bounding about the field in all
+the freedom of his untamed nature: "If I were but once upon his back,
+with a strong bit in his mouth, believe me, I would soon make him a
+thing of use as well as ornament; and it would, I am sure, be such a
+pleasant surprise to mother to look from her window some fine morning,
+and see me mounted on his back, and managing him with ease, and to
+know that it was I who had subdued his proud spirit."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, full of these thoughts, he arose early one bright summer
+morning, and invited two or three friends of his own age, then on a
+visit at his mother's house, to go with him to the fields, to share
+with him the sport, or lend their aid in carrying out his design,
+should it be found too difficult and hazardous for himself alone. They
+needed no second bidding, these young madcaps, to whom nothing could
+be more to their liking than such wild sport. So at it they went; and
+after a deal of chasing and racing, heading and doubling, falling down
+and picking themselves up again, and more shouting and laughing than
+they had breath to spare for, they at last succeeded in driving the
+panting and affrighted young animal into a corner. Here, by some means
+or other (it was difficult to tell precisely how), they managed to
+bridle him, although at no small risk of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> a broken head or two from
+his heels, that he seemed to fling about him in a dozen different
+directions at once. Having thus made him their captive, they led him
+out to the more open parts of the field, where George requested his
+friends to hold him till he could get on his back. But the wild and
+unruly spirit the young beast had shown that morning had so dismayed
+them, that they flatly refused to comply; begging him not to think of
+attempting it, as it would be at the risk of life or limb. But George
+was not to be daunted by such trifles; and seeing that his blood was
+up, and knowing that, when this was the case with him, he was not to
+be turned aside from his purpose, they at length yielded unwilling
+consent to his entreaties; and, giving him the required aid, he was
+soon mounted.</p>
+
+<p>This was an insult the proud-spirited animal could not brook; and he
+began plunging and rearing in a manner so frightful to behold, that
+they who watched the struggle for mastery expected every moment to see
+the daring young rider hurled headlong to the ground. But he kept his
+seat unmoved and firm as an iron statue on an iron horse. At length,
+however, the horse, clinching the bit between his teeth, became for a
+time unmanageable, and sped away over the field on the wings of the
+wind; till, making a false step, he staggered and plunged, rallied
+again, staggered, and, with the red life-stream gushing from his
+nostrils, dropped down dead.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+<p>George sprang from the ground unharmed: but, when he saw the noble
+young animal stretched out smoking and bloody and lifeless before him,
+tears of pity filled his eyes; and still faster did they flow when he
+thought of the grief it would occasion his mother, when she should
+hear how her beautiful favorite had come to his end. His companions
+now rejoining him, they all, with sad misgiving in their hearts,
+returned to the house, where Mrs. Washington met them with a cheerful
+good-morning, and, when they had taken their seats at the
+breakfast-table, began talking with them in her usual lively and
+entertaining manner, until the dreaded question came: "Well, young
+gentlemen," said she, "have you seen any thing of my sorrel horse in
+your walks this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>The boys looked at one another for some moments in silence, scarce
+knowing what answer to make. At last, George, to put an end to the
+painful suspense, said in a subdued voice, "Mother, the sorrel horse
+is dead." He then, in a few brief words, told her how it had all
+happened, and ended by entreating her forgiveness if he had offended;
+at the same time assuring her, that, in so doing, he had only thought
+of giving her a pleasant surprise.</p>
+
+<p>When he first began his account of the mishap, a flush of anger rose
+to his mother's cheek; of which, however, there was not a trace to be
+seen by the time he had finished; and she answered, with something
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>like an approving smile, "My son, as you have had the courage to come
+and tell me the truth at once, I freely forgive you: had you skulked
+away, I would have despised you, and been ashamed to own you as my
+son."</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2>
+
+<h3>PLAYING SOLDIER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>After the death of her husband, Mrs. Washington left the care and
+education of her son George, in no small measure, to the judgment and
+discretion of her step-son Lawrence, a young man of twenty-five, and
+lately married to Miss Fairfax. The love that had always existed
+between these two brothers was something beautiful indeed to
+behold,&mdash;the more so when we take into consideration the difference of
+fourteen years in their ages; and, now that their dear father was no
+more, this love grew all the more tender and strong, and George soon
+learned to look up to his eldest brother as to a second father.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lawrence Washington, besides being a fine scholar and one of the
+most polished gentlemen of his day, was also a brave and able soldier;
+having served during the late Spanish war as a lieutenant under the
+great Admiral Vernon, in honor of whom he had named his fine estate on
+the Potomac, Mount Vernon.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+<p>At Mount Vernon, then, we find George spending by far the greater
+portion of his holidays; and here he often fell in with young
+officers, fellow-soldiers of his brother, to whom with eager ears he
+was wont to listen as they recounted their adventures, and told of
+hard-fought battles by land and sea with the roving pirates, or
+sea-robbers, and proud and vengeful Spaniards. These stories so fired
+his ardent young spirit, that he longed of all things to become a
+great soldier, that he might go forth to fight the enemies of his
+country, wherever they were to be found, and drive them from the face
+of the wide earth. To give these feelings some relief, he would muster
+his little school-fellows at play-time, and take them through the
+lessons of a military drill; showing them how to fire and fall back,
+how to advance and retreat, how to form in line of march, how to pitch
+their tents for a night's encampment, how to lay an Indian ambuscade,
+how to scale a wall, how to storm a battery; and, in short, forty
+other evolutions not to be found in any work on military tactics ever
+written, and at which old Wooden Leg, had he been there, would have
+shaken his cocked hat with a dubious look. Then dividing them into two
+opposing armies, with himself at the head of one, and the tallest boy
+of the school leading on the other, he would incite them to fight sham
+battles with wooden swords, wooden guns, snow-balls, and such other
+munitions of war as came most readily to hand; in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> George, no
+matter what might be the odds against him, or what superior advantages
+the enemy might have in weapons or ground, was always sure to come off
+victorious.</p>
+
+<p>He was a handsome boy, uncommonly tall, strong, and active for his
+age; could out-run, out-jump, out-ride any boy three years older than
+himself; and, in wrestling, there was not one in a hundred who could
+bring his back to the ground. Many stories are told of his wonderful
+strength; and the spot is still shown, where, when a boy, he stood on
+the banks of the Rappahannock River, and, at its widest part, threw a
+stone to the opposite side,&mdash;a feat that no one has been found able to
+perform since that day. It was said, that, a few years later, he stood
+under the Natural Bridge, and threw a silver dollar upon the top of
+it,&mdash;a height of two hundred and twenty feet; not less than that of
+Bunker-hill Monument, and more than double that of the tallest hickory
+that ever hailed down its ripened nuts upon your heads. Although there
+were none more studious than he in the schoolroom, yet he always took
+the keenest delight in every kind of active and manly sport, and was
+the acknowledged leader of the playground. But he had qualities of
+mind and heart far more desirable and meritorious than those of mere
+bodily activity and strength. Such was his love of truth, his strong
+sense of justice, and his clearness of judgment, that, when any
+dispute arose between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> his playmates, they always appealed to him to
+decide the difference between them, as willing to abide by his
+decision, and make it their law. Although he had the courage of a
+young lion, and was even more than a match in strength for many an
+older boy, he was never known to have a fight at school, nor elsewhere
+indeed, that I have ever heard; for such was the respect he ever
+showed to the feelings and wishes of others, that he never gave an
+insult, and, depend upon it, never received one.</p>
+
+<p>The high ground of Mount Vernon commands a splendid view of the
+Potomac up and down for miles, where it makes a noble bend, and winds
+its shining course amidst verdant meadow-slopes and richly wooded
+hills. Now and then, in the course of the year, some noble ship, with
+all its sails outspread and gay banners fluttering to the breeze,
+might be seen moving down the majestic stream, hastening in its pride
+and strength to stem the billows of the mighty ocean. With the keenest
+of delight none but the young and daring mind can ever know, George,
+as he stood on the piazza in front of his brother's mansion, would
+watch them with wishful eyes, until a bend of the river hid their
+lofty masts behind the green tops of the yet more lofty hills between.
+Then would there awaken in his heart an earnest longing to become a
+sailor; to go forth in some gallant ship upon the face of the great
+deep; to visit those far-off countries, where he might behold with his
+own eyes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> those wonders he had read so much of in books. At such
+times, it may be, there would arise in his mind enchanting visions of
+some desert island, upon whose lonely rocky shores he might some day
+have the rare good fortune of being thrown by the angry billows, there
+to dwell, like another Robinson Crusoe, many, many years, with no
+other company than talking birds, skipping goats, and dancing cats,
+and, if so lucky, a good man Friday, to be rescued by his daring from
+the bloody clutches of the terrible cannibals.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence Washington was not long in discovering the thoughts that were
+uppermost in the mind of the adventurous boy; and, like the generous
+brother that he was, resolved that, should an opportunity offer, a
+wish so natural should be gratified. In a short time after, George
+being then about fourteen years of age, a British man-of-war moved up
+the Potomac, and cast anchor in full view of Mount Vernon. On board of
+this vessel his brother Lawrence procured him a midshipman's warrant,
+after having by much persuasion gained the consent of his mother;
+which, however, she yielded with much reluctance, and many misgivings
+with respect to the profession her son was about to choose. Not
+knowing how much pain all this was giving his mother, George was as
+near wild with delight as could well be with a boy of a nature so even
+and steady. Now, what had all along been but a waking dream was about
+to become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> a wide-awake reality. His preparations were soon made:
+already was his trunk packed, and carried on board the ship that was
+to bear him so far away from his native land; and nothing now remained
+but to bid farewell to the loved ones at home. But when he came and
+stood before his mother, dressed in his gay midshipman's uniform, so
+tall and robust in figure, so handsome in face, and so noble in look
+and gesture, the thought took possession of her mind, that, if she
+suffered him to leave her then, she might never see him more; and,
+losing her usual firmness and self-control, she burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Deeply do I regret, my dear son," said she, "to disappoint you in a
+wish you have so near at heart: but I find I cannot bring myself to
+give you up yet; for, young as you are, your aid and counsel have
+already become to me of the greatest service and comfort; and these
+little fatherless ones, now weeping around you, have learned to look
+up to you as their protector and guide. You know too little of the
+ways of the world, and are too young and inexperienced, to go forth to
+endure its hardships, and battle with its temptations, that lie in
+wait on every side to entrap the unwary, and lead them down to
+destruction. Without you, our home would be lonely indeed: then, for
+your mother's sake, and for the sake of these little ones, give up
+your darling scheme, for the present at least, that we may all be
+happy at home once more together."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+<p>Thus entreated, what could he do but yield consent to the wishes of a
+loving and prudent mother, and remain at home? where, in a few days,
+his noble self-denial was rewarded with a sweet contentment of mind
+that he could never have known had he left the dear ones in sorrow
+behind him, and gone forth to spend months and years upon the billows
+of the lonely seas. Surely a kind Heaven so ordered that the welfare
+and happiness of us Americans, and, it may be, that of the whole
+world, should be made to depend upon the promptings of a mother's
+love; for had the boy Washington realized this early dream, and gone
+forth in that gallant ship, he might have perished in the stormy deep,
+and we had never known the name we now love so much to praise and
+venerate. Or, by his distinguished abilities, he might have risen to
+become in time the Lord High Admiral of the British Navy; and, instead
+of being set apart to the salvation of his native land, might have
+been made an instrument to its destruction, impossible as such an
+event may now appear to us, with our knowledge of the glorious work he
+did perform when in the fulness of his strength and years, and
+accustomed as we are to behold in him our model of all that is great
+and virtuous in mankind.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>"RULES OF BEHAVIOR."</h3>
+
+
+<p>For the five years following his father's death, George made his home
+at the house of his half-brother, Augustine Washington, at a
+considerable distance from his mother's, where he might have the
+benefit of a better school which that neighborhood afforded. His new
+schoolmaster was a Mr. Williams, a very worthy man; who, however,
+although he knew a vast deal more than Mr. Hobby, the poor old
+grave-digger, was far from being what we might call a first-rate
+scholar. But what his teacher lacked in learning, George made up in
+diligence, and the most judicious use of every means of
+self-improvement within his reach. And here, my dear children, let me
+remind you of a thing worthy of your remembrance through life, that
+success in the pursuit of knowledge depends far less upon the ability
+and skill of the teacher, than upon the industry, perseverance, and
+willing application of the learner.</p>
+
+<p>Under the instruction of this, his second and last teacher, George got
+a little insight into English grammar, read some history, became well
+acquainted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> with geography, completely mastered arithmetic, and made
+handsome progress in geometry and trigonometry; which, as you must
+know, are higher branches of mathematics than arithmetic, and far more
+difficult to comprehend. In connection with the two latter, he studied
+surveying; by which is taught, as you must continue to bear in mind
+hereafter, the measurement of land.</p>
+
+<p>When he had advanced so far in this study as to give him some idea of
+the proper use and handling of the chain and compass, the two
+principal instruments employed in this art, he began to put his
+knowledge into practice by taking surveys of the farms lying in the
+immediate neighborhood of his schoolhouse, and also of the lands
+belonging to the estate of Mount Vernon.</p>
+
+<p>Assisted by his schoolmates, he would follow up, and measure off with
+the help of his long steel chain, the boundary lines between the
+farms, such as fences, roads, and watercourses; then those dividing
+the different parts of the same farm; determining at the same time,
+with the help of his compass, their various courses, their crooks and
+windings, and the angles formed at their points of meeting or
+intersection. This would enable him to get at the shape and size not
+only of each farm, but of every meadow, field, and wood composing it.
+This done, he would make a map or drawing on paper of the land
+surveyed, whereon would be clearly traced the lines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> dividing the
+different parts, with the name and number of acres of each attached;
+while, on the opposite page, he would write down the long and
+difficult tables of figures by which these results had been reached.
+All this he would execute with as much neatness and accuracy as if it
+had been left with him to decide thereby some gravely disputed
+land-claim.</p>
+
+<p>To qualify himself for the management of business affairs upon
+reaching the age of manhood, he would copy off into a blank-book every
+form or instrument of writing he would meet with; such as deeds,
+wills, notes of hand, bills of exchange, receipts, bonds,
+land-warrants, &amp;c., &amp;c. And, what was still more remarkable in a boy
+of thirteen, he wrote down, under the head of what he called "Rules of
+Behavior in Company and Conversation," such wise maxims, and lines of
+wholesome advice, as he would pick up from time to time in the course
+of his reading or observation, to aid him in forming habits of
+industry, politeness, and morality. Some of these rules, your Uncle
+Juvinell, with an eye mainly to your well-being, will repeat to you;
+for, when but a boy, he got them by heart, well knowing, that, without
+some such aid, he would find it hard, if not impossible, to so order
+his walks through life as to win and deserve the esteem and confidence
+of his fellow-men, as well as the blessing and approbation of his
+Maker. And now that he has reached the evening of his days, and is
+well assured that the daily observance of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> rules has made him a
+wiser, a better, and a happier man, he would most earnestly advise all
+his friends, great or small, but especially small, be they boys or
+girls, to pursue the like course, if they would be favored of Heaven
+in the like manner. Here they are:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"1. Every action in company ought to be with some sign of
+respect to those present.</p>
+
+<p>"2. In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a
+humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.</p>
+
+<p>"3. Speak not when others speak, sit not when others stand,
+speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not when others
+stop.</p>
+
+<p>"4. Turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jog
+not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean
+not on any one.</p>
+
+<p>"5. Be not a flatterer; neither play with any one that delights
+not to be played with.</p>
+
+<p>"6. Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though
+he were your enemy.</p>
+
+<p>"7. It is good manners to prefer them to whom we speak before
+ourselves, especially if they be above us; with whom in no sort
+ought we to begin.</p>
+
+<p>"8. Strive not with your superiors in an argument, but always
+submit your judgment to others with modesty.</p>
+
+<p>"9. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself
+professes; for it is immodest and presumptuous.</p>
+
+<p>"10. When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well,
+blame not him that did it.</p>
+
+<p>"11. Before you advise or find fault with any one, consider
+whether it ought to be in public or in private, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>presently or
+at some other time, in what terms to do it; and, in reproving,
+show no signs of anger, but do it with sweetness and mildness.</p>
+
+<p>"12. Take all advice thankfully, in what time or place soever
+given; but afterwards, not being blamable, take a time or place
+convenient to let him know it that gave it.</p>
+
+<p>"13. Mock not in jest at any thing of importance: if you
+deliver any thing witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing
+thereat yourself.</p>
+
+<p>"14. Wherein you reprove another, be unblamable yourself; for
+example is better than precept.</p>
+
+<p>"15. Use no reproachful language against any one; neither curse
+nor revile.</p>
+
+<p>"16. Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the injury of
+any.</p>
+
+<p>"17. In your apparel, be modest, and endeavor to accommodate
+yourself to nature, rather than to procure admiration; keep to
+the fashion of your equals, such as are civil and orderly, with
+respect to time and places.</p>
+
+<p>"18. Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you to see
+if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your
+pantaloons sit neatly, and clothes handsomely.</p>
+
+<p>"19. Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem
+your reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad
+company.</p>
+
+<p>"20. Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is
+a sign of a kindly and commendable nature; and, in all causes
+of passion, admit reason to govern.</p>
+
+<p>"21. Be not immodest in urging a friend to make known a secret.</p>
+
+<p>"22. Utter not base and frivolous things amongst grave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> and
+learned men, nor very difficult questions or subjects among the
+ignorant, nor things hard to believe.</p>
+
+<p>"23. Speak not of doleful things in time of mirth, nor at the
+table; speak not of melancholy things, as death and wounds;
+and, if others mention them, change, if you can, the discourse.
+Tell not your dreams but to your intimate friend.</p>
+
+<p>"24. Break not a jest, when none take pleasure in mirth; laugh
+not loud, nor at all, without occasion; deride no man's
+misfortune, though there seem to be some cause.</p>
+
+<p>"25. Speak not injurious words, neither in jest nor earnest;
+scoff at none, although they give occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"26. Seek not to lessen the merits of others; neither give more
+than due praise.</p>
+
+<p>"27. Go not thither where you know not whether you shall be
+welcome. Give not advice without being asked; and, when
+desired, do it briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"28. Reprove not the imperfections of others; for that belongs
+to parents, masters, and superiors.</p>
+
+<p>"29. Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of others, and ask not
+how they came. What you may speak in secret to your friend,
+deliver not before others.</p>
+
+<p>"30. Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly, nor
+bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"31. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb
+not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not
+nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not nor
+answer him until his speech be ended.</p>
+
+<p>"32. Treat with men at right times about business, and whimper
+not in the company of others.</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"33. Be not in haste to relate news, if you know not the truth
+thereof.</p>
+
+<p>"34. Be not curious to know the affairs of others; neither
+approach those that speak in private.</p>
+
+<p>"35. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to
+keep your promise.</p>
+
+<p>"36. When your masters or superiors talk to anybody, hearken
+not, nor speak or laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"37. Speak not evil of the absent; for it is unjust.</p>
+
+<p>"38. Make no show of taking delight in your victuals; feed not
+with greediness; cut your food with a knife, and lean not on
+the table; neither find fault with what you eat.</p>
+
+<p>"39. Be not angry at the table, whatever happens; and, if you
+have reason to be so, show it not, but put on a cheerful face,
+especially if there be strangers; for good humor makes of one
+dish a feast.</p>
+
+<p>"40. If you speak of God or his attributes, let it be
+seriously, in reverence; and honor and obey your parents.</p>
+
+<p>"41. Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.</p>
+
+<p>"42. Labor to keep in your breast that little spark of
+celestial fire called conscience."</p></div>
+
+<p>Now, does it not strike you, my dear children, as being most truly
+wonderful that it should have ever entered the mind of a boy of
+thirteen to lay down for his own guidance and self-improvement such
+rules and principles as these I have just repeated? It certainly must.
+And yet when I tell you that he strictly adhered to them through life,
+and squared his conduct by them daily, you will, no doubt, think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> it
+quite unreasonable that he could have been other than the good and
+great man he was.</p>
+
+<p>These writings I have mentioned filled several quires of paper; and
+together with his business papers, letters, journals, and
+account-books, written later in life, and with the same neatness and
+precision, are still preserved at Mount Vernon with pious care; and
+are even now to be seen by those who go on pilgrimages to that sacred
+spot, although, since many of them were penned, more than a hundred
+years have come and gone.</p>
+
+<p>And thus, my children, you have seen young Washington, at an age when
+most boys are wasting their precious hours in idle sports, seeking to
+acquire those habits of industry, punctuality, and method, which
+afterwards enabled him so to economize time and labor as to do with
+ease and expedition what others did with difficulty and tardiness. You
+have seen him making the best use of the slender means within his
+reach for storing his mind with those treasures of knowledge, and
+schooling his heart in the daily practice of those exalted virtues,
+which, after a life well spent and work well done, make good his title
+to the name he bears,&mdash;the greatest and the wisest of human kind.</p>
+
+<p>At last, the day came when George was to leave school for ever; and a
+day of sorrow it was to his school-fellows, who parted from him with
+many an affectionate wish, and, as we are told, even with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> tears; so
+greatly had he endeared himself to them by his noble disposition,
+gentle manners, and earnest desire to do as he would be done by, which
+appeared in all his words and actions. In these regrets, Mr. Williams,
+his worthy schoolmaster, also shared; and it gave him in after-life,
+when his little George had become the great Washington, the most
+heartfelt pleasure to say, that it had never been his privilege to
+teach another pupil who could at all compare with him for diligence in
+application, aptitude in learning, docility of disposition, manly
+generosity, courage, and truth.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE WILDERNESS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Extending from the Rappahannock to the Potomac, and stretching away
+beyond the Blue Ridge far into the Alleghany Mountains, there lay at
+this time an immense tract of forest land, broken only here and there
+by a little clearing, in the midst of which stood the rude log-cabin
+of some hardy backwoodsman. This large body of land&mdash;the largest,
+indeed, ever owned by any one man in Virginia&mdash;was the property of a
+great English nobleman named Lord Fairfax, an old bachelor of
+eccentric habits and strange opinions, but of a highly cultivated
+understanding, and, when it so pleased him, of polite and elegant
+address. His stature was lofty,&mdash;far above that of the common run of
+men. He was a keen sportsman, had a fund of whimsical humor, and, in
+his odd way, showed himself possessed of a kindly and generous heart;
+sometimes making a tenant or poor friend the present of a large farm,
+without requiring any thing in return but a haunch of venison or a fat
+wild turkey for his next Christmas dinner.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+<p>Having heard that settlements were being made in the most fertile
+valleys of his wild domain, he had lately come over from the
+mother-country to inquire into the matter, and make suitable provision
+against any future encroachments of the kind upon his rights. He now
+beheld his forest possessions for the first time; and so charmed was
+he with the wild beauty of the scenery, and so won over by enticing
+visions of fishing and hunting, conjured up by the sight of the waving
+woods and running streams, that he resolved to leave his native land
+for ever, and take up his abiding-place for the rest of his days amid
+those leafy solitudes. Accordingly, he betook himself, with all his
+negro servants (numbering one hundred and fifty), and a few white
+dependants, to the beautiful Valley of the Shenandoah, lying between
+the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains; where he soon cleared a
+large plantation, and built thereon a house, to which he gave the name
+of Greenway Court.</p>
+
+<p>From that time forward, this became his fixed abode; but, as he had
+more land than a thousand men could put to any good use, he was quite
+willing to dispose of all, except what lay for a few miles immediately
+around Greenway Court, at reasonable rates, to such honest persons as
+were willing to buy it and make it their future home. But, in order
+that no misunderstanding might arise hereafter between the parties
+concerned with respect to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> boundary-line and number of acres
+bought and sold, it was necessary, in the first place, to have the
+land surveyed, and divided into lots of convenient sizes for farms.</p>
+
+<p>Now, you must know that, old Lord Fairfax was a distant relative of
+Mrs. Lawrence Washington, and had, as a natural consequence, often met
+our George at Mount Vernon; and so struck was he with the manly
+bearing, high character, good sense, and mathematical skill, of the
+fair-haired, blue-eyed youth, that he offered him, young as he was,
+the place of surveyor of all his vast lands. Being the son of a
+widowed mother, and earnestly desirous of aiding her all in his power,
+and earning for himself an honest independence, George was but too
+happy to accept of the offer; and the necessary arrangements were soon
+made. Having provided himself with all things needful for the new
+enterprise,&mdash;such as a horse, a rifle, a blanket, and a steel chain
+and compass,&mdash;he set out, at the head of a small party of hunters and
+backwoodsmen, upon this his first considerable field of labor, early
+in the spring of 1748, just one month from the completion of his
+sixteenth year.</p>
+
+<p>They were soon, in the depths of the wilderness, miles beyond the most
+distant frontier settlements. The snows of winter that still lingered
+on the mountains, warmed by the softer airs of early spring, had
+melted so rapidly of late as to swell the forest streams to a degree
+that rendered their fording often difficult,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> and even sometimes
+dangerous. Now and then, coming to a stream which had overflowed its
+banks, the little party would be obliged to construct a raft of logs,
+roughly lashed together with grape-vines, upon which they could push
+to the opposite side, without getting their baggage wet, and, at the
+same time, compel their horses to swim along behind. Their way was
+often obstructed by the trunks and branches of fallen trees, thickets
+tangled and dense and thorny, huge and rugged rocks, and treacherous
+swamps, covered with long, green grass, into which the horses,
+stepping unawares, would suddenly plunge up to the saddle-girths in
+water and mire.</p>
+
+<p>For some time, they lodged in wigwams or huts, rudely framed of poles,
+and covered with the bark of trees; which served the purpose well
+enough when the weather was dry and still, but were often beaten down
+and overturned by the winds and rains when their shelter was most
+needed. After two or three of these rickety shanties had been tumbled
+about their heads, to the no small risk of life or limb, they wisely
+concluded to abandon them, and sleep in the open air, with the
+twinkling stars above them, the gray old trees around them, and the
+damp, cold ground beneath them, with nothing between but their good
+blankets, and the dead, dry leaves of autumn heaped together; and
+lucky was he who got the place nearest the fire, or could put the
+mossy trunk of a fallen tree between him and the biting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> blast, or,
+better still, could boast a bearskin for his bed. A little before
+sunset, they would halt for the night in some sheltered spot,
+convenient to a running stream; where, turning their horses loose to
+graze till morning, they would build a cheerful fire of the dry
+brushwood close at hand, and prepare their evening meal, which they
+would eat with a keenness of appetite known only to the tired and
+hungry hunter. Each man was his own cook; their food consisting
+chiefly of venison and wild turkey their rifles procured them, and
+fish drawn from the neighboring brook, which they would broil on the
+glowing coals, fastened to a forked stick instead of a spit, and then
+eat it from a maple chip, instead of a dish. If the season permitted
+them to add to this a hatful of berries that grew on the sunny side of
+the hill, or acorns from the mountain-oak, or nuts from the
+hickory-tree, or, more delicious still, plums, persimmons, and
+pawpaws, that grew in the more open parts of the woods, they made of
+it a dainty feast indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then, in the course of this rambling life in the wilderness,
+they met with roving bands of skin-clad Indians, either as warriors
+out upon the war-path against some distant tribe, or as hunters
+roaming the forest in quest of game. One evening, late, as our little
+party of surveyors were about to encamp for the night, they spied
+through the trees the glimmering light of a large fire on the top of a
+far-off hill. Curious to know who, besides <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>themselves, could be in
+that lonely place, they determined to go thither before stopping; and,
+guided by the light, reached ere long the spot, where they found a
+small squad of Indian hunters, resting themselves after the fatigues
+of the day's chase. They seemed to be in high good humor, as if the
+hunt had gone well with them that day; and, being in this mood,
+extended a true Indian welcome to the new-comers; setting before them,
+with open-handed hospitality, heaps of parched corn, and their
+choicest bits of venison, wild turkey, bear's meat, and fish. Supper
+ended, the pipe of peace and good-will passed from mouth to mouth, as
+a pledge that all should go on well between them; after which the
+Indians, for the further entertainment of their white guests, and as a
+more marked manner of showing their respect, set about preparing
+themselves for a war-dance.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, they cleared the ground around the fire of chunks
+and brushwood, and other obstructions that might hinder the free play
+of their feet and legs in the performance. Then the two musicians
+began to put in order and tune their instruments: that is to say, one
+of them filled a camp-kettle half full of water, over which he tightly
+stretched a raw-hide, and, tapping it twice or thrice with a stick,
+drew forth a hollow, smothered sound therefrom, by way of giving to
+those not in the secret a hint that this was to be their drum; while
+the other made a rattle by putting a few bullets or pebbles into a
+hard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> dry gourd of monstrous size, to the handle of which he fastened
+a horse's tail, not so much to improve its tone perhaps, as to give it
+a more finished appearance.</p>
+
+<p>These simple preparations soon completed, a tall warrior, grimly
+painted as if for battle, advanced a few paces into the circle, and,
+squatting upon his haunches, fixed his eyes for several moments with a
+hard, stony look upon nothing whatever, till the first tap of the drum
+and the first jerk of the rattle, when he suddenly leaped up, with a
+deafening yell that made the old woods ring again, and began capering
+about in the most astonishing manner, causing such a commotion among
+the dry leaves and dead twigs as made it appear that a little
+whirlwind had all at once been let loose among them. Another soon
+followed, and got up a similar sensation among the dry leaves and dead
+twigs on his own private account; while a third, springing into the
+circle, did the same; and so on, until at last the whole party were
+hot in the dance. Some brandished their scalping-knives, some
+flourished their tomahawks, some waved aloft the scalps of their
+enemies taken in battle; all yelling the while, and all making
+horrible faces. And warmer and warmer they waxed in the dance, and
+round and round they went; now up in the air, now down on the ground;
+jumping and kicking, yelping and barking, spinning and whirling,
+yelling and howling, like a pack of hobgoblins and imps on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> spree.
+The hollow woods gave back the barbarous din in a thousand
+obstreperous echoes; and afar off, from the depths of the lonely
+forest glens, might have been heard, had not the attention of the
+spectators been otherwise engaged, the answering howl of the hungry
+wolves.</p>
+
+<p>After some time spent in this outlandish amusement, without any
+previous notice whatever, plump down they sat, and, in a minute, were
+smoking their pipes with as much gravity and composure as if they had
+just come in from a gentle promenade with their wives and children
+along the banks of a smooth and tranquil river. It was a sight, once
+seen, never to be forgotten. At first, George and his friends had
+looked on with open-eyed amazement; but, before the dance was ended,
+the whole scene appeared to them so comical, that they had need of all
+their self-control to keep a sober countenance, so as not to give
+offence to their savage entertainers.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE YOUNG SURVEYOR.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a glorious region of stately woods, fertile valleys, clear
+running streams, and lofty mountains, where our young surveyor, with
+the exception of the winter months, spent the next three years of his
+life. At first, not being accustomed to such severe privations and
+exposure, it had gone rather hard with him: but he soon became inured
+to them; and it was, no doubt, to this rough experience in the
+wilderness, that he owed, in large measure, his uncommon vigor and
+activity of body, and that firm reliance on the resources of his own
+mind, which enabled him to endure and overcome those hardships,
+trials, and difficulties which beset him throughout the greater
+portion of his after-life. This severe training was also of another
+advantage to him, in making him perfectly familiar with all that
+region, in whose dark retreats and rugged wilds he learned, a few
+years later, his first hard lessons in the art of war.</p>
+
+<p>With all its privations, it was a life he loved to lead; for it
+afforded him the means of an independent support: and a happy boy was
+he, when first he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> wrote his mother that he was earning from fifteen
+to twenty dollars for every day he worked. Besides this, the beauty
+and grandeur of Nature's works, everywhere visible around him,
+awakened in him feelings of the truest delight; and he would sometimes
+spend the better part of a summer's day in admiring the tall and
+stately trees, whose spreading branches were his only shelter from the
+dews of heaven, and heat of noonday. At night, after supper, when his
+companions would be talking over the adventures of the day just past,
+or laughing boisterously at some broad joke repeated for the hundredth
+time, or would be joining their voices in the chorus of some rude
+woodland song, our young surveyor would be sitting a little apart on
+the trunk of a fallen tree, pencil and paper before him, calculating
+with a grave countenance, and by the ruddy light of a blazing
+pine-knot, the results of the day's labor. With no other companionship
+than that of the wild Indians he fell in with from time to time, and
+the rude, unlettered hunters around him, he must needs turn for
+society to the thoughts that stirred within his own mind. Often would
+he withdraw himself from the noisy mirth of his companions, and,
+climbing to some lofty mountain-top, spend hours and hours rapt in the
+contemplation of the wild and varied region, smiling in life and
+beauty far, far beneath him. At such times, we can imagine his
+countenance lit up with a sacred joy, and his soul rising in praise
+and thanksgiving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> to the great Father, who, in love and wisdom, made
+this glorious world for the good and happiness of all that dwell
+therein.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then, for the sake of a refreshing change, he would leave the
+wilderness behind him, with all its toils and dangers, and betake him
+to Greenway Court, the woodland home of old Lord Fairfax, with whom he
+had become a great favorite, and was ever a welcome guest. Here he
+would spend a few weeks in the most agreeable manner you can well
+imagine; for the old lord, being a man of some learning and extensive
+reading, had collected, in the course of a long life, a large library
+of the best and rarest books, from which, during these three years,
+George derived great pleasure and much valuable information. Besides
+this, a keener fox-hunter than this odd old bachelor was not to be
+found in all the Old Dominion; and, for the full enjoyment of this
+sport, he always kept a pack of hounds of the purest English blood. At
+the first peep of dawn, the cheerful notes of the hunter's horn, and
+the deep-mouthed baying of the fox-hounds, filling the neighboring
+woods with their lively din, would call our young surveyor from his
+slumbers to come and join in the sports of the morning. Waiting for no
+second summons, he would be up and out in a trice, and mounted by the
+side of the merry old lord; when, at a signal wound on the bugle, the
+whole party would dash away, pell-mell, helter-skelter, over the hills
+and through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> the woods, up the hills and down them again, across the
+brooks and along the winding river; hunters and horses hard on the
+heels of the hounds, hounds hard on the heels of poor Renard, and poor
+Renard cutting, cutting away for dear life.</p>
+
+<p>During the three years thus employed, George made his home at Mount
+Vernon, it being nearer and more convenient to his field of labor;
+but, as often as his business would permit, he would go on a visit to
+his mother at the old homestead on the Rappahannock, whither, as I
+should have told you before now, his father had removed when he was
+but three or four years old. These were precious opportunities, ever
+improved by him, of extending to her that aid in the management of her
+family affairs, which to receive from him was her greatest pleasure,
+as well as his truest delight to give.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, he formed a habit of writing down in a diary or
+day-book such facts and observations as seemed to him worthy of note,
+by which means he would be enabled to fix firmly in his mind whatever
+might prove of use to him at a future day. This is a most excellent
+habit; and I would earnestly advise all young persons, desirous of
+increasing their stock of knowledge, to form it as soon as they begin
+the study of grammar and can write a good round hand. The following is
+a specimen of this diary, written by him at the age of sixteen, as you
+will see by the date therein given:&mdash;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"March 13th, 1748.&mdash;Rode to his lordship's (Lord Fairfax's)
+quarter. About four miles higher up the Shenandoah, we went
+through most beautiful groves of sugar-trees, and spent the
+better part of the day in admiring the trees and richness of
+the land.</p>
+
+<p>"14th.&mdash;We sent our baggage to Capt. Hite's, near
+Fredericktown; and went ourselves down the river about sixteen
+miles (the land exceedingly rich all the way, producing
+abundance of grain, hemp, and tobacco), in order to lay off
+some land on Cole's Marsh and Long Marsh.</p>
+
+<p>"15th.&mdash;Worked hard till night, and then returned. After
+supper, we were lighted into a room; and I, not being so good a
+woodsman as the rest, stripped myself very orderly, and went
+into the bed, as they called it; when, to my surprise, I found
+it to be nothing but a little straw matted together, without
+sheet or any thing else, but only one threadbare blanket, with
+double its weight of vermin, I was glad to get up and put on my
+clothes, and lie as my companions did. Had we not been very
+tired, I am sure we should not have slept much that night. I
+made a promise to sleep so no more; choosing rather to sleep in
+the open air, before a fire.</p>
+
+<p>"18th.&mdash;We travelled to Thomas Berwick's on the Potomac, where
+we found the river exceedingly high, by reason of the great
+rains that had fallen among the Alleghanies. They told us it
+would not be fordable for several days; it being now six feet
+higher than usual, and rising. We agreed to stay till Monday.
+We this day called to see the famed Warm Springs. We camped out
+in the field this night.</p>
+
+<p>"20th.&mdash;Finding the river not much abated, we in the evening
+swam our horses over to the Maryland side.</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"21st.&mdash;We went over in a canoe, and travelled up the Maryland
+side all day, in a continued rain, to Col. Cresap's, over
+against the mouth of the South Branch, about forty miles from
+the place of starting in the morning, and over the worst road,
+I believe, that ever was trod by man or beast."</p></div>
+
+<p>In this diary, he also entered such items as these,&mdash;the number of
+acres of each lot of land surveyed, the quality of the soil, the
+growth of plants and trees, the height of the hills, the extent of the
+valleys, and the length, breadth, and course of the streams. From the
+items thus collected, he would draw the materials for the reports it
+was his duty to submit, from time to time, for examination, to his
+patron or employer; and such was the clearness, brevity, and exactness
+displayed therein, and such the industry, skill, and fidelity with
+which he performed his toilsome and difficult task, that the generous
+old lord not only rewarded him handsomely for his services, but
+continued to cherish for him through life a truly fatherly affection.</p>
+
+<p>In after-years, Washington was wont to turn with peculiar fondness to
+this period of his life, as perhaps affording the only leisure he had
+ever known for sentimental musings, and the indulgence of what fancy
+he may have had in those bright visions of future happiness, fame, or
+enterprise; to which all men are more or less given during the
+immature years of youth. This, to my mind, is to be easily enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+accounted for, if we but ascribe it to a certain little circumstance;
+concerning which, as it exercised no small influence on his mind at
+the time, I will now tell you all that is known, and, it may be, more
+than ever can be known with possible certainty.</p>
+
+<p>From a letter written by him at the age of fifteen, and also from some
+sad and plaintive verses of his own composition found in his
+copy-book, we learn that the boy, who should grow to become the
+greatest man that ever made this glorious world of ours more glorious
+with his wise precepts and virtuous example, was at this time a victim
+of the tender passion called <i>love</i>, of which most of you little folks
+as yet know nothing but the four letters that spell the word.</p>
+
+<p>The object of this early attachment was a damsel, of whom nothing
+certain is known, as her name, from the fact of its never being
+repeated above a whisper, has not come down to our day, but who was
+called by him in his confidential correspondence the Lowland Beauty.
+As he had none of that self-assurance which lads of his age are apt to
+mistake for pluck or spirit, he never ventured to make known the
+secret of this passion to the object thereof; and it is probable, that
+we, even at the big end of a hundred years, are wiser as to this
+tender passage of his life than was ever the young lady herself. Not
+having the courage to declare the sentiments that warmed his breast,
+he wisely resolved to banish them from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> mind altogether; and this,
+I will venture to say, was one reason why he so readily accepted of
+old Lord Fairfax's offer, and was willing for so long a time to make
+his abiding-place in the wilderness. But it was months, and even
+years, before he could get the better of his weakness, if such it
+could be justly called; for a wilderness, let me tell you (and I hope
+the hint will not be lost on my little friends), is the last place in
+the world, that a man, or a boy either, should take to, as the
+readiest means of ridding himself of such troublesome feelings. No
+wonder, then, that our young surveyor was grave and thoughtful beyond
+his years; and that the lonely forest, with its ever-changing beauties
+and wild seclusion, viewed through the bewitched eyes of love, should
+have had greater charms for him than the noisy, bustling haunts of
+men. That you may have a more distinct idea of the appearance of
+Washington at the time of which we are speaking, your Uncle Juvinell
+will conjure up, from the lingering lights and shadows of his dull old
+fancy, a little picture, to be gilded anew by your bright young
+fancies, and hung up in that loftiest chamber of your memory which you
+are wont to adorn with your portraits of the good and great men and
+women who have blessed the earth, and of whom we love so much to read
+and hear.</p>
+
+<p>It is a summer morning, and the eastern mountains fling their shadows
+long and huge across the lonesome valleys. Our little party of
+surveyors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> having spent the night on the summits of one of the less
+lofty peaks of the Blue Ridge, are slowly descending its shrubby skies
+to the more densely wooded parts of the wilderness below, of whose
+waste fertility many a broad tract have they yet to explore, and many
+a mile of boundary-line have chain and compass yet to measure and
+determine. Still lingering on the summit far above, as loath to quit
+the contemplation of the splendid prospect seen from thence, stands a
+tall youth of eighteen, with his right arm thrown across his horse's
+neck, and his left hand grasping his compass-staff. He is clad in a
+buckskin hunting-shirt, with leggins and moccasons of the same
+material,&mdash;the simple garb of a backwoodsman, and one that well
+becomes him now, as in perfect keeping with the wildness of the
+surrounding scenery; while in his broad leathern belt are stuck his
+long hunting-knife and Indian tomahawk. In stature he is much above
+most youths of the same age: he is of a handsome and robust form, with
+high and strong but smooth features, light-brown hair, large blue
+eyes,&mdash;not brilliant, but beaming with a clear and steady light, as if
+a soul looked through them that knew no taint of vice or
+meanness,&mdash;and a countenance all glorious with a truth and courage,
+modest gentleness, and manly self-reliance; and as he thus lingers on
+that lonely mountain-height, glorified as it were with the fresh pure
+light of the newly risen sun, with head uncovered and looks reverent,
+he seems in holy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>communion with his Maker, to whom, in the tender,
+guileless years of childhood, a pious mother taught him to kneel,
+morning and evening, in prayer, thanksgiving, and adoration.</p>
+
+<p>Anon, his morning devotions ended, he turns to take, ere following his
+companions down the mountain, another view of the varied panorama
+spread out far beneath him, the chief feature of which is a valley,
+surpassing in beauty and fertility any that that summer's sun will
+shine on ere reaching his golden gateway in the west. Through this
+valley, glimmering, half seen, half hid among the waving woods, runs a
+river, with many a graceful bend, so beautiful, that, in the far-away
+years of the past, some long-forgotten tribe of Indians called it
+Shenandoah, or Shining Daughter of the Stars; a name that still
+lingers like a sweet echo among the mountains. And as the eyes of the
+young surveyor slowly range the wide prospect from point to point, and
+take in miles and miles of beauty at a single stretch of view, there
+is a look in them as if he would recall some pleasing dream of the
+night, which he would now fain bring forth, though but a dream, to
+refine and elevate the thoughts wherewith his mind must needs be
+occupied throughout the day. He is familiar with every feature of the
+landscape before him: he knows each shady dell and sunny hill, and
+every grassy slope and winding stream; for there he has made his home
+this many a day. He has seen it all a thousand times, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> each time
+with renewed delight. But now it has a glory not all its own, nor
+borrowed from the morning sun, but from the first warm light of
+youthful love that burns in his heart for his Lowland Beauty.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST MILITARY APPOINTMENT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>About this time, the Indians inhabiting that vast region extending
+from the Ohio River to the great lakes of the north, secretly
+encouraged and aided by the French, began to show signs of hostility,
+and threatened the western borders of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New
+York, with all the dismal horrors of their bloody and wasting warfare.
+The alarm spread rapidly from the frontier even to the Atlantic coast,
+till the whole country was awakened to the sense of the impending
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>To put the Province of Virginia in a better posture of defence, the
+governor thereof, Robert Dinwiddie, besides other measures, divided it
+into four grand military districts. Over each of these he placed what
+is called an adjutant-general, whose duty it was to organize and train
+the militia, instruct the officers in matters touching the art and
+science of war, to review the different companies when on parade, and
+to inspect their arms and accoutrements, and see that they were kept
+ready for use at a moment's warning.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+<p>The energy, fidelity, and soundness of judgment, that young Washington
+had lately shown while acting as surveyor, had won for him a name in
+the colony; and, becoming known to Governor Dinwiddie, he was
+appointed by that gentleman adjutant-general of the Northern district;
+receiving along with his commission the rank of major, which entitled
+him to the salary of seven hundred and fifty dollars a year. You have
+already seen what great delight he took in martial exercises when a
+school-boy; and, now that he was to become a soldier in the true sense
+of the term, you will not be surprised to learn that this appointment
+was altogether agreeable to his present taste and inclinations. To
+show his deep sense of the honor done him, and the trust and
+confidence reposed in him, he determined to perform his work well and
+faithfully as far as in him lay.</p>
+
+<p>The better to qualify himself for the duties of his office, he placed
+himself under the instruction of his brother Lawrence, and other
+officers living in that part of the province, who had served under
+Admiral Vernon during the late Spanish war. These gentlemen, besides
+giving him the benefit of their experience and observation, placed in
+his hands the best works on military science then in use; from which
+he learned the various modes of training militia, the different
+man&oelig;uvres of an army on the field of battle, and their management
+while on the line of march, together with the most approved plans of
+building forts, throwing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> up intrenchments and redoubts, and the
+construction of other works of defence, whether of wood or earth or
+stone. At the same time, he also made himself acquainted with the
+handling and design of many weapons and engines of war; and under the
+instruction of Capt. Van Braam, a Dutch fencing-master, he became very
+skilful in the use of the sword. Thus Mount Vernon, from being the
+quiet mansion of a country gentleman, was now, in a manner, converted
+into a military school; and the youth, who but a few years before, as
+he strolled among its verdant retreats, had, in honor of his Lowland
+Beauty, made his first and only attempt of putting his thoughts and
+feelings in verse, was, at the early age of nineteen, called upon to
+discharge those stern duties which men of age and experience alone are
+generally thought able to perform. The district allotted to Major
+Washington (for so we must now call him) consisted of several large
+counties, each of which the duties of his office obliged him to visit
+from time to time; and such was the energy and spirit he carried into
+his work, and such ability did he display, and such was the manliness
+and dignified courtesy with which he deported himself on all
+occasions, that he soon completely won the confidence and affections
+of both officers and men, who were inspired by his example to still
+greater zeal and patriotism in the service of their country.</p>
+
+<p>But these labors, so agreeable to one of his age and ardent spirit,
+were now interrupted for several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> months. His brother Lawrence, who
+had always been of a delicate constitution, was now thought to be in
+the last stages of consumption, and was advised by his physicians to
+betake himself to the West Indies, where he might yet, perhaps, find
+some relief in the warmer suns and milder airs of those beautiful
+islands. As he would have need of cheerful company and gentle and
+careful nursing, he took with him his favorite brother George; and,
+embarking from Alexandria, was soon out upon the shining billows of
+the deep-blue sea, in quest of that health he was never again to find.
+Their place of destination was the charming little Island of
+Barbadoes, where, after a somewhat stormy voyage, they arrived in
+safety.</p>
+
+<p>While here, Major Washington had an attack of small-pox, which handled
+him rather severely; and for some time he was thought to be in a
+dangerous condition. But in a few weeks, by dint of careful nursing,
+joined to the natural vigor of his constitution, he got the better of
+this frightful malady; and, when he was completely restored, not a
+disfiguring trace of it remained.</p>
+
+<p>During his sojourn here, he still continued his habit of writing down
+in a journal whatever of importance or interest came under his
+observation; in which, among other items, we find such as the
+following,&mdash;the speed of the ship in which they sailed; the direction
+of the winds; some account of a storm that overtook them on their
+voyage; the cities, ships,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> forts, and military strength of the Island
+of Barbadoes; its products; manners and customs of the people, and the
+laws and government under which they lived. By this means,
+contributing as it did to habits of close and accurate observation, he
+impressed the more strongly upon his memory such facts as might prove
+of use to him at a future day.</p>
+
+<p>Our two Virginians, during the three or four months of their stay on
+the island, were treated with much courtesy and hospitality by the
+inhabitants. But neither the genial climate of the region, nor the
+kindly hospitality of the people, was enough to restore that health
+and strength to the invalid for which he had come so far and hoped so
+long.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling that his end was drawing nigh, Lawrence Washington resolved to
+hasten home, that he might have the melancholy satisfaction of
+spending his last moments in the midst of his family and friends. He
+had scarcely returned to Mount Vernon, and bid a fond farewell to the
+loved ones there, when the angel of death summoned him to take another
+and a longer voyage, in quest of immortality, to be found in the
+islands of the blest, that smile in never-fading beauty on the bosom
+of the eternal sea.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, at the early age of thirty-four, died Lawrence Washington, one
+of the most amiable and accomplished gentlemen of his day. He left
+behind him an affectionate wife, a sweet little daughter, a devoted
+brother, and many a loving friend, to mourn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> his loss. In his will, he
+bequeathed his fine estate of Mount Vernon and all else that he
+possessed to his brother George; on condition, however, that his wife
+should have the use of it during her lifetime, and that his daughter
+should die without children to inherit it. The daughter did not reach
+the years of maidenhood; and, the mother surviving but a few years,
+George was left in the undivided possession of a large and handsome
+property; and, in a worldly point of view, his fortune was really
+already made. But, for all that, he long and deeply mourned the death
+of this much loved and valued brother, who had been to him father and
+friend ever since that first great sorrow of his childhood, when he
+became a widow's son and a widow's blessing.</p>
+
+<p>And thus, my little children, I have told you the story of this great
+and good man's life from his years of infancy up to those of early
+manhood. I have dwelt at greater length upon this period of his life
+than perhaps any other historian, and have told you some things that
+you might look for elsewhere in vain. In my treatment of this part of
+the subject, it has been my chief aim and earnest desire to impress
+upon your opening minds this one great truth,&mdash;that, if you would be
+good and wise in your manhood, you must begin, now in early youth, to
+put forth all your powers, and use all the means within your reach, to
+store your mind with useful knowledge, and direct your thoughts and
+actions in the ways of truth and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> virtue, industry and sobriety. The
+boy Washington did all this; and, ere we have done, you shall see the
+glorious results of such a good beginning. Be like him in your
+youth,&mdash;patient and diligent, loving and dutiful, truthful and
+prayerful; that you may be like him in the fulness of years,&mdash;esteemed
+and beloved, happy and good, useful and wise.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>IMPORTANT EXPLANATIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Uncle Juvinell had finished this part of his story, he paused,
+and with a beaming face looked round upon his little circle of
+listeners. Two or three of the youngest had long since fallen asleep;
+and Master Ned, having heard the story of the little hatchet, had
+stolen quietly away to the cabin, just to see how "black daddy" was
+getting along with his sled. Having waited till it was finished, he
+had, for his own private amusement, taken it to a nice hillside, and
+was now coasting on it all alone by the light of a good-humored,
+dish-faced moon. The other children had listened with great interest
+and attention to the story, and were still sitting with their eyes
+bent earnestly on the fire, whose great bright eye had by this time
+grown a little red, and was winking in a slow and sleepy way, as if it
+were saying, "Well done, Uncle Juvinell,&mdash;very well done indeed. I
+have been listening very attentively, and quite approve of all you
+have said, especially all that about the wooden-legged schoolmaster,
+the little hatchet, the sorrel horse, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> Indian war-dance, and the
+Lowland Beauty, not to mention those wise maxims and wholesome moral
+precepts you brought in so aptly. All of it is very fine and very
+good, and just to my liking. But I am thinking it is high bed-time for
+these little folks."</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Juvinell was much gratified to see how deeply interested the
+children were in what he had been telling them; and in a little while
+he called upon them to let him know how they all liked it. Laura said
+that it was very nice; Ella, that it was charming; Daniel, that it was
+quite as interesting as Plutarch's Lives; Willie, that it was even
+more so than "Robinson Crusoe;" and Bryce, that it was very good, but
+he would have liked it better had Uncle Juvinell told them more about
+the Indians. Just then, Master Charlie awoke from a comfortable nap of
+an hour or two, having dropped asleep shortly after the sorrel horse
+dropped dead; and, to make believe that he had been as wide awake as a
+weasel from the very start, began asking such a string of questions as
+seemed likely to have no end. After a droll jumbling of Washington
+with Jack the Giant-killer, old Lord Fairfax with Bluebeard, poor old
+Hobby, the wooden-legged schoolmaster, with the Roving Red Robber, he
+at last so far got the better of his sleepy senses as to know what he
+would be driving at; when he said, "Uncle Juvinell, did his father let
+him keep his little hatchet after he had cut the cherry-tree?"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+<p>"History, my little nephew," replied his uncle with a sober
+countenance, "does not inform us whether he did or not; but you may be
+quite sure that he did, well knowing that a little boy who would
+choose rather to take a whipping than tell a lie, or suffer another to
+be punished for an offence he had himself committed, would never be
+guilty the second time of doing that wherein he had once been
+forbidden."</p>
+
+<p>"What became of black Jerry after he turned a somerset in the snow,
+and went rolling over and over down the hill?" Charlie went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry, I am happy to say," replied his uncle, "was so won over by the
+kindness and noble self-devotion of his brave little master, that he
+made up his mind to mend his ways from that very moment; and in a
+short time, from having been the worst, became the best behaved
+negroling to be found on either side of the Rappahannock, for more
+than a hundred miles up and down."</p>
+
+<p>"What is a negroling?" inquired Master Charlie, as if bent on sifting
+this matter to the very bottom.</p>
+
+<p>"A negroling," replied Uncle Juvinell with a smile, "is to a
+full-grown negro what a gosling is to a full-grown goose. Now, can you
+tell me what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"A gosling negro, I suppose," was Charlie's answer; and then he asked,
+"Did old Hobby go on teaching school after little George left him?"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Of course he did," answered his uncle; "but, you may depend upon it,
+he never took another scholar as far as the single rule of three."
+Then, winking slyly at two or three of the older children, he
+continued: "This worthy schoolmaster lived to the good old age of
+ninety-nine; when, feeling that his earthly pilgrimage was drawing to
+a close, he for the last time hung up his big cocked hat on the
+accustomed peg, and for the last time unscrewed his wooden, leg, and
+set it in its accustomed corner; then, like a good Christian, laid him
+down to die in peace, giving thanks to Heaven with his last breath
+that it had fallen to his lot to teach the great George Washington his
+A B C's and the multiplication-table."</p>
+
+<p>This made Master Charlie look very grave and thoughtful, so that he
+asked no more questions for the rest of the night.</p>
+
+<p>Then Daniel, the young historian, who, having his mind occupied with
+more weighty matters, had been listening with some impatience while
+the above confab was going on, begged that his uncle would tell him
+what was meant by a midshipman's warrant.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, Dannie," said Uncle Juvinell, "for the benefit of
+the rest of the children, who are not so well informed upon such
+matters as yourself, we must see what a midshipman is. The lowest
+officer in the navy, but still several degrees removed from a common
+sailor, is a midshipman, who enters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> a man-of-war as a kind of pupil
+to study the art of navigation, and to acquaint himself with other
+matters connected with the seafaring life. A man-of-war, you must
+know, is the largest vessel, or ship of war, belonging to a nation;
+while all the ships fitted out at the public expense, together with
+the officers and seamen concerned in their keeping and management,
+make up what is called a navy. By navigation, we are to understand the
+art by which sailors are taught to conduct ships from one point to
+another. Now, a warrant is a writing that gives some one the right to
+do a thing or to enjoy it. Thus you see a midshipman's warrant would
+have given young Washington the right to go on board a man-of-war,
+where, as a kind of pupil, he would have learned the art of
+navigation, the management of ships, and many other things necessary
+to make a good sailor. The knowledge thus acquired, and the training
+to which he must needs have been subjected, would have fitted him in
+time to become an officer of the navy, such as a lieutenant or a
+captain, and, it may be, even an admiral."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is an admiral?" inquired Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"An admiral," replied Uncle Juvinell, "is the highest officer of the
+navy; he is to the armies of the sea what a general is to the armies
+of the land, and commands a squadron, or fleet, which, you must know,
+is a large number of armed ships, moving and acting in concert
+together."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Does he fight with a sword?" inquired Bryce, who, it must be borne in
+mind, was the military young gentleman, who carried a wooden sword of
+his own.</p>
+
+<p>"It is unusual," replied his uncle, "for either an admiral or a
+general to fight in person; it being their duty to put their armies in
+order of battle, and afterwards, during the fight, to control the
+movements of the different regiments or divisions by orders carried by
+aides to the officers under their command."</p>
+
+<p>"You told us, uncle," said Willie, "that Washington received, along
+with the commission of adjutant-general, the rank of major. Now, what
+are we to understand by this?"</p>
+
+<p>"A commission," replied his uncle, "is a writing, giving some one the
+right or authority to perform the duties of some office, and receive
+the pay and honors arising from the same. The duties of an
+adjutant-general you have already seen; and the commission received by
+young Washington to perform those duties made him equal in rank, not
+to a general, but to a major."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you told us, uncle," said Ella, "what is meant by surveying;
+but I don't think that I clearly understand it yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I will refer you to your brother Dannie," said Uncle Juvinell; "for
+he is looking very wise, as if somebody knew a thing or two, and
+could, were he but called upon, greatly enlighten somebody else. Out
+with it, Dannie, and let us have it."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Surveying teaches the measurement of land," Dannie made haste to
+answer; "and a surveyor is one who measures land with the help of a
+long chain and compass and other instruments. Now, George Washington,
+for example"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That will do, Daniel," said his uncle, interrupting him: "you have
+made it as clear as daylight already; and I dare say your sister
+understands you perfectly, without the help of any example."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I like to have forgotten one thing!" cried Willie. "Tell us what
+is meant by line of march, man&oelig;uvres on the battle-field, throwing
+up intrenchments, and the like."</p>
+
+<p>To these points, Uncle Juvinell made answer: "An army, my nephew, is
+said to be on the line of march when it is moving from one place to
+another. A man&oelig;uvre is an evolution or a movement of an army,
+designed to mislead or deceive an enemy, or in some way to gain the
+advantage of him. An intrenchment is a breastwork or wall, with a
+trench or ditch running along the outside. The breastwork, being
+formed of the earth thrown up from the trench, serves as a protection
+against the shots of an enemy. The trench being quite as deep as the
+breastwork is high, renders it very difficult and dangerous for the
+works to be taken by storm; for the enemy must first descend into the
+ditch before he can reach and scale the wall,&mdash;an attempt always
+attended with the greatest peril to those who make it; for they who
+defend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the works, fighting on top of the walls, have greatly the
+advantage of those beneath. Sometimes intrenchments run in straight or
+crooked lines, and sometimes enclose an irregular square or circle;
+and any piece of ground, or body of men, thus enclosed or fortified,
+is said to be intrenched."</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity it is we can never know the name of the Lowland Beauty!"
+remarked Miss Laura regretfully; for she was getting to be quite old
+enough to be somewhat interested in matters of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>"The name the young surveyor gave her," said Uncle Juvinell, "lends an
+interest to this part of his life, which a knowledge of her true name
+might never have awakened. Besides this, my dear niece, if you but be
+attentive to what I shall relate hereafter, you will learn many things
+touching the life and character of his mother Mary and his wife Martha
+far more worthy of your remembrance."</p>
+
+<p>The clock struck ten; the fire burned low, and a heavy lid of ashes
+hid its great red eye. And now Uncle Juvinell bethought him that it
+must indeed be high bed-time for the little folks; and in conclusion
+he said, "Now, my dear children, I want you to bear well in mind what
+I have told you to-night, that you may be the better prepared for what
+I shall tell you to-morrow evening. And hereafter I would have you
+write down on your slates, while I go on with my story, whatever you
+may find difficult and shall wish to have more fully explained at the
+end of each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> evening's lesson. And now let us sing our evening hymn,
+and part for the night."</p>
+
+<p>With that they joined their voices, as was their wont, in a sweet hymn
+of praise and thanks to the great Father of us all,&mdash;the little folks
+carrying the treble, while Uncle Juvinell managed the bass. This duly
+done, they came one by one, and kissed their dear old uncle a loving
+good-night; then crept to their happy beds to dream till morning of
+wooden-legged schoolmasters, little hatchets, wild rides on fiery
+untamed horses that were always sorrel, of life in the lonely
+wilderness, rambles without end up and down the mountains, and of
+skin-clad Indiana leaping and whirling in the war-dance.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>INDIAN TROUBLES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>And now, said Uncle Juvinell, I see you are all agog, slate and pencil
+in hand, ready to jot down any question that may chance to pop into
+your busy young brains, to be asked and answered, for our further
+enlightenment, at the end of our evening lesson. So, without more ado,
+we will begin.</p>
+
+<p>But, before trudging on further in our delightful journey, we must
+pause a moment, and turning square round, with our faces towards the
+long-ago years of the past, take a bird's-eye view of the early
+history of our country, that we may know exactly where we are when we
+come to find ourselves in the outskirts of that long and bloody
+struggle between the two great nations of England and France, commonly
+called the Seven Years' War, and sometimes the Old French War. Now,
+although this would not be as entertaining to your lively fancies as
+an Arabian tale or an Indian legend, yet you will by and by see very
+plainly that we could not have skipped it, without losing the sense of
+a great deal that follows; for it was during this war that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> our
+Washington first experienced the trials and hardships of a soldier's
+life, and displayed that courage, prudence, and ability, which in the
+end proved the salvation and glory of his native country.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, you must know, my dear children, that this
+beautiful land of ours, where now dwell the freest and happiest people
+the blessed sun ever shone upon, was, only a few hundred years ago,
+all a vast unbroken wilderness; a place where no one but savage
+Indians found a home, whose chief amusement was to fight and kill and
+scalp each other; and whose chief occupation was to hunt wild beasts
+and birds, upon whose flesh they fed, and with whose hairy skins and
+horns and claws and feathers they clothed and decked themselves. Where
+in the leafy summer-time may now be heard the merry plough-boy
+whistling "Yankee Doodle" over the waving corn, the wild Indian once
+wrestled with the surly bear, or met his ancient enemy in deadly
+fight. Nibbling sheep and grazing cattle now range the grassy hills
+and valleys where he was wont to give chase to the timid deer, or lie
+in wait for the monstrous buffalo. Huge steamers ply up and down our
+mighty rivers where he once paddled his little canoe. Splendid cities
+have risen, as if at the rubbing of Aladdin's enchanted lamp, where in
+the depths of the forest he once kindled the great council-fire, and
+met the neighboring tribes in the Big Talk. The very schoolhouse,
+where you little folks are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> now tripping so lightly along the flowery
+path of knowledge, may perhaps stand on the selfsame shady slope,
+where, of a long summer evening, he would sit at the door of his
+bark-built wigwam, smoking his long pipe, and watching his naked red
+children with a more fatherly smile than you can well imagine in one
+so fierce, as with many a hoop and yelp they played at "hide-and-seek"
+among the gray old trees and pawpaw thickets. On yonder hill-top,
+where we at this moment can see the windows of the house of God
+shining and glancing in the moonlight, he may have stood, with his
+face to the rising or setting sun, in mute worship before the Great
+Spirit.</p>
+
+<p>But the stronger and wiser white man came; and, at his terrible
+approach, the red man, with all his wild remembrances, passed away,
+like an echo in the woods, or the shadow of an April cloud over the
+hills and valleys; and the place that once knew him shall know him no
+more for ever.</p>
+
+<p>And yet it might have been far otherwise with him and with us, had not
+a certain Christopher Columbus chanced to light upon this Western
+World of ours, as he came hap-hazard across the wide Atlantic, where
+ship had never sailed before, in quest of a shorter passage to Asia.</p>
+
+<p>By this great discovery, it was proved to the entire satisfaction of
+all who are in the least interested in the matter, that this earth
+upon which we live,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> instead of being long and flat, with sides and
+ends and corners like a great rough slab, was round, and hollow
+inside, like an India-rubber ball, and went rolling through empty
+space, round and round the sun, year after year, continually.</p>
+
+<p>Of this bold and skilful sailor, the most renowned that ever lived, I
+should like to tell you many things; but, as we set out to give our
+chief attention to the story of Washington, we must deny ourselves
+this pleasure until the holidays of some merry Christmas yet to come,
+when your Uncle Juvinell, if he still keeps his memory fresh and
+green, will relate to you many wonderful things in the life of this
+great voyager, Columbus.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time, all the nations of Christendom had for ages upon ages
+been sunk in a lazy doze of ignorance and superstition. But, when
+tidings of the great discovery reached their drowsy ears, they were
+roused in a marvellous manner; and many of the richest and most
+powerful forthwith determined to secure, each to itself, a portion of
+the new-found region, by planting colonies; or, in other words, by
+making settlements therein.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose, they sent out fleets of ships across the Atlantic to
+these distant shores, laden with multitudes of men, who brought with
+them all manner of tools and implements wherewith to clear away the
+forests, till the soil, and build forts and cities, and arms to defend
+themselves against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> attacks of the war-like savages. Thus, for
+example, Spain colonized Mexico; France, Canada; and England, that
+strip of the North-American continent, lying between the Alleghany
+Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, now known as the eastern coast of
+the United States.</p>
+
+<p>At first, the new-comers were received and treated with much kindness
+and hospitality by the natives: but it was not long before they
+discovered that they were likely to be robbed of their homes and
+hunting-grounds; when rage and jealousy took possession of their
+hearts, and from that time forward they never let slip an opportunity
+of doing all the mischief in their power to the hated intruders. Then
+began that long train of bloody wars between the two races, which have
+never ceased except with defeat or ruin of the weaker red man, and
+bringing him nearer and nearer to the day when he must either forsake
+his savage life, or cease to have an existence altogether.</p>
+
+<p>Now, this may appear very unjust and wrong to my little friends; and,
+to some extent, it really was: but, in those days, might made right;
+or, in other words, the strong ruled the weak. And yet we are bound to
+believe that all this, in the long-run, has worked, and is still
+working, to the greatest good of the greatest number: for, had it been
+otherwise, all this beautiful land, now the home of a Christian and
+happy people, would have remained the dismal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> wilderness we have
+described it; answering no good end, as far as concerns the spread of
+truth and knowledge, and the cultivation of those useful arts which
+make a nation prosperous in peace, and strong in war.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding their troubles with the Indians, the hardships and
+privations to which the first settlers of a wild country are always
+exposed, and the shameful neglect with which they were treated by the
+mother-countries, the French and English colonies went on growing and
+thriving in a way that was wonderful to behold. At the end of a
+hundred and fifty years, or thereabouts, they had so grown in strength
+and increased in numbers, and had so widened their boundaries, that at
+last the continent, vast as it is, seemed too narrow to hold them
+both; and they began throwing up their elbows for more room, in a
+manner that would have been thought quite uncivil in a private
+individual at a dinner table or in a stage-coach.</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon there arose a hot dispute between the kings of France and
+England as to whom belonged all that immense region stretching from
+the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, in the one direction; and, in the
+other, from the Ohio to the Great Lakes of the North.</p>
+
+<p>The French claimed it by the right of discovery: by which they meant,
+that a certain Father Marquette had, nearly a hundred years before,
+discovered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the Mississippi during his wanderings as a missionary
+among the Indians of the Far West. They pretended, that, as this pious
+man had paddled a little canoe up and down this splendid river a few
+hundred miles, his royal master, the King of France, was thereby
+entitled to all the lands watered by it, and the ten thousand streams
+that empty into it.</p>
+
+<p>The English, on the other hand, claimed it by the right of purchase;
+having, as they said, bought it at a fair price of the Six Nations, a
+powerful league or union of several Indian tribes inhabiting the
+region round about the great lake's Erie and Ontario. What right the
+Six Nations had to it, is impossible to say. They claimed it, however,
+by the doubtful right of conquest; there being a tradition among them,
+that their ancestors, many generations before, had overrun the
+country, and subdued its inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the poor Indians who occupied the land in question were very
+indignant indeed when they heard that they and theirs had been sold to
+the white strangers by their red enemies, the Six Nations, whom they
+regarded as a flock of meddlesome crows, that were always dipping
+their ravenous bills into matters that did not in the least concern
+them; and their simple heads were sorely perplexed and puzzled, that
+two great kings, dwelling in far-distant countries, thousands of miles
+away beyond the mighty ocean, should, in the midst of uncounted
+riches, fall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> to wrangling with each other over a bit of wilderness
+land that neither of them had ever set eyes or foot on, and to which
+they had no more right than the Grand Caliph of Bagdad, or that
+terrible Tartar, Kublah Khan.</p>
+
+<p>"Of all this land," said they, "there is not the black of a man's
+thumb-nail that the Six Nations can call their own. It is ours. More
+than a thousand moons before the pale-face came over the Big Water in
+his white-winged canoes, the Great Spirit gave it to our forefathers;
+and they handed it down, to be our inheritance as long as the old
+hills tell of their green graves. In its streams have we fished, in
+its woods have we hunted, in its sunny places have we built our
+wigwams, and in its dark and secret places have we fought and scalped
+and burnt our sworn enemies, without let or hinderance, time out of
+mind. Now, if the English claim all on this side of the Ohio, and the
+French claim all on this side of the Big Lakes, then what they claim
+is one and the same country,&mdash;the country whereon we dwell. Surely our
+white brothers must be dreaming. It is our hearts' desire, that our
+brothers, the English, keep on their side of the Ohio, and till the
+ground, and grow rich in corn; also that our brothers, the French,
+keep on their side of the lakes, and hunt in the woods, and grow rich
+in skins and furs. But you must both quit pressing upon us, lest our
+ribs be squeezed in and our breath be squeezed out, and we cease to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+have a place among men. We hold you both at arm's-length; and whoever
+pays good heed to the words we have spoken, by him will we stand, and
+with him make common cause against the other."</p>
+
+<p>But to these just complaints of the poor Indian the French and English
+gave no more heed than if they who uttered them were so many
+whip-poor-wills crying in the woods. So they fell to wrangling in a
+more unreasonable manner than ever. Finally, to mend the matter (that
+is to say, make things worse), the French, coming up the Mississippi
+from the South, and down from the Great Lakes of the North, began
+erecting a chain of forts upon the disputed territory, to overawe the
+inhabitants thereof, and force the English to keep within the
+Alleghanies and the Atlantic. As a matter of course, the English
+regarded this as an insult to their dignity, and resolved to chastise
+the French for their impudence. And this it was that brought about
+that long and bloody struggle, the Old French War.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, my dear children, do great and wise nations, professing to
+follow the humane teachings of the man-loving, God-fearing Jesus,
+often show no more truth and justice and honesty in their dealings
+with one another than if they were as ignorant of the Ten Commandments
+as the most benighted heathens, to whom even the name of Moses was
+never spoken. Yet, from your looks, I see that you are wondering
+within yourselves what all this rigmarole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> about England, France, the
+Six Nations, and disputed territories, can have to do with George
+Washington. Had you held a tight rein on your impatience a little
+while longer, you would have found out all about it, without the
+inconvenience of wondering; and hereafter, my little folks, rest
+assured that your Uncle Juvinell never ventures upon any thing without
+having all his eyes and wits about him, and that what he may tell you
+shall always prove instructive, although it may now and then&mdash;with no
+fault of his, however&mdash;seem to you somewhat dry and tedious.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img122.jpg" width="550" height="723" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2>
+
+<h3>"BIG TALK" WITH "WHITE THUNDER."</h3>
+
+
+<p>But we are a little fast. In order to bring ourselves square again
+with our story, we must take one step backward, and begin afresh.</p>
+
+<p>When tidings of these trespasses of the French reached the ears of
+Robert Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia, all his Scotch blood
+boiled within him, and he began forthwith casting in his mind what
+might be done to check or chastise such audacious proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Cooling down a little, however, he thought it would be better, before
+throwing his stones, to try what virtue might be found in grass. By
+which you are to understand, that he determined to write a letter to
+the French general, then stationed in a little fort near Lake Erie,
+inquiring by what authority these encroachments were made on the
+dominions of his royal master, the King of England; and demanding that
+they, the French, should abandon their forts, and withdraw their
+troops from the disputed territory, without delay, or else abide the
+consequences. He was well aware, that, to insure any thing like
+success<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> in a mission so difficult and perilous, the person intrusted
+with it must needs be robust of body, stout of heart, clear of head;
+one inured to the hardships of a backwoods life, well acquainted with
+the habits and customs of the Indians, and withal a man of
+intelligence, polite address, and the strictest integrity of
+character. But one such man was to be found among ten thousand; and
+this was George Washington, who answered to the description in every
+particular, and was therefore chosen to perform this perilous
+undertaking, although he had not yet completed his twenty-second year.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, having received from Governor Dinwiddie written
+instructions how to act when come into the enemy's country, Major
+Washington set out the next morning from Williamsburg, then the
+capital of Virginia, and made his way at once to Winchester, at that
+time a frontier settlement of the province, lying on the very edge of
+the wilderness. Here he spent several days in procuring supplies for
+the expedition, and raising a small party of hunters and pioneers to
+guard and bear him company. After some delay, he succeeded in
+procuring the services of seven men. Four of these were hardy
+backwoodsmen of experience, whose business it was to take care of the
+baggage and keep the party supplied with game. Mr. Davidson was to go
+along as Indian interpreter, and Mr. Gist as guide. A bolder and more
+enterprising pioneer than this Gist, by the by,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> was not to be found
+in all the Western wilds; and he is supposed by some historians to
+have been the first white man that ever brought down an elk or a
+buffalo in that paradise of hunters, green Kentucky. In addition to
+these, Washington took with him as French interpreter his old Dutch
+fencing-master, Capt. Van Braam. The worthy captain, however, seems to
+have been a far more expert master of sword-play than of the
+languages; for the jargon he was pleased to call an interpretation was
+often such a medley of half-learned English, half-remembered French,
+and half-forgotten Dutch, that they who listened would be nearly as
+much perplexed to see what he would be driving at, as if he were
+sputtering Cherokee into their ears.</p>
+
+<p>All things being at last in readiness, the gallant little party,
+headed by our young Virginian, turned their faces towards the great
+North-west; and, plunging into the wilderness, were soon beyond all
+traces of civilized man. The autumn was far advanced. The travelling
+was rendered toilsome, and even dangerous, by the heavy rains of this
+season, and early snows that had already fallen on the mountains,
+which had changed the little rills into rushing torrents, and the low
+bottom-lands into deep and miry swamps. Much delayed by these and the
+like hinderances, Washington, upon reaching the banks of the
+Monongahela, deemed it best to send two of the backwoodsmen with the
+baggage in canoes down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> this river to its mouth, where, uniting its
+waters with those of the Allegheny, it helped to form the great Ohio.
+Promising to meet them at this point, he and the rest of the party
+pushed thitherward by land on horseback. Reaching the Forks of the
+Ohio two days before the canoe-men, he spent the time in exploring the
+woods and hills and streams around, and was much struck with the
+advantages the place held out as a site for a military post. This,
+together with other items meriting attention that happened to him or
+occurred to his mind during the expedition, he carefully noted down in
+a journal which he kept, to be laid, in the form of a report, before
+Gov. Dinwiddie, upon his return. The following year, as a convincing
+proof to his countrymen how entirely they might rely on his foresight
+and judgment in such matters, French officers of skill and experience
+chose this very spot to be the site of Fort Duquesne, afterwards so
+famous in the border history of our country. Near the close of the
+war, this post fell into the hands of the English, who changed its
+name to that of Fort Pitt; which in time gave rise to the busy,
+thriving, noisy, dingy, fine young town of Pittsburg, a smoky-looking
+picture of which you may see any time you choose to consult your
+geography.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of pushing on directly to the Lakes, Major Washington turned a
+little aside from his course, and went down the Ohio about twenty
+miles, to an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Indian village called Logstown. Here, as had been
+previously arranged, he met a few sachems or chiefs of some of the
+Western tribes, to kindle a council-fire and have a Big Talk. He was
+received with much hospitality and courtesy by a stately old chief,
+whose Indian name you would not care to hear, as it would give Master
+Charlie's nut-crackers the jaw-ache to pronounce it. Among the
+English, however, as he was the head of a league or union of several
+tribes, he usually went by the name of the Half King. After the pipe
+had passed with all due gravity from mouth to mouth, and every
+warrior, chief, and white man present had taken a whiff or two, in
+sign that all was good-will and peace between them, Washington arose,
+and addressed the Half King in a short speech, somewhat after the
+following manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your brother, the Governor of Virginia, has sent me with a letter to
+the big French captain, near Lake Erie. What is written therein deeply
+concerns you and your people as well as us. It was his desire,
+therefore, that you share with us the toils and dangers of this
+expedition, by sending some of your young men along with us, to guide
+us through the wilderness where there is no path, and be our safeguard
+against the wiles of cunning and evil-minded men we may chance to meet
+by the way. This he will look upon as a still further proof of the
+love and friendship you bear your brothers, the English. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>As a pledge
+of his faith in all this, and as a token of his love for his red
+brother, he sends this belt of wampum."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Davidson having interpreted this speech, the Half King for some
+moments after sat smoking in profound silence, as if turning over in
+his mind what he had just heard, or as if waiting, according to Indian
+notions of etiquette on such occasions, to assure himself that the
+speaker had made an end of his say. He then arose, and spoke to the
+following effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard the words of my young white brother, and they are true.
+I have heard the request of my brother the Governor of Virginia, and
+it is reasonable. At present, however, my young men are abroad in the
+forest, hunting game to provide against the wants of the coming
+winter, that our wives and children starve not when we are out upon
+the war-path. At the third setting of the sun from this time, they
+will be coming in; when I will not only send some of them with my
+young white brother, but will myself bear him company. For he must
+know that we have ceased to look upon the French as our friends. They
+have trespassed upon our soil; they have spoken words of insult and
+mockery to our oldest sachems. For this cause have my people resolved
+to return them the speech-belt they gave us at the Big Talk we had
+last winter at Montreal. It is that I may defy the big French captain
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> his teeth, and fling his speech-belt in his face, that I now go
+with my young brother, the Long Knife."</p>
+
+<p>On the third day, as had been promised, the young men came in from
+hunting; from among whom the Half King chose eight or ten to serve as
+an additional escort to Major Washington during the expedition. Among
+these was a warrior of great distinction, who went by the tremendous
+name of White Thunder, and was keeper of the speech-belt. Now, you
+must know, that in Indian politics, when two tribes exchange
+speech-belts, it is understood to be an expression of peace and
+good-will between them; while to return or throw them away is the same
+as a declaration of war, or at least to be taken as a hint that all
+friendly intercourse between them is at an end. The "keeper of the
+speech-belt" was, therefore, a kind of "secretary of state" among
+these simple people.</p>
+
+<p>Thus re-enforced by his red allies, Washington, who had grown somewhat
+impatient under this delay, gladly turned his face once more towards
+the Great Lakes. All this time, the rain had continued to fall with
+scarcely an hour's intermission. The streams and low meadow-lands were
+so flooded in consequence, that they were often obliged to wander many
+a weary mile over rugged highlands and through tangled forests,
+without finding themselves any nearer their journey's end. Now and
+then, coming to some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> muddy, swollen stream, in order to gain the
+opposite side without getting their baggage wet, they must needs cross
+over on rafts rudely constructed of logs and grape-vines, and make
+their horses swim along behind them. It was near the middle of
+December, before the little party, jaded and travel-stained, reached
+their destination.</p>
+
+<p>Major Washington was received with true soldierly courtesy by the
+French general, to whom he at once delivered Gov. Dinwiddie's letter.
+A few days being requested for a due consideration of its contents, as
+well as the answer to be returned, he spent the time, as he had been
+instructed, in gaining all the information he could, without exciting
+suspicion, touching the designs of the French in the North-west,&mdash;to
+what extent they had won over the several Indian tribes to their
+interest; the number of troops they had brought into the territory;
+and the number, strength, and situation of the forts they had built.
+The fort where the French general then had his headquarters stood on
+the banks of a little river called French Creek, in which Washington
+observed lying, and bade his men count, a large number of canoes, to
+be used early in the following spring for transporting men and
+military stores down the Ohio. All the hints and items thus gathered
+he carefully noted down in his journal, to be laid, as I have told you
+already, in the form of a report, before Gov. Dinwiddie, upon his
+return.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+<p>Being wary and watchful, he was not long in discovering that the
+French were tampering with his Indian allies; tempting them, by the
+gayest of presents, the fairest of promises, and the hottest of
+firewater, to break faith with the English, and join their cause.
+These underhand dealings gave Washington much uneasiness of mind; and
+he complained to the French general, yet in a firm and dignified
+manner, of the unfair advantage thus taken of the besetting weakness
+of these poor people.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the wily old Frenchman denied all knowledge of the matter;
+although we are bound to believe, that, as these tricks and intrigues
+were going on under his very nose, he must certainly have winked at,
+if he did not openly encourage them.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that the Indians were by no means too nice to enrich
+themselves with French presents, and get drunk on French whiskey; yet,
+for all that, they turned a deaf ear to French promises, and, keeping
+their faith unbroken, remained as true as hickory to their friends the
+English. Even the Half King, stately and commanding as he was in
+council, yielded to the pleasing temptation along with the rest; and,
+for the greater part of the time, lay beastly drunk about the fort.
+When at last he came to his sober senses, he was not a little
+chopfallen upon being somewhat sternly reminded by Major Washington of
+the business that had brought him thither, the recollection of which
+he had seemingly drowned in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> enemy's whiskey. Whereupon, as if to
+show that all his threats and promises had been made in good faith, he
+went forthwith to the French general, and delivered the grave oration
+he had composed for the occasion; at the same time returning the
+speech-belt White Thunder had brought, as a sign that all friendly
+relations between the French and his people were at an end.</p>
+
+<p>At last, having received the answer to Gov. Dinwiddie's letter, and
+looked into matters and things about him as far as he could with
+prudence, Major Washington was now anxious to be away from the place
+where he had already been detained too long. During his stay, however,
+he had been treated with the greatest respect and courtesy by the
+accomplished Frenchman, who presented him, upon his departure, with a
+large canoe laden with a liberal supply of liquors and provisions,
+that lasted him and his men until they reached the Ohio.</p>
+
+<p>To spare the horses as much as possible, Washington had sent them,
+with two or three of the men, by land to Venango, a fort about fifteen
+miles below; whither he now set out to follow them by water. The
+navigation of this little river, owing to its shallows and the masses
+of floating ice that here and there blocked up its channel, was
+difficult and toilsome in the extreme. Oftentimes, to prevent their
+frail canoes from being dashed to pieces against the rocks, would they
+be compelled to get out into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> cold water for half an hour at a
+time, and guide them with their hands down the whirling and rapid
+current, and now and then even to carry them and their loads by land
+around some foaming cataract to the smoother water below. After an
+irksome little voyage, they reached Venango, fully satisfied that to
+go further by water was quite out of the question.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>CHRISTMAS IN THE WILDERNESS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Here, at Venango, Major Washington, much to his regret, was compelled
+to part company with the Half King and his other red allies. White
+Thunder, keeper of the speech-belt, had been so seriously injured in
+their passage down, as to be, for the present, quite unable to travel;
+and the rest would not think of leaving him, but needs must tarry
+there until their friend should be well enough to be brought in a
+canoe down the Alleghany.</p>
+
+<p>Remounting their horses, our little party once more took their weary
+way through the wilderness. It was now the 22d of December. The
+weather was bitter cold; the snow fell thick and fast, and froze as it
+fell; and the bleak winds moaned drearily among the naked trees. The
+forest streams were frozen from bank to bank, yet often too thin to
+bear the weight of the horses; which rendered their crossing painful
+and hazardous indeed. To add to the discomfort of our travellers, the
+horses, from poor and scanty fare, had become too weak to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> able
+longer to carry their allotted burdens. Moved with compassion at their
+pitiable plight, Washington dismounted from his fine saddle-horse, and
+loaded his with a part of the baggage; choosing rather to toil along
+on foot, than to take his ease at the expense of pain even to these
+poor brutes. His humane example was promptly followed by the rest of
+the party; and only the two men kept the saddle to whom was intrusted
+the care of the baggage.</p>
+
+<p>You can well imagine, that a Christmas spent in this wild waste of
+leafless woods and snowy hills was any thing but a merry one to these
+poor fellows, so far away from their homes, which, at that moment,
+they knew to be so bright and cheerful with the mirth and laughter of
+"old men and babes, and loving friends, and youths, and maidens gay."
+And yet I dare say, that, even there, they greeted each other on that
+blessed morning with a brighter smile than usual, and called to their
+remembrance, that on that morn a babe was born, who, in the fulness of
+years, has grown to be the light and love and glory of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that the half-famished beasts were growing weaker and weaker
+day by day, and that he would be too long in reaching his journey's
+end if he governed his speed by theirs, Washington left Capt. Van
+Braam in command of the party, and pushed forward with no other
+company than Mr. Gist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Armed with their trusty rifles, and clad in
+the light dress of the Indians, with no extra covering for the night
+but their watch-coats, and with no other baggage but a small
+portmanteau containing their food and Major Washington's important
+papers, they now made rapid headway, and soon left their friends far
+behind. The next day, they came upon an Indian village called
+Murdering Town; a name of evil omen, given it, perhaps, from its
+having been the scene of some bloody Indian massacre. What befell them
+here, I will tell you, as nearly as I can remember, in Mr. Gist's own
+words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We rose early in the morning, and set out at seven o'clock,
+and got to Murdering Town, on the south-east fork of Beaver
+Creek. Here we met with an Indian whom I thought I had seen at
+Joncaire's, at Venango, when on our journey up to the French
+fort. This fellow called me by my Indian name, and pretended to
+be glad to see me. He asked us several questions; as, how we
+came to travel on foot, when we left Venango, where we parted
+with our horses, and when they would be there. Major Washington
+insisted on travelling by the nearest way to the forks of the
+Alleghany. We asked the Indian if he could go with us, and show
+us the nearest way. The Indian seemed very glad and ready to go
+with us; upon which we set out, and the Indian took the Major's
+pack. We travelled very brisk for eight or ten miles; when the
+Major's feet grew sore, and he very weary, and the Indian
+steered too much north-eastwardly. The Major desired to encamp;
+upon which the Indian asked to carry his gun,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> but he refused;
+and then the Indian grew churlish, and pressed us to keep on,
+telling us there were Ottawa Indians in those woods, and they
+would scalp us if we lay out; but go to his cabin, and we would
+be safe.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the
+Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much
+as I did. The Indian said he could hear a gun from his cabin,
+and steered us northwardly. We grew uneasy, and then he said
+two whoops might be heard from his cabin. We went two miles
+further. Then the Major said he would stay at the next water,
+and we desired the Indian to stop at the next water; but,
+before we came to the water, we came to a clear meadow. It was
+very light, and snow was on the ground. The Indian made a stop,
+and turned about. The Major saw him point his gun towards us,
+and he fired. Said the Major,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Are you shot?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing white oak,
+and began loading his gun; but we were soon with him. I would
+have killed him; but the Major would not suffer me. We let him
+charge his gun. We found he put in a ball: then we took care of
+him. Either the Major or I always stood by the guns. We made
+him make a fire for us by a little run, as if we intended to
+sleep there. I said to the Major,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'As you will not have him killed, we must get him away, and
+then we must travel all night.'</p>
+
+<p>"Upon which I said to the Indian,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'I suppose you were lost, and fired your gun?'</p>
+
+<p>"He said he knew the way to his cabin: it was but a little
+distance.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Well,' said I, 'do you go home, and, as we are tired, we will
+follow your track in the morning; and here is a cake of bread
+for you, and you must give us meat in the morning.'</p>
+
+<p>"He was glad to get away. I followed him, and listened until he
+was fairly out of the way; and then we went about half a mile,
+when we made a fire, set our compass, fixed our course, and
+travelled all night. In the morning, we were on the head of
+Piny Creek."</p></div>
+
+<p>Thus you see, my dear children, from this adventure, upon what slight
+accidents sometimes hang the destinies, not only of individuals, but
+even of great nations; for had not this treacherous Indian missed his
+aim, and that too, in all likelihood, for the first time in a
+twelvemonth, it had never been our blessed privilege to know and love
+and reverence such a man as Washington; and that, instead of being the
+free-born, independent people that he made us, we might have been at
+this very moment throwing up our hats and wasting our precious breath
+in shouts of "Long life to Queen Victoria!"</p>
+
+<p>All that day they walked on, weary and foot-sore, through the deep
+snow, without a trace of living man to enliven their solitary way. The
+cold gray of a winter's evening was deepening the shadows of the
+forest when they came to the banks of the Alleghany; and here a new
+disappointment awaited them. They had all along cheered themselves
+with the prospect of crossing this river on the ice: but they found
+it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> frozen for about fifty yards only from either bank; while the rest
+of the ice, broken into huge cakes, went floating swiftly down the
+main channel, crushing and grinding together, and filling the hollow
+woods around with doleful noises.</p>
+
+<p>With heavy hearts they kindled their camp-fire, and cooked and ate
+their frugal supper; then, making themselves as comfortable as the
+piercing winds would allow, they lay down on their snowy beds to
+sleep, hopeful that the morrow would bring them better luck. Morning
+dawned, and yet brought with it no brighter prospect. Would you know
+what they did in this grievous state? Listen while I read Major
+Washington's own account of it, as we find it written in his
+journal:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There was no way for getting over but on a raft; which we set
+about, with but one poor hatchet, and finished just after
+sun-setting. This was a whole day's work. We next got it
+launched; then went on board of it, and set off. But, before we
+were half way over, we were jammed in the ice, in such a manner
+that we expected every moment our raft to sink, and ourselves
+to perish. I put out my setting-pole to try and stop the raft,
+that the ice might pass by; when the rapidity of the stream
+threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it jerked
+me out into ten feet of water: but I fortunately saved myself
+by catching hold of one of the raft-logs. Notwithstanding all
+our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were
+obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft, and make
+to it. The cold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all
+his fingers, and some of his toes, frozen; and the water was
+shut up so hard, that we found no difficulty in getting off the
+island, on the ice, in the morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's."</p></div>
+
+<p>Here, for a space, they stopped to rest and refresh themselves after
+the fatigue and exposure they had just undergone; and here, among
+other items of interest, they heard that Queen Aliquippa, an Indian
+princess, had been deeply offended that the young Long Knife had
+passed by her royal shanty, the month before, without calling to pay
+his compliments. Major Washington, well knowing that to humor their
+peculiar whims and fancies was the best mode of securing the good-will
+and friendship of these people, hastened at once to present himself
+before her copper majesty, and make what amends he could for his
+breach of etiquette. The present of a bottle of rum (over which, queen
+that she was, she smacked her lips), and of his old watch-coat, that
+would so handsomely set off her buckskin leggins, softened her ire
+completely, and made her, from that time forward, the stanch friend
+and ally of the English.</p>
+
+<p>Travelling on a few miles further, they came to Mr. Gist's house, on
+the banks of the Monongahela, where Washington bought a horse to bear
+him to his journey's end, and parted with his trusty guide. He was now
+entirely alone; and a wide stretch of woods and mountains, swamps and
+frozen streams, still lay between him and the cheerful homes to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> whose
+comforts he had been so long a stranger. Now and then, the loneliness
+of the way would be for a moment enlivened by the sight of some sturdy
+backwoodsman, axe or rifle on shoulder, pushing westward, with his
+wife and children and dogs and household trumpery, to find a home in
+some still more distant part of the wilderness. It was midwinter,
+when, after having been absent eleven weeks on his perilous mission,
+our young Virginian, looking more like a wild Indian than the civil
+and Christian gentleman that he really was, rode into the town of
+Williamsburg, nor halted until he had alighted and hitched his horse
+in front of the governor's house.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Upon his arrival, Major Washington hastened at once to lay before Gov.
+Dinwiddie, and the Virginia Legislature then in session, the French
+general's letter, and the journal he had kept during the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>In his letter, the French general spoke in high and flattering terms
+of the character and talents of young Washington; but, in language
+most decided and unmistakable, refused to withdraw his troops from the
+disputed territory, or cease building forts therein, as had been
+demanded of him, unless so ordered by his royal master, the King of
+France, to whose wishes only he owed respect and obedience. From the
+tenor of this letter, it was plainly enough to be seen (what might, in
+fact, have been seen before), that the French were not in the least
+inclined to give up, at the mere asking, all that they had been at so
+much pains and expense at gaining. It therefore followed, that as the
+title to this bit of forest land could not be written with the pen, on
+fair paper, in letters of Christian ink, it must needs be written with
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> sword, on the fair earth, in letters of Christian blood. By this,
+the little folks are to understand their Uncle Juvinell to mean that
+war alone could settle the question between them. And this
+unreasonable behavior, on the part of two great nations, has already,
+I doubt not, brought to your minds the story of two huge giants, who,
+chancing to meet one night, fell into a long and stormy dispute with
+each other about the possession of a fair bit of meadow-land they had
+happened to spy out at the same moment, where it lay in the lower horn
+of the moon; and who finally, like the silly monsters that they were,
+began belaboring each other with their heavy malls, as if the last
+hope of beating a little reason in were to beat a few brains out.</p>
+
+<p>To drive and keep back the French and their Indian allies, Gov.
+Dinwiddie made a call on the Virginia militia, and wrote to the
+governors of some of the neighboring provinces, urging them, for their
+common defence, to do the same. To strengthen their borders, and give
+security to their frontier settlers, a small party of pioneers and
+carpenters were sent to build a fort at the Forks of the Ohio, as
+Washington had recommended in his journal. This journal, by the way,
+throwing, as it did, so much new light on the designs of the French in
+America, was thought worthy of publication, not only throughout the
+Colonies, but also in the mother-country. The good sense, skill,
+address, and courage shown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> by the young Virginian throughout the late
+expedition, had drawn upon him the eyes of his countrymen; and, from
+that time forward, he became the hope and promise of his native land.
+As a proof of this high regard, he was offered the command of the
+regiment to be raised: which, however, he refused to accept; for his
+modesty told him that he was too young and inexperienced to be
+intrusted with a matter of such moment to his country. To Col. Fry, an
+officer of some note in the province, the command of the regiment was
+therefore given; under whom he was quite willing to accept the post of
+lieutenant-colonel.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the pressing danger that threatened all alike, the
+people were shamefully slow in answering the summons to arms.
+Washington had felt confident, that, at the very first tap of the
+drum, squads upon squads of active, sturdy, well-fed, well-clothed
+young farmers, moved by the same spirit with himself, would come
+flocking to his standard with their trusty rifles, powder-horns, and
+hunting-pouches, ready and eager to do their country service. Instead
+of this, however, there gathered, about him a rabble of ragamuffins
+and worthless fellows, who had spent their lives in tramping up and
+down the country, without settled homes or occupations.</p>
+
+<p>Some were without hats and shoes; some had coats, and no shirts; some
+had shirts, and no coats; and all were without arms, or any keen
+desire to use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> them if they had them. All this disgusted and
+disheartened our youthful colonel not a little; for he was young, and
+had yet to learn that it is of just such stuff that the beginnings of
+armies are always made. The slender pay of a soldier was not enough to
+tempt the thriving yeomanry to leave their rich acres and snug
+firesides to undergo the hardships and dangers of a camp life; as if,
+by failing to answer their country's call, and fighting in its
+defence, they were not running a still greater risk of losing all they
+had.</p>
+
+<p>To encourage the young men of the province to come forward, Gov.
+Dinwiddie caused it to be proclaimed, that two hundred thousand acres
+of the very best land on the head-waters of the Ohio should be divided
+between those that should enlist and serve during the war. This
+splendid offer had, in some small measure, the effect desired; so
+that, in a short time, something like an army was cobbled together,
+with which, poor and scantily provided as it was, they at last
+resolved to take the field.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Washington, in command of the main body, was ordered to go on in
+advance, and cut a military road through the wilderness, in the
+direction of the new fort at the Forks of the Ohio, by way of the
+Monongahela; while Col. Fry was to remain behind with the rest of the
+troops, to bring up the cannon and heavy stores when the road should
+be opened. When the pioneers had cut their way about twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> miles
+beyond the frontier town of Winchester, there came a rumor, that the
+men who had been sent to build the fort at the Forks of the Ohio had
+all been surprised and captured by the French. In a few days, all
+doubts as to the truth of this report were set at rest by the men
+themselves, who came walking leisurely into camp, with their spades
+and axes on their shoulders, to every appearance quite well and
+comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>For several days, they said, they had been working away on the fort
+quite merrily; when, early one morning, they were much surprised to
+see one thousand Frenchmen, in sixty bateaux, or boats, and three
+hundred canoes, with six pieces of cannon, dropping quietly down the
+Alleghany. The leader of this gallant little force summoned the fort
+to surrender in the short space of an hour, or else they would find
+their unfinished timber-work tumbling about their heads in a way that
+would not be altogether agreeable. No one with even half his wits
+about him would have for a moment thought of defending an unfinished
+fort with axes, spades, and augers, against a force of twenty times
+their number, backed by cannon and grape-shot. These men had all their
+wits about them, and, to prove it, gave up the fort without further
+parley; when the French captain marched in, and took formal possession
+of the wooden pen in the name of his most Christian majesty, the King
+of France; after which, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> that gayety and good-humor so often to
+be observed among the French people, he invited the young ensign&mdash;who,
+in the absence of the captain, had been left in the command of the
+fort for that day&mdash;to dine and drink a glass of wine with him. He then
+suffered them all to depart in peace with his good wishes, and with
+their spades, carpenter's tools, and axes on their shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Washington was deeply mortified at this intelligence; but, like
+the manly man that he was, he put a bright face on the matter, and, to
+keep up the spirits of his men, resolved to push on with the road with
+more vigor than ever. And a tremendous undertaking this was, I assure
+you. The tallest of trees were to be felled, the hugest of rocks to be
+split and removed, the deepest of swamps to be filled, and the
+swiftest of mountain torrents bridged over. With such hinderances, you
+will not wonder that they made but four miles a day. Now and then, the
+soldiers would be obliged to put their shoulders to the wheel, and
+help the poor half-famished horses with their heavy wagons up some
+rough and rocky steep. Thus over the gloomy mountains, and down the
+rugged defiles, and through a dark and lonely valley since called the
+Shades of Death, they forced their toilsome way. At last, after many
+weary days, they reached the banks of the Youghiogeny,&mdash;a romantic
+little river that went tumbling down the green hills in many a foaming
+waterfall; then, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> a frolicsome school-boy nearing school, put on
+a demure and sober face, and quietly emptied itself into the more
+tranquil Monongahela. Here, to give his worn-out men and horses some
+repose after their severe and unceasing labors, Washington ordered a
+halt.</p>
+
+<p>Being told by some friendly Indians that the baggage could be carried
+down this stream by water, he set out early one morning in a canoe,
+with four or five white men, and an Indian for a guide, to see for
+himself what truth there might be in this report. When they had rowed
+about ten miles, their Indian guide, after sulking for a little while,
+laid his oar across the canoe, and refused to go further. At first,
+this behavior appeared to them a little queer; but they were not long
+in discovering that it was only a way the cunning red rascal had of
+higgling to get more pay for his services. After some pretty sharp
+bargaining, Col. Washington promised to give him his old watch-coat
+and a ruffled shirt if he would go on; upon which, without more ado,
+he picked up his oar, and for the rest of the trip steered away
+blithely enough. You can well imagine what an uncommon swell this
+savage dandy, with his bare red legs, must have cut, a few days after,
+in his civilized finery, among the copper-cheeked belles of the woods.
+By the time they had rowed twenty miles further, Washington was
+satisfied, that, owing to the rocks and rapids, a passage down this
+river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> in the shallow canoes of the Indians was next to impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to camp, he soon afterwards received word from his old
+friend and ally, the Half King, that a party of French had been seen
+coming from the direction of Fort Duquesne, who were in all
+likelihood, by that time, somewhere in his close neighborhood. Upon
+hearing this, Washington deemed it prudent to fall back a few miles to
+the Great Meadows, a beautiful little plain, situated in the midst of
+woods and hills, and divided by a rivulet. Here he threw up strong
+intrenchments, cleared away the undergrowth, and prepared what he
+called "a charming field for an encounter." Shortly after, Mr. Gist,
+whom you well remember, came into camp, from his home on the
+Monongahela, with the tidings, that a party of French had been at his
+house on the day before, whom, from their appearance, he believed to
+be spies. Washington sent out some of his men on wagon-horses to beat
+the woods; who came in about dusk, without having, however, discovered
+any traces of the enemy. About nine o'clock that same night, an Indian
+runner came from the Half King with word, that some of his hunters had
+late that evening seen the tracks of two Frenchmen not five miles
+distant; and that, if Col. Washington would join him with some of his
+men, they would set out early in the morning in quest of the lurking
+foe.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+<p>Taking with him about forty men, and leaving the rest to guard the
+intrenchments, Washington set out forthwith for the Indian camp. Their
+way led them through tall and thick woods, that were then in the full
+leaf of early summer. As if to deepen their gloom, the sky was
+overcast with the blackest of clouds, from which the rain poured down
+in torrents; and the night, of course, was as dark as dark could be.
+No wonder, then, that they were continually losing their path, which
+was but a deer-track, and none of the plainest, even in broad
+daylight. When any one discovered that he had lost himself, he would
+shout, and set himself right again by the answering shouts of his
+comrades who might be so lucky as to be in the path at that moment.
+After blundering about all night through marshy thickets, slipping
+upon slimy rocks, and scrambling over the oozy trunks of fallen trees,
+they reached the Indian camp at daybreak in a somewhat moist and
+bedabbled plight, as you may well imagine. The Half King seemed
+overjoyed at seeing his young white brother once more; and, with true
+Indian hospitality, set before him and his men the best his camp
+afforded. After breakfasting heartily on bear's meat, venison, and
+parched corn, they all set out together, much refreshed, to seek what
+game might be in the wind. The Half King led the way to the spot where
+the two tracks had been seen the evening before; and, having found
+them, told two of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> sharp-eyed hunters to follow the trail until
+they could bring some tidings of the feet that had made them. Like
+hounds on the scent of a fox, they started off at a long trot; only
+pausing now and then to look more closely at the leaves, to make sure
+they were right, and not on a cold scent. In a short time, they came
+back with word that they had spied twenty-five or thirty French and
+Canadians encamped in a low, narrow bottom, between high and steep
+hills, who looked as if they were desirous of concealment. Whereupon
+Washington proposed that the two parties should divide, and, stealing
+upon the enemy from opposite directions, surprise and capture him, if
+possible, without the shedding of blood. To this the Half King agreed;
+and, parting, they moved off in profound silence, each on their
+separate way.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden turn of the hollow, down which they had been making their way
+for several minutes, brought Washington and his party, ere they were
+well aware, in full view of the enemy. Some were cooking their
+morning's meal, some were preparing their arms for the day's
+excursion, some were lounging, and all were merry. But, seeing as soon
+as seen, they ran with all speed to their guns, that were leaned
+against the trees hard by, and, without more ado, began firing in so
+brisk and earnest a manner, that left the Virginians no choice but to
+return it, which they did with spirit. About the same time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> the Half
+King and his warriors came down to the bottom of the hill on the
+opposite side of the hollow, and, screening themselves behind a bit of
+rising ground, joined the music of their rifles with the rest. For
+about fifteen minutes, the skirmish was kept up with great spirit on
+both sides; when the French, having lost ten of their number (among
+whom was their leader, Capt. de Jumonville), surrendered, and yielded
+up their arms. Washington had one man shot dead at his side, and three
+men wounded; but his Indian allies, protected as they were by the
+rising ground, came off without the loss of a single feather or
+porcupine-quill. Unluckily, in the heat of the encounter, a
+swift-footed Canadian, better, no doubt, at dodging than shooting,
+managed to make his escape, and carried the news to Fort Duquesne.</p>
+
+<p>The Half King and his warriors, I am sorry to tell you, would have
+butchered the prisoners in cold blood, had not Washington sternly
+forbidden them. They therefore consoled themselves as best they might
+for this disappointment by scalping the dead; which, however, yielded
+them but sorry comfort, as there were but ten scalps to be divided
+among forty warriors.</p>
+
+<p>The Half King was much offended by this humane interference, on the
+part of his young white brother, in behalf of the prisoners; for he
+seemed to think, that as they were spies, and French spies at that,
+they richly deserved to be scalped alive. Such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> milk-and-water,
+half-way measures might do for pale-faces, but were not the sort of
+entertainment to be relished by a genuine Indian brave of the first
+water, or, to speak more to the point, of the first blood.</p>
+
+<p>Without, however, in the least heeding these muttered grumblings of
+the worthy old chief, who had his failings along with the rest of
+mankind, Col. Washington took the prisoners to his camp, where he
+treated them with even more kindness and courtesy than they as spies
+deserved. From thence he sent them under a strong guard to
+Williamsburg, and wrote to Gov. Dinwiddie, begging him to treat them
+with all the humanity due to prisoners of war, but to keep a strict
+watch over them, as there were among them two or three very cunning
+and dangerous men.</p>
+
+<p>This encounter, commonly called the Jumonville affair, caused a great
+sensation, not only throughout the Colonies, but also in France and
+England; for it was there, as you must know, in that remote and
+obscure little valley, that flowed the first blood of this long and
+eventful war. It was Washington's first battle; and, being a
+successful one, much inspirited him. In a letter written at this time
+to his brother Augustine, after touching upon the particulars of this
+skirmish, he says, "I heard the bullets whistle; and, believe me,
+there is something charming in the sound."</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FORT NECESSITY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>About this time, Col. Fry died at Wills's Creek, where he had lain ill
+of a fever for several weeks; and Washington, as the next in rank, was
+obliged to take command of the regiment. Although this change brought
+with it an increase of pay and honors, yet it caused him the sincerest
+regret; for even then, young as he was, he had the good of his country
+more earnestly at heart than his own private advantage. He said, and
+with unfeigned modesty, that he feared he was scarcely equal to the
+discharge of such high and responsible duties, without the aid and
+counsel of some older and more experienced officer.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. de Villiers was now commander of the French at Fort Duquesne.
+When tidings of the late encounter reached this officer through the
+swift-footed Canadian, he swore a deep oath that he would chastise the
+audacious young Virginian for what he chose to call this barbarous
+outrage, and avenge the death of De Jumonville, whose brother-in-law,
+as ill luck would have it, he chanced to be. Foreseeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> his danger,
+and to defend himself against the superior force he knew would be
+brought against him, Col. Washington set about forthwith to strengthen
+his works. He dug the ditches deeper, raised the breastworks higher,
+and surrounded the whole with a row of palisades, firmly planted in
+the ground, and set so close together as scarcely to allow of a
+gun-barrel passing between them.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the shameful neglect of those whose duty it was to send up
+supplies, he and his men suffered much from the want of food,&mdash;many
+days at a stretch sometimes passing by without their tasting bread. To
+aggravate this new distress, the Half King and many of his warriors,
+with their wives and children, now sought refuge in the fort from the
+vengeance of the French and their savage allies; which added nothing
+to their strength, and only increased the number of hungry mouths to
+be fed. To this place, then, where gaunt famine pinched them from
+within and watchful enemies beset them from without, Washington gave
+the fitting name of Fort Necessity. Luckily for them, while in this
+pitiable plight, days and days passed by, and still no avenging De
+Villiers showed himself, though alarms were frequent.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Washington now ordered Major Muse to bring up the rest of the
+troops that had been waiting all this while at Wills's Creek, with the
+heavy stores and cannon. To reward the friendly Indians for their
+services and fidelity, Major Muse brought with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> him presents of
+hatchets and knives, guns, powder and lead, tin cups, needles and
+pins, beads, and dry-goods of every gaudy hue, and it may be, although
+we can only guess it, a ruffled shirt or two. In addition to these,
+there came a number of silver medals for the chief sachems, sent by
+Gov. Dinwiddie at the suggestion of Col. Washington, who well knew how
+much these simple people prize little compliments of this kind. Major
+Muse handed out the presents, while Washington hung the medals about
+the necks of the sachems, which yielded them far more delight, you
+will be sorry to hear, than their good old missionary's catechism.
+This was done with all that show and parade so dear to an Indian's
+heart; and, to give a still finer edge to the present occasion, they
+christened each other all over again: that is to say, the red men gave
+the white men Indian names, and the white men gave the red men English
+names. Thus, for example, Washington gave the Half King the name of
+Dinwiddie, which pleased him greatly; while he, in his turn, bestowed
+on his young white brother a long, high-sounding Indian name, that you
+could pronounce as readily spelt backwards as forwards. Fairfax was
+the name given a young sachem, the son of Queen Aliquippa, whose
+eternal friendship to the English, it must be borne in mind, had been
+secured by Washington, the previous winter, by the present of an old
+coat and a bottle of rum.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+<p>By the advice of his old and much-esteemed friend, Col. William
+Fairfax, Washington had divine worship in the fort daily, in which he
+led; and, thanks to the early teachings of his pious mother, he could
+do this, and sin not. Solemn indeed, my dear children, and beautiful
+to behold, must have been that picture,&mdash;that little fort, so far away
+in the heart of the lonely wilderness, with its motley throng of
+painted Indians and leather-clad backwoodsmen gathered round their
+young commander, as, morning and evening, he kneeled in prayer before
+the Giver of all good, beseeching aid and protection, and giving
+thanks.</p>
+
+<p>As if to put his manhood and patience to a still severer test, there
+came to the fort about this time an independent company of one hundred
+North Carolinians, headed by one Capt. Mackay, who refused to serve
+under him as his superior officer. As his reason for this conduct,
+Mackay argued that he held a royal commission (that is to say, had
+been made a captain by the King of England), which made him equal in
+rank, if not superior, to Washington, who held only a provincial
+commission, or had been made a colonel by the Governor of Virginia.
+This, in part, was but too true; and it had been a source of
+dissatisfaction to Washington, that the rank and services of colonial
+officers should be held at a cheaper rate than the same were valued at
+in the royal army. It wounded his honest, manly pride,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> and offended
+his high sense of justice; and he had already resolved in his own mind
+to quit such inglorious service, as soon as he could do so without
+injury to the present campaign, or loss of honor to himself. To most
+men, the lofty airs and pretensions of Capt. Mackay and his
+Independents would have been unbearable; but he kept his temper
+unruffled, and, with a prudence beyond his years, forbore to do or say
+any thing that would lead to an angry outbreak between them; and as
+they chose to encamp outside the fort, and have separate guards, he
+deemed it wisest not to trouble himself about them, only so far as
+might concern their common safety.</p>
+
+<p>Days, and even weeks, had now passed away, and still no enemy had come
+to offer him battle. His men were becoming restless from inaction; and
+the example of the troublesome Independents had already begun to stir
+up discontent among them, which threatened, if not checked in season,
+to end in downright insubordination. As the surest remedy for these
+evils, Washington resolved to push forward with the road in the
+direction of Fort Duquesne, and carry the war into the enemy's own
+country. Requesting Capt. Mackay to guard the fort during his absence,
+he set out with his entire force of three hundred men, and again began
+the toilsome work of cutting a road through the wilderness. The
+difficulties they had now to overcome were even greater than those
+which beset them at the outset of their pioneering.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> The mountains
+were higher, the swamps deeper, the rocks more massive, the trees
+taller and more numerous, the torrents more rapid, the days more hot
+and sultry, and the men and horses more enfeebled by poor and scanty
+food. You will not wonder, then, that they were nearly two weeks in
+reaching Mr. Gist's plantation on the Monongahela, a distance of but
+fifteen miles.</p>
+
+<p>But hardly had they pitched their tents, and thrown themselves on the
+grass to snatch a little rest, when there came the disheartening
+intelligence, brought in by their Indian spies, that Capt. de Villiers
+had been seen to sally from Fort Duquesne but a few hours before, at
+the head of a force of five hundred French and four hundred Indians,
+and must by that time be within a few miles of the Virginia camp. For
+three hundred weary and hungry men to wait and give battle to a force
+three times their number, fresh and well fed, was a thing too absurd
+to be thought of for a single moment. Washington, therefore, as their
+only chance of safety, ordered a hasty retreat, hoping that they might
+be able to reach the settlements on Wills's Creek before the enemy
+could overtake him. The retreat, however, was any thing but a hasty
+one; for the poor half-famished horses were at last no longer able to
+drag the heavy cannon and carry the heavy baggage. Moved with pity for
+the lean and tottering beasts, Washington dismounted from his fine
+charger, and gave him for a pack-horse;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> which humane example was
+promptly followed by his officers. Yet even this was not enough: so,
+while some of the jaded men loaded their backs with the baggage, the
+rest, as jaded, dragged the artillery along the stony roads with
+ropes, rather than that it should be left behind to fall into the
+hands of the enemy. For this good service, rendered so willingly in
+that hour of sore distress, they went not unrewarded by their generous
+young commander.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. Mackay and his company of Independents had, at Washington's
+request, come up a little while before, and now joined in the retreat.
+But they joined in nothing else; for, pluming themselves upon their
+greater respectability as soldiers of his Britannic majesty, they lent
+not a helping hand in this hour of pressing need, although the danger
+that lurked behind threatened all alike. They marched along, these
+coxcombs, daintily picking their way over the smoothest roads, and too
+genteel to be burdened with any thing but their clean muskets and tidy
+knapsacks. This ill-timed and insolent behavior served only to
+aggravate the trials of the other poor fellows all the more; and when,
+at last, they had managed to drag the cannon and the wagons and
+themselves to Fort Necessity, they were so overcome with fatigue and
+hunger, and so moved with indignation at the conduct of the
+Independents, that they threw down their ropes and packs, and flatly
+refused to be marched further. Seeing their pitiful plight,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> and that
+it would be impossible to reach the settlements, Col. Washington, as
+their last chance of safety, turned aside, and once more took shelter
+in his little fort.</p>
+
+<p>As Capt. Mackay and his company of gentlemen fighters had done nothing
+towards strengthening the works during his absence, Washington ordered
+a few trees to be felled in the woods hard by, as a still further
+barrier to the approach of the enemy. Just as the last tree went
+crashing down, the French and their Indian allies, nine hundred
+strong, came in sight, and opened a scattering fire upon the fort, but
+from so great a distance as made it little more than an idle waste of
+powder and lead. Suspecting this to be but a feint of the crafty foe
+to decoy them into an ambuscade, Washington ordered his men to keep
+within the shelter of the fort, there to lie close, and only to shoot
+when they could plainly see where their bullets were to be sent.</p>
+
+<p>A light skirmishing was kept up all day, and until a late hour in the
+night; the Indians keeping the while within the shelter of the woods,
+which at no point came within sixty yards of the palisades. Whenever
+an Indian scalp-lock or a French cap showed itself from among the
+trees or bushes, it that instant became the mark of a dozen
+sharpshooters watching at the rifle-holes of the fort. All that day,
+and all the night too, the rain poured down from one black cloud, as
+only a summer ruin can pour, till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> the ditches were filled with water,
+and the breastworks nothing but a bank of miry clay; till the men were
+drenched to the skin, and the guns of many so dampened as to be unfit
+for use.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock that night, the firing ceased; and shortly after a
+voice was heard, a little distance beyond the palisades, calling upon
+the garrison, in the name of Capt. de Villiers, to surrender.
+Suspecting this to be but a pretext for getting a spy into the fort,
+Col. Washington refused to admit the bearer of the summons. Capt. de
+Villiers then requested that an officer be sent to his quarters to
+parley; giving his word of honor that no mischief should befall him,
+or unfair advantage be taken of it. Whereupon, Capt. Van Braam, the
+old Dutch fencing-master, being the only French interpreter
+conveniently at hand, was employed to go and bring in the terms of
+surrender. He soon came back; but the terms were too dishonorable for
+any true soldier to think of accepting. He was sent again, but with no
+better result. The third time, Capt. de Villiers sent written articles
+of capitulation; which, being in his own language, must needs be first
+translated before an answer could be returned. By the flickering light
+of one poor candle, which could hardly be kept burning for the pouring
+rain, the Dutch captain read the terms he had brought, while the rest
+stood round him, gathering what sense they could from the confused
+jumbling of bad French, and worse English<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> he was pleased to call a
+translation. After this, there followed a little more parleying
+between the hostile leaders; when it was at last settled that the
+prisoners taken in the Jumonville affair should be set at liberty;
+that the English should build no forts upon the disputed territories
+within a twelvemonth to come; and that the garrison, after destroying
+the artillery and military stores, should be allowed to march out with
+all the honors of war, and pursue their way to the settlements,
+unmolested either by the French or their Indian allies. When we take
+into account the more than double strength of the enemy, the starving
+condition of the garrison (still further weakened as it was by the
+loss of twelve men killed and forty-three wounded), and the slender
+hope of speedy succor from the settlements, these terms must be
+regarded as highly honorable to Col. Washington; and still more so
+when we add to this the fact, that the Half King and his other Indian
+allies had deserted him at the first approach of danger, under the
+pretext of finding some safer retreat for their wives and children.
+Whether they failed from choice, or hinderance to return, and take
+part in the action, can never now be known with certainty.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the dreary night wore away; and, when the dreary morning dawned,
+they destroyed the artillery and the military stores, preparatory to
+their setting forth on their retreat. As all the horses had been
+killed or lost the day before, they had no means of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> removing their
+heavy baggage: they therefore secured it as best they might, hoping to
+be able to send back for it from the settlements. Still in possession
+of their small-arms, they then marched out of the fort with all the
+honors of war,&mdash;fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying. They
+had gone but a few yards from the fort, when a large body of Indians
+pounced with plundering hands upon the baggage. Seeing that the French
+could not or would not keep them back, Washington, to disappoint them
+of their booty, ordered his men to set fire to it, and destroy all
+they could not bring away upon their backs.</p>
+
+<p>This done, they once more took up their line of march; and a
+melancholy march it was. Between them and the nearest settlements,
+there lay seventy miles of steep and rugged mountain-roads, over which
+they must drag their weary and aching limbs before they could hope to
+find a little rest. Washington did all that a kind and thoughtful
+commander could to keep up the flagging spirits of his men; sharing
+with them their every toil and privation, and all the while
+maintaining a firm and cheerful demeanor. Reaching Wills's Creek, he
+there left them to enjoy the full abundance which they found awaiting
+them at that place; and, in company with Capt. Mackay, repaired at
+once to Williamsburg to report the result of the campaign to Gov.
+Dinwiddie.</p>
+
+<p>A short time after, the terms of surrender were laid before the
+Virginia House of Burgesses, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> received the entire approval of that
+wise body; who, although the expedition had ended in defeat and
+failure, most cheerfully gave Col. Washington and his men a vote of
+thanks, in testimony of their having done their whole duty as good and
+brave and faithful soldiers.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>GENERAL BRADDOCK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Having brought the campaign to an honorable if not successful end,
+Col. Washington threw up his commission, and left the service. This
+had been his determination for some time past; and he felt that he
+could do so now without laying his conduct open to censure or
+suspicion, having within his own breast the happy assurance, that, in
+the discharge of his late trust, he had acted the part of a faithful
+soldier and true patriot, seeking only his country's good. The reasons
+that led him to take this step need not be repeated, as you will
+readily understand them, if you still bear in mind what I told you a
+short time since touching those questions of rank which caused the
+difficulty between him and Capt. Mackay.</p>
+
+<p>A visit to his much-beloved mother was the first use he made of his
+leisure. The profound love and reverence that never failed to mark his
+conduct towards his mother were among the most beautiful traits of his
+character. The management of the family estate, and the education of
+the younger children,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> were concerns in which he ever took the
+liveliest interest; and to make these labors light and easy to her by
+his aid or counsel was a pleasure to him indeed. This grateful duty
+duly done, he once more sought the shelter of Mount Vernon, to whose
+comforts he had been for so many months a stranger. The toils of a
+soldier's life were now exchanged for the peaceful labors of a
+husbandman. Nor did this change, to his well-ordered mind, bring with
+it any idle regrets; for the quiet pursuits of a farmer's life yielded
+him, young, ardent, and adventurous as he was, scarcely less delight
+than the profession of arms, and even more as he grew in years.</p>
+
+<p>The affair of the Great Meadows roused the mother-country at last to a
+full sense of the danger that threatened her possessions in America.
+Accordingly, to regain what had been lost, money, and munitions of
+war, and a gallant little army fitted out in the completest style of
+that day, were sent over with all possible expedition, under the
+command of Major-Gen. Braddock.</p>
+
+<p>From the shrubby heights of Mount Vernon, Washington could look down,
+and behold the British ships-of-war as they moved slowly up the
+majestic Potomac, their decks thronged with officers and soldiers
+dressed in showy uniform, their polished arms and accoutrements
+flashing back the cold, clear light of the February sun. From their
+encampment at Alexandria, a few miles distant, he could hear the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+booming of their morning and evening guns, as it came roiling over the
+hills and through the woods, and shook his quiet home like a sullen
+summons to arms. Often, no longer able to keep down his youthful
+ardor, he would mount his horse, and, galloping up to the town, spend
+hours there in watching the different companies, as with the precision
+of clockwork they went through their varied and difficult evolutions.
+At these sights and sounds, all the martial spirit within him took
+fire again.</p>
+
+<p>To Gen. Braddock, who commanded all the forces in America, provincial
+as well as royal, Gov. Dinwiddie and other Virginia notables spoke in
+the highest terms of the character of young Washington; giving him at
+the same time still further particulars of the brave and soldierly
+conduct he had so signally shown during the campaign of the previous
+year. They took pleasure, they said, in recommending him as one whose
+skill and experience in Indian warfare, and thorough acquaintance with
+the wild country beyond the borders, were such as could be turned to
+the greatest advantage in the course of the following campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Desirous of securing services of such peculiar value, Braddock sent
+our young Virginian a courteous invitation to join his staff; offering
+him the post of volunteer aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel. Here
+was an opportunity of gratifying his taste for arms under one of the
+first generals of the day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Could he do it without the sacrifice of
+honor or self-respect? Although he had left the service for the best
+of reasons, as you must bear in mind, yet there was nothing in these
+reasons to hinder him from serving his country, not for pay, but as a
+generous volunteer, bearing his own expenses. Besides, such a post as
+this would place him altogether above the authority of any equal or
+inferior officer who might chance to hold a king's commission.
+Debating thus with himself, and urged on by his friends, he accepted
+Braddock's invitation, and joined his staff as volunteer aide-de-camp.</p>
+
+<p>Now, would you know what an aide-de-camp is? Wait, and you will find
+out for yourselves when we come to the battle of the Monongahela,
+where Braddock suffered his gallant little army to be cut to pieces by
+the French and Indians.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Washington heard that her son was on the eve of joining the
+new army, full of a mother's fears, she hastened to entreat him not
+again to expose himself to the dangers and trials of a soldier's life.
+Although the army was the only opening to distinction at that time in
+the Colonies, yet, to have him ever near her, she would rather have
+seen him quietly settled at his beautiful homestead, as an
+unpretending farmer, than on the high road to every worldly honor at
+the risk of life or virtue. Ever mindful of her slightest wishes, her
+son listened respectfully to all her objections, and said all he could
+to quiet her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> motherly fears: but, feeling that he owed his highest
+duty to his country, he was not to be turned from his steadfast
+purpose; and, taking an affectionate leave of her, he set out to join
+his general at Fort Cumberland.</p>
+
+<p>Fort Cumberland was situated on Wills's Creek, and had just been built
+by Braddock as a gathering point for the border; and thither he had
+removed his whole army, with all his stores, and munitions of war.
+Upon further acquaintance, Washington found this old veteran a man of
+courteous though somewhat haughty manners, of a hasty and uneven
+temper, strict and rigid in the discipline of his soldiers, much given
+to martial pomp and parade, and self-conceited and wilful to a degree
+that was sometimes scarcely bearable. He was, however, of a sociable
+and hospitable turn; often inviting his officers to dine with him, and
+entertaining them like princes. So keen a relish had he for the good
+things of the table, that he never travelled without his two cooks,
+who were said to have been so uncommonly skilful in their line of
+business, that they could take a pair of boots, and boil them down
+into a very respectable dish of soup, give them only the seasoning to
+finish it off with. The little folks, however, must be very cautious
+how they receive this story, as their Uncle Juvinell will not
+undertake to vouch for the truth of it.</p>
+
+<p>The contractors&mdash;that is to say, the men who had been engaged to
+furnish the army with a certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> number of horses, pack-saddles, and
+wagons, by a certain time, and for a certain consideration&mdash;had failed
+to be as good as their word, and had thereby seriously hindered the
+progress of the campaign. As might have been expected, this was enough
+to throw such a man as Braddock into a towering passion; and, to mend
+his humor, the governors of the different provinces were not as ready
+and brisk to answer his call for men and supplies as he thought he had
+a right to expect.</p>
+
+<p>So he poured forth his vials of wrath upon whomsoever or whatsoever
+chanced to come uppermost. He stormed at the contractors; he railed at
+the governors, and sneered at the troops they sent him; he abused the
+country in general, and scolded about the bad roads in particular.</p>
+
+<p>Washington, with his usual clearness of insight into character, soon
+saw, to his deep disappointment, that this was hardly the man to
+conduct a wilderness campaign to any thing like a successful end,
+however brave the testy old veteran might be, and expert in the
+management of well-drilled regulars in the open and cultivated regions
+of the Old World. Of the same opinion was Dr. Franklin, who, being at
+that time Postmaster-General of all the Colonies, came to Braddock's
+quarters at Fort Cumberland to make some arrangements for transporting
+the mail to and from the army during the progress of the expedition. I
+will read you his own lively account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> this interview, as it will
+enable you to see more clearly those faults of Braddock's character
+that so soon after brought ruin on his own head, and disgrace upon
+English arms in America.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some
+account of his intended progress. 'After taking Fort Duquesne,'
+said he, 'I am to proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that,
+to Frontenac, if the season will allow; and I suppose it will,
+for Duquesne can hardly detain me above three or four days: and
+then I can see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara.'</p>
+
+<p>"Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army must
+make in their march by a very narrow road to be cut for them
+through the woods and bushes, and also what I had heard of a
+former defeat of fifteen hundred French who invaded the
+Illinois country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears
+for the event of the campaign; but I ventured only to say, 'To
+be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne with these
+fine troops, so well provided with artillery, the fort, though
+completely fortified and assisted with a very strong garrison,
+can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I
+apprehend of obstruction to your march is from the ambuscades
+of the Indians, who, by constant practice, are dexterous in
+laying and executing them; and the slender line, nearly four
+miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to be
+attacked by surprise on its flanks, and to be cut like thread
+into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up
+in time to support one another.' He smiled at my ignorance, and
+replied,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>"'These savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to
+raw American militia; but upon the king's regular and
+disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an
+impression.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a
+military man in matters of his profession, and said no more."</p></div>
+
+<p>In the course of this interview, Franklin chanced to express a regret
+that the army had not been landed in Pennsylvania, where, as every
+farmer kept his own wagon and horses, better means would have been
+more readily found for transporting the troops, with their heavy guns
+and munitions of war, across the country and over the mountains. Quick
+to take a hint, Braddock made haste to request him, as a man of
+standing in his colony, to furnish him, in the king's name, one
+hundred and fifty wagons, and four horses to each wagon, besides a
+large number of pack-horses and pack-saddles. This, Franklin readily
+undertook to do; and went about it with such diligence, that by the
+latter part of spring, even before the time set, he had fulfilled his
+promise to the last letter; and Braddock had now the satisfaction of
+seeing his army, after all these vexatious delays, in a condition to
+move forward.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Washington was all attention to affairs in camp, and was
+daily gaining fresh insight into the art of war, as understood and
+practised in the most civilized countries of the Old World. Every day
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> men were drilled, and passed under review; their arms and
+accoutrements carefully inspected by their officers, to make sure that
+they were in perfect order, and ready for use at a moment's notice.
+Sentinels and guards were stationed in and about the camp, day and
+night.</p>
+
+<p>So strict was the watch kept by this lynx-eyed old general over the
+morals of his men, that drunkenness was punished with severe
+confinement; and any one found guilty of theft was drummed out of his
+regiment, after receiving five hundred stripes on his bare back. Every
+Sunday, the soldiers were called together, under the colors of their
+separate regiments, to hear divine service performed by their
+chaplains.</p>
+
+<p>To lend variety to the scene, the Indians of the neighboring
+wilderness came flocking in to join their fortunes with the English,
+or bring information of the movements or designs of the French. Among
+these came his old friend and ally, White Thunder, keeper of the
+speech-belt; and Silver Heels, a renowned warrior, so called, no
+doubt, from his being uncommonly nimble of foot. Also, as we shall
+meet him again hereafter, should be mentioned another sachem, whose
+Indian name the little folks must excuse their Uncle Juvinell from
+giving them in full. By your leave, then, for the sake of brevity and
+convenience, we will call him by the last two syllables of his name,
+Yadi. From them Washington learned, much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> to his regret, that his red
+brother, the Half King, had died a few months before; having, as the
+conjurors or medicine-men of his tribe pretended, been bewitched by
+the French for the terrible blow he had dealt them at the battle of
+Jumonville, which had filled them with such terror, that they dared
+not hope for safety in the wide earth till certain that he walked and
+ate and slept no more among living men.</p>
+
+<p>Although Braddock held these savage allies in high contempt, yet when
+Washington pointed out to him how much was to be gained by their
+friendship, and how much to be lost by their enmity, he was persuaded,
+for that one time at least, to treat them with marked respect and
+distinction.</p>
+
+<p>To give them an overwhelming idea of the power and splendor of English
+arms, he received them with all the honors of war,&mdash;fifes playing,
+drums beating, and the regulars lowering their muskets as they passed
+on to the general's tent. Here Braddock received them in the midst of
+his officers, and made them a speech of welcome, in the course of
+which he told them of the deep sorrow felt by their great father, the
+King of England, for the death of his red brother, the Half King; and
+that, to console his red children in America for so grievous a loss,
+as well as to reward them for their friendship and services to the
+English, he had sent them many rich and handsome presents, which they
+should receive before leaving the fort.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> This speech was answered by a
+dozen warriors in as many orations, which being very long and very
+flowery, and very little to the point, bored their English listeners
+dreadfully. The peace-pipe smoked and the Big Talk ended, Braddock, by
+way of putting a cap on the grand occasion, ordered all the fifes to
+play, and drums to beat, and, in the midst of the music, all the guns
+in the fort to be fired at once. He then caused a bullock to be
+killed, and roasted whole, for the refreshment of his Indian guests.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians, in their turn, to show how sensible they were of the
+honor done them by this distinguished reception, entertained the
+English by dancing their war-dances and singing their war-songs: by
+which you are to understand that they jumped and whirled and capered
+about in a thousand outlandish antics till they grew limber and weak
+in the knees, and yelped and bellowed and howled till their bodies
+were almost empty of breath; when, from very exhaustion, they hushed
+their barbarous din, and night and slumber fell on the camp. In the
+daytime, these lords of the forest, tricked out in all their savage
+finery, their faces streaked with war-paint and their scalp-locks
+brave with gay bunches of feathers, would stalk about the fort, big
+with wonder over every thing they saw. Now and then, they would follow
+with admiring eyes the rapid and skilful movement of the red-coated
+regulars, as one or other of the regiments, like some huge machine,
+went through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> their martial exercises; or, standing on the ramparts,
+they would watch with still keener zest and interest the young
+officers as they amused themselves by racing their horses outside the
+fort.</p>
+
+<p>As ill luck would have it, these warriors had brought with them their
+wives and children, among whom were many very pretty Indian girls,
+with plump, round forms, little hands and feet, and beady, roguish
+eyes. As female society was not by any means one of the charms of life
+at Fort Cumberland, the coming of these wild beauties was hailed with
+the liveliest delight by the young English officers, who, the moment
+they laid eyes on them, fell to loving them to desperation. First
+among these forest belles was one who went by the expressive name of
+Bright Lightning; so called, no doubt, from being the favorite
+daughter of White Thunder. It being noised abroad that she was a
+savage princess of the very first blood, she, of course, at once
+became the centre of fashionable attraction, and the leading toast of
+all the young blades in camp. No sooner, however, did the warriors get
+wind of these gallantries, than they were quite beside themselves with
+rage and jealousy, and straightway put an end to them; making the
+erring fair ones pack off home, bag and baggage, sorely to their
+disappointment, as well as to that of the young British lions, who
+were quite inconsolable for their loss.</p>
+
+<p>This scandalous behavior on the part of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> English&mdash;of which,
+however, your Uncle Juvinell may have spoken more lightly than he
+ought&mdash;was, as you may well believe, very disgusting to Washington,
+who was a young man of the purest thoughts and habits. As may be
+naturally supposed, it gave deep and lasting offence to the sachems;
+and when to this is coupled the fact, that their wishes and opinions
+touching war-matters were never heeded or consulted, we cannot wonder
+that they one by one forsook the English, with all their warriors, and
+came no more.</p>
+
+<p>Foreseeing this, and well knowing what valuable service these people
+could render as scouts and spies, Washington had gone to Braddock,
+time and again, warning him to treat them with more regard to their
+peculiar whims and customs, if he did not wish to lose the advantages
+to be expected from their friendship, or bring upon him the terrible
+consequences of their enmity. As this wise and timely advice came from
+a young provincial colonel, the wrong-headed old general treated it,
+of course, with high disdain, and to the last remained obstinate in
+the belief that he could march to the very heart of the continent
+without meeting an enemy who could withstand his well-drilled regulars
+and fine artillery.</p>
+
+<p>And thus, my dear children, did this rash and wilful man cast lightly
+away the golden opportunity, wherein, by a few kind words, or tokens
+of respect, he could have gained the lasting friendship of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+much-despised race, and thereby made them, in all human likelihood,
+the humble means of saving from early destruction the finest army,
+which, up to that time, had carried its banners to the Western World.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>ROUGH WORK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>At last, all things were got in readiness; and the gallant little army
+began its toilsome march through the forest, and over the mountains,
+and up and down the valleys. Beside the regulars, fourteen hundred
+strong, it consisted of two companies of hatchet-men, or carpenters,
+whose business it was to go on before, and open the road; a small
+company of seamen, who had the care and management of the artillery;
+six companies of rangers, some of whom were Pennsylvanians; and two
+companies of light horse, which, being composed of young men taken
+from the very first families of Virginia, Braddock had chosen to be
+his body-guard: the whole numbering two thousand, or thereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the difficulty of dragging the loaded wagons and heavy guns
+over the steep and rocky roads, the march was slow and tedious in the
+extreme; and what made it still more trying to Washington's patience
+was to see so many wagons and pack-horses loaded down with the private
+baggage of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> the English officers,&mdash;such as fine clothing, table
+dainties, and a hundred little troublesome conveniences, which they
+must needs lug about with them wherever they went. Weeks before they
+left Fort Cumberland, Washington had pointed out to Braddock the folly
+of attempting to cross that monstrous mountain barrier with a cumbrous
+train of wheel-carriages; and expressed the opinion, that, for the
+present, they had better leave the bulk of their baggage and their
+heaviest artillery, and, trusting entirely to pack-horses for
+transporting what should be needed most, make their way at once to
+Fort Duquesne while the garrison was yet too weak to offer any
+resistance. This prudent counsel, however, as usual, had failed to
+produce the least effect on the narrow and stubborn mind of Braddock;
+but by the time he had dragged his unwieldy length over two or three
+mountains, and had made but a few miles in many days, it began to dawn
+on his mind by slow degrees, that a campaign in an American wilderness
+was a very different thing from what it was in the cultivated regions
+of Europe, where nearly every meadow, field, or wood, could tell of a
+Christian and civilized battle there fought, and where the fine roads
+and bridges made the march of an army a mere holiday jaunt as compared
+to this rough service. The difficulties that beset him seeming to
+thicken around him at every step, he was at last so sorely put to it
+and perplexed as to be obliged to turn to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> young provincial
+colonel for that advice which he, in his blind self-confidence, had
+but a short while before disdained.</p>
+
+<p>Too well bred to seem surprised at this unbending of the haughty old
+general, although he really was not a little, Washington readily, yet
+with all becoming modesty, did as he was desired, in a clear, brief,
+and soldierly manner. He gave it as his opinion, that their best plan
+would be to divide the army into two parts,&mdash;the smaller division,
+under command of Col. Dunbar, to form the rear, and bring up the heavy
+guns and baggage-wagons; the larger division, under the command of
+Braddock, to form the advance, and taking with it but two pieces of
+light artillery, and no more baggage than could be conveniently
+carried on pack-horses, push rapidly on to Fort Duquesne, and surprise
+the garrison before they could receive timely warning of their danger,
+or be re-enforced by the troops from Canada, which would have arrived
+ere then, had not the summer drought prevented. To some extent, this
+prudent advice was followed; and, to give it the force of example,
+Washington reduced his baggage to a few little necessaries that he
+could easily carry in a small portmanteau strapped to his back, and
+gave his fine charger to be used as a pack-horse. His brother
+provincial officers, accustomed as they were to dealing with the
+difficulties and inconveniences of a backwoods life, in a ready,
+off-hand fashion, followed his example with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> the greatest willingness
+and good-humor. Notwithstanding this, however, there were still two
+hundred pack-horses loaded with the private baggage of the English
+officers, who were unwilling, even in that hour of pressing need, to
+make this little sacrifice of their present comfort to the common
+good. So tender did they seem of their bodily ease, and so given up to
+the pleasures of appetite, that Washington began to have serious
+doubts of their fitness to endure the hardships of a rough campaign,
+and of their courage and firmness to face the dangers of the
+battle-field.</p>
+
+<p>One evening late, about this time, as the army lay encamped at the
+Little Meadows, there suddenly appeared among them, from the
+neighboring woods, a large party of hunters, all Pennsylvanians,
+dressed in the wild garb of Indians, and armed with hatchets, knives,
+and rifles. Their leader was a certain Capt. Jack, one of the greatest
+hunters of his day, and nearly as famous in the border tales of
+Pennsylvania as Daniel Boone in those of green Kentucky. When your
+Uncle Juvinell was quite a lad, he read the story of this strange man,
+in an old book, which pleased and interested him so much at the time,
+that he has never since forgotten it, and will now repeat it to you in
+the very words of the old chronicler:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The 'Black Hunter,' the 'Black Rifle,' the 'Wild Hunter of
+Juniata,' is a white man. His history is this: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>He entered the
+woods with a few enterprising companions, built his cabin,
+cleared a little land, and amused himself with the pleasure of
+fishing and hunting. He felt happy; for then he had not a care.
+But on an evening, when he returned from a day of sport, he
+found his cabin burnt, his wife and children murdered. From
+that moment he forsakes civilized man, hunts out caves in which
+he lives, protects the frontier inhabitants from the Indians,
+and seizes every opportunity of revenge that offers. He lives
+the terror of the Indians, and the consolation of the whites.
+On one occasion, near Juniata, in the middle of a dark night, a
+family were suddenly awaked from sleep by the report of a gun.
+They jumped from their huts; and, by the glimmering light from
+the chimney, saw an Indian fall to rise no more. The open door
+exposed to view the Wild Hunter. 'I have saved your lives!' he
+cried; then turned, and was buried in the gloom of night."</p></div>
+
+<p>Bidding his leather-stockings to wait where they were till he came
+back, the Black Hunter strode on to the general's tent, and, without
+more ado than to enter, made known the object of his coming there, in
+a speech that smacked somewhat of the Indian style of oratory; which I
+will give you, as nearly as I can, in his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Englishmen, the foe is on the watch. He lurks in the
+strongholds of the mountains. He hides in the shadows of the
+forest. He hovers over you like a hungry vulture ready to
+pounce upon its prey. He has made a boast that he will keep his
+eye upon you, from his look-outs on the hills, day and night,
+till you have walked into his snare,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> when he will shoot down
+your gay red-birds like pigeons. Englishmen, dangers thicken
+round you at every step; but in the pride of your strength you
+have blinded your eyes, so that you see them not. I have
+brought my hunters, who are brave and trusty men, to serve you
+as scouts and spies. In your front and in your rear, and on
+either hand, we will scour the woods, and beat the bushes, to
+stir up the lurking foe, that your gallant men fall not into
+his murderous ambuscade. To us the secret places of the
+wilderness are as an open book; in its depths we have made our
+homes this many a year: there we can find both food and
+shelter. We ask no pay, and our rifles are all our own."</p></div>
+
+<p>To this noble and disinterested offer, Braddock returned a cold and
+haughty answer.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is time enough," said he, "for making such arrangements;
+and I have experienced troops on whom I can rely."</p></div>
+
+<p>Stung to the quick by this uncivil and ungenerous treatment, the Black
+Hunter, without another word, turned, and, with a kindling eye and
+proud step, left the tent. When he told his followers of the scornful
+manner in which the English general had treated their leader, and
+rejected their offer of service, they staid not, but, with angry and
+indignant mien, filed out of the camp, and, plunging once more into
+the wilderness, left the devoted little army to march on to that
+destruction to which its ill-starred commander seemed so fatally bent
+on leading it. The contemptuous indifference which always marked the
+demeanor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> of Braddock towards these rude but brave and trusty warriors
+of the woods was very offensive to Washington; the more, as he knew,
+that, when it came to be put to the test, these men, unskilled though
+they were in the modes of civilized warfare, would be found far better
+fitted to cope with the cunning and stealthy enemy they had then to
+deal with, than those well-dressed, well-armed, well-drilled, but
+unwieldy regulars.</p>
+
+<p>After having rested a few days at the Little Meadows, the advanced
+division of the army once more took up the line of march; but, to
+Washington's disappointment, made scarcely better speed than before,
+although lightened of nearly all of the heavy baggage. "I found,"
+wrote he a short time after, "that, instead of pushing on with vigor,
+we were halting to level every mole-hill, and erect bridges over every
+brook; by which means we were sometimes four days in getting twelve
+miles." Slowly the long and straggling lines held on their weary way,
+now scrambling over some rugged steep, now winding along some narrow
+defile, till at length the silence of that gloomy vale&mdash;the Shades of
+Death&mdash;was again broken by the shouts and uproar of a marching army.</p>
+
+<p>For several days, Washington had been suffering much from fever,
+attended with a racking headache, which had obliged him to travel in a
+covered wagon. By the time they reached the great crossings of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+Youghiogeny, his illness had so increased, that Dr. Craik, his good
+friend and physician, declared it would be almost certain death for
+him to travel further; at the same time advising him to stay where he
+was until his fever should somewhat abate its violence, when he could
+come up with Dunbar's rear division. His brother officers also, and
+even his old general, kindly urged him to give up all thought of going
+on for the present; while, to render his disappointment more bearable,
+some of them promised to keep him informed, by writing, of every thing
+noteworthy which should happen in the course of their march. Seeing
+then; was no help for it, he suffered himself to be left behind: but
+it was with a sad and heavy heart that, he saw them pass on without
+him; and when they had vanished, one by one, in the shadows of the
+neighboring wilds, and the gleaming of their arms could no longer be
+seen through the openings of the trees and bushes, he turned with a
+sigh, and said to the men whom Braddock had left to nurse and guard
+him, "I would not for five hundred pounds miss being at the taking of
+Fort Duquesne." Here he lay for ten days; his fever, no doubt, much
+aggravated by his impatience to rejoin his comrades, and the fear lest
+he should not be well in time to share with them the dangers and
+honors of the coming contest.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Braddock pursued his slow and tedious march, and in a few
+days had passed the Great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> Meadows, where young Washington, the year
+before, as you must well remember, had learned his first lessons in
+the rude art of war. A few miles beyond this, he came to a deserted
+Indian camp, on the top of a rocky hill, where, to judge from the
+number of wigwams, at least one hundred and seventy warriors must have
+lodged. The fires were still burning; which showed but too plainly
+that the stealthy foe was on the watch, and not far distant. Some of
+the trees hard by had been stripped of their bark; and on their white,
+sappy trunks were to be seen, in the rude picture-writing of the
+Indians, savage taunts and threats of vengeance meant for the English;
+while intermixed with these were bullying boasts and blackguard slang,
+written in the French language, as if to force on the notice of those
+who were to read them the fact, that there were white as well as red
+men lurking near.</p>
+
+<p>It had almost slipped my mind to tell you, that Braddock, moved
+perhaps by the advice of Washington, had, before setting out from Fort
+Cumberland, employed a small party of Indians, with their sachem Yadi
+at their head, to serve as guides and spies during the campaign. A few
+days after passing the deserted camp on the rock, four or five
+soldiers, straggling too far in the rear, were suddenly waylaid by the
+prowling foe, and all murdered and scalped on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>To avenge the death of their comrades, a squad of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> regulars went out
+in quest of the enemy, and soon came in sight of a small party of
+Indians, who held up the boughs of trees before them, and stood their
+rifles on the ground, as a sign that they were friends. Not
+understanding this, however, and the distance being too great for them
+to make out who they were, the blundering regulars fired, and one of
+the party fell dead on the spot,&mdash;a youthful warrior, who proved to be
+the son of the sachem Yadi. When Braddock heard of this melancholy
+accident, he was deeply grieved. He forthwith sent for the bereaved
+father, and, to his praise be it ever recorded, endeavored, by kind
+words and liberal presents, to console him, and make some little
+amends for his heavy loss; and, as a still further token of his
+regard, he ordered the hapless youth to be buried with all the honors
+of war. The body, borne on a bier, was followed by the officers, two
+and two; while the soldiers, drawn up in two lines, with the grave
+between them, stood facing each other, with the points of their
+muskets turned downward, and their chins resting in the hollow of the
+breeches. When the body was lowered, they fired three volleys over the
+grave, and left the young warrior to his long sleep on the hillside,
+with his bright hatchet and trusty rifle beside him. All this was very
+soothing to the sorrow and gratifying to the fatherly pride of the old
+sachem, and made him ever after a loving friend and faithful ally of
+the English. I have told you this little story to show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> you, that this
+testy and obstinate old general, with all his faults, was far from
+being the hard, unfeeling man that he sometimes seemed; and also as a
+tribute that every historian should pay to the memory of one whose
+misfortune it has been to be blamed so much, and pitied so little.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, Washington had so far regained his strength as to admit
+of his being borne along in a covered wagon; and, setting out
+accordingly, in five days came up with the advance division, where it
+lay encamped in a beautiful spot about two miles from the Monongahela,
+and fifteen miles from Fort Duquesne. Here he was joyfully welcomed by
+both officers and men, with whom his generosity, and frank, manly
+bearing, had made him a great favorite. Shortly after his arrival, Mr.
+Gist and two Indian scouts, who had been sent out to reconnoitre or
+spy out the enemy, came back with the cheering tidings, that the
+re-enforcements had not yet come down from Canada, and that the
+garrison in the fort was at present too weak to stand a single hour's
+siege. But what gave him a little uneasiness was a lofty column of
+smoke, rising from a deep and densely wooded hollow, where they were
+quite sure the watchful enemy was lurking, and hatching some mischief
+for the English.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the fort and the camp lay on the same side of the river; and the
+most direct route between them was by a narrow mountain pass, rising
+abruptly from the water's edge on the left, and, on the right, shut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+in by a steep and lofty hill, whose stony sides were overgrown with
+laurel and stunted cedars and pines. As it was altogether out of the
+question to drag their wagons and artillery along this pass, it was
+resolved to cross the river, first at a point just over against the
+camp, and then, moving down along the opposite bank, recross it at
+another point five miles below; at both of which places the fords were
+shallow, and the banks not high.</p>
+
+<p>At last, the 9th of July, 1755,&mdash;a day ever to be remembered in
+American annals,&mdash;began to dawn. Long before its first red light had
+streaked the east, a hum in the camp told that the little army was,
+even at that hour, all astir, and big with the bustle of preparation.
+Officers and men were in the highest hopes, and looked forward with
+confidence to the coming evening, when they were to plant their
+victorious banners on the ramparts of Fort Duquesne. Although they had
+marched thus far without serious molestation, yet Col. Washington's
+fears of an ambuscade were not a whit diminished; for he felt quite
+certain that they should never reach the French fort without an
+attempt being made to surprise, or drive them back. Full of these
+apprehensions, he went to Gen. Braddock, and, pointing out to him the
+danger hanging over them, urged him by all means to send out the
+Virginia rangers to scour the woods and thickets, front and flank, and
+beat up the enemy, should any chance to be lurking near with the
+design<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> of drawing them into an ambuscade. No advice, as it afterwards
+turned out, could have been more timely: but, coming from a raw
+provincial colonel, Braddock cast it aside with angry impatience; and
+when the line of march was formed, as if to show in what light esteem
+he held it, he ordered the rangers to the rear, to guard the baggage.
+Before daybreak, a large party of pioneers, or road-cutters, with a
+small guard of regulars, numbering in all about three hundred, had
+gone on before to open a passage for the army through the woods, and
+make the fords more passable by levelling the banks.</p>
+
+<p>The midsummer sun was shooting its first beams, level and red, among
+the Alleghany hills, when the little army, having crossed the
+Monongahela at the upper ford, stood on its southern bank, forming in
+line of march. By order of their general, officers and men had scoured
+and polished their arms and accoutrements the night before; and now
+appeared in full uniform, as if some grand military parade were to be
+the programme of the day. The whole line was soon moving slowly
+forward, with fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying; the
+regulars keeping step the while to the "Grenadier's March." In the
+clear and tranquil depths of the river, as they moved along its shady
+banks, could be seen, as in a mirror, the long array of
+leather-shirted rangers and red-coated regulars, with their sun-lit
+arms and prancing steeds, and bright banners that floated in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+morning breeze. This brilliant spectacle, so well set off by the
+smiling river in front and the frowning woods beyond, formed a picture
+that ever lived in the memory of Washington; and in after-years he
+used often to say, that, as it then appeared to him, he thought he had
+never seen any thing so beautiful. In the enthusiasm of the moment, he
+forgot his late illness, the still enfeebled condition of his
+body,&mdash;all, save the glory of serving his country; and, mounting his
+horse, he joined his brother-aides in their attendance on their
+general, else far more fatal must have been the end of that bloody
+day.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In my account of this battle, as well as all the others that will come
+thundering in upon us from time to time in the course of our story, I
+have thought it would suit our purpose best to touch upon those facts
+only that are likeliest to leave the most lasting pictures of such
+events on your minds; using the while no more words than may actually
+be needed to give clearness and completeness to the same. And now,
+Daniel, my young Herodotus, and Ned, my young Hannibal, bring in
+another Christmas log, that we may have a more cheerful blaze; for our
+story will be doleful enough for the next half-hour, without these
+goblin shadows dodging and flitting about the room to make it more so.</p>
+
+<p>At mid-day, Braddock's army came to the lower ford, where a halt was
+called to allow of a few minutes' rest. Far in front, across the
+river, the ringing of a hundred axes, followed at short intervals by
+the crash of falling trees, could be distinctly heard; telling that
+the pioneers were there, working might and main to clear a passage for
+those behind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> The road just opened, after leaving the ford, ran
+across a heavily wooded bottom that skirted the river; and thence, for
+a few hundred yards, up a rocky slope to the foot of a high range of
+hills, about a mile distant, where it entered a narrow, bushy defile,
+and went no further. The country, for miles and miles around, as far
+as the eye could reach, was thickly wooded, save the rocky slope just
+mentioned, and the neighboring ravines, which were overgrown with
+long, coarse grass and whortleberry-bushes, so high as to sweep the
+horses' bellies; with here and there a few scattering trees of some
+size. It was the very place, of all others, that the wily Indian would
+be most likely to choose for his ambuscade.</p>
+
+<p>By two o'clock, the whole army had regained the northern bank of the
+river. They were now within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, and a lucky
+end to their present campaign seemed near at hand. In a few minutes,
+artillery and baggage, foot and horse, regulars and rangers, formed
+into separate and distinct columns, stood ready to move as soon as the
+word should be given. Just at the moment, however, when they were
+listening to hear the order, "Forward, march!" drop from their
+general's lips, they were startled by a sudden and heavy firing among
+the hills, which put a sudden stop to the hundred axes, and told but
+too plainly that the road-cutters and their guard of regulars had been
+drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> into an ambuscade. Washington knew at once, and too well, that
+the evil he dreaded from the beginning, had, on the very eve of
+success, come upon them; and with it also came the painful reflection,
+that it would never have so befallen them, had the rangers been
+suffered to scour the woods, and beat up the enemy, as had been
+recommended by him but a few hours before. Braddock forthwith ordered
+two companies to hurry on to the relief of the pioneers; and, at his
+bidding, one of his aides spurred forward to learn further of the
+matter, and bring him word. The firing grew heavier and heavier, and
+seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. The lonely hills and woods
+around rang with the whoops and yells of the unseen savages. Not able
+to restrain his impatience till his aide came back, Braddock ordered
+his main division to come up at double-quick; and, taking with him his
+two remaining aides and a small guard of light-horse, galloped up to
+the scene of action. Here what was his rage and mortification to find
+his doughty regulars, of whom he had boasted so much, changed, as it
+were in the whistling of a bullet, into a mere disorderly rabble of
+red-coats,&mdash;confused, bewildered, to a degree that he could never have
+dreamed possible! Crowded and huddled together in the narrow road, he
+saw them dropping down under the Indian bullets, helpless as a herd of
+frightened deer beset by a band of unseen hunters.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+<p>By this time, the Indians, still hid from view by the grass and
+bushes, had stretched their lines along either side of the road, from
+the hollows among the hills to some distance down the rocky slope, and
+were pouring in a murderous fire upon the affrighted English; yelling
+and whooping the while like a legion of devils at some infernal
+frolic. Two bayonet charges had been made to drive them from their
+hiding-places, but in vain. The regulars, notwithstanding their
+officers' orders to the contrary, kept up a hurried but random firing,
+which had little or no effect upon the enemy, as nothing could be seen
+of him but the puffs of rifle-smoke that rose and hovered in little
+blue clouds over his place of ambush. The English, it is said, were
+less appalled by the whistling bullet; of the unseen savages than by
+their unearthly yells,&mdash;a sound that none of them had ever heard
+before, and many a poor fellow of them never heard again. The Indian
+war-whoop has been described as a sound so wild and terrible, that,
+when once heard in battle, it rings in the listener's ears for weeks
+thereafter, and is never forgotten even to his dying day.</p>
+
+<p>But the English officers, on the contrary, behaved themselves with a
+gallantry that filled Washington with astonishment and admiration.
+Heretofore he had seen them only in camp or on the line of march,
+where their habits of ease and self-indulgence had led him to doubt
+their having the courage and firmness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> to face, without shrinking,
+danger in such appalling forms. Unmindful of the bullets that whistled
+continually about their heads, they galloped up and down the broken
+and bleeding lines, in the vain endeavor to rally their men, and bring
+them again to something like order. Mounted on fine horses, and
+dressed in rich uniforms, they offered a tempting mark to the unseen
+rifles that were levelled at them from behind every tree and bush, and
+tuft of grass; and, ere the work of death was finished, many a gallant
+steed, with dangling reins and bloody saddle, dashed riderless about
+the field. And, as if this were not enough, many of them must needs
+fall victims to the unsoldierly conduct of their own men, who,
+forgetful of all discipline, and quite beside themselves with terror
+and bewilderment, loaded their pieces hurriedly, and fired them off at
+random, killing friends as well as foes. Nor did this most shameful
+part of the bloody scene end here: many of the Virginia rangers, who
+had already taken to the trees and bushes, and were doing good service
+by fighting the Indians in their own fashion, were shot down by the
+blundering regulars, who fired into the woods wherever they saw a puff
+of smoke, unable to distinguish whether it rose from a red or a white
+man's rifle. Upon these brave rangers the brunt of the battle fell;
+and indeed, had it not been for their firmness and presence of mind,
+their skill and address in the arts and strategems of Indian warfare,
+which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> enabled them for a time to hold the enemy in check, hardly a
+remnant of Braddock's fine army would have survived to behold the
+going-down of that summer's sun.</p>
+
+<p>At the very commencement of the battle, a small party of warriors,
+cheered on by a French officer in a fancifully trimmed hunting-shirt,
+had leaped out from their covert into the road, with the view, it
+seemed, of cutting off those in front from the assistance of their
+comrades in the rear; but the regulars, who guarded the road-cutters,
+having discharged a well-aimed volley of musketry into their very
+faces, they had turned, and fled with even more haste than they had
+come, leaving behind them several of their number dead on the spot,
+and among these their dashing French leader. After that, they had
+taken care to keep close under cover of the grass and bushes. Now and
+then, however, a tall brave, grim and hideous with war-paint, with a
+yell of defiance would leap from his ambush, and, darting into the
+road, tomahawk and scalp a wounded officer just fallen; then vanish
+again as suddenly as if the earth had opened to swallow him up.</p>
+
+<p>All this while, Col. Washington had borne himself with a firmness,
+courage, and presence of mind, that would have done honor to a
+forty-years' veteran. His two brother aides-de-camp having been
+wounded early in the engagement, the whole duty of carrying the
+general's orders had fallen on him; and nobly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> did he that day
+discharge it. Although brave men were falling thick and fast on every
+side, yet he shrank from no exposure, however perilous, did his duty
+but lead him there. Mounted on horseback, his tall and stately form
+was to be seen in every part of the field, the mark of a hundred
+rifles, whose deadly muzzles were pointed at him whithersoever he
+went. Two horses were shot dead under him, and his coat was pierced
+with bullets; but he seemed to bear about him a charmed life, and went
+unharmed. His danger was so great, that his friend Dr. Craik, who
+watched his movements with anxious interest, looked every moment to
+see him fall headlong to the ground; and that he came off alive seemed
+to him a miracle. Washington himself, with that piety which ever
+marked his character, laid his deliverance from the perils of that
+fatal day to the overruling care of a kind and watchful Providence.</p>
+
+<p>Although brought thus suddenly face to face with new and untried
+dangers, Braddock bore himself throughout the day like the valiant man
+that he really was. The bullets and yells of the invisible foe he
+scarcely noticed, as he galloped hither and thither about the field,
+giving his orders through a speaking-trumpet, whose brazen voice rose
+loud and hoarse above the din of battle. Under the mistaken notion
+that a savage enemy, hid in a thicket, was to be dealt with as a
+civilized one in an open plain, he sought to recover his lost ground
+by forming his men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> into companies and battalions; which, however, he
+had no sooner done, than they were mowed down by the murderous fire
+from the ambush, that had never ceased. "My soldiers," said he, "would
+fight, could they but see their enemy; but it is vain to shoot at
+trees and bushes." Whereupon Washington urgently besought him to let
+his regulars fight the Indians in their own fashion, which would the
+better enable them to pick off the lurking foe with less danger to
+their own safety. But Braddock's only answer to this was a sneer; and
+some of his regulars, who were already acting upon the suggestion, he
+angrily ordered back into the ranks, calling them cowards, and even
+striking them with the flat of his sword. He then caused the colors of
+the two regiments to be advanced in different parts of the field, that
+the soldiers might rally around their separate standards. It was all
+in vain. In his excitement, he cheered, he entreated, he swore, he
+stormed: it was only a waste of breath; for the poor fellows were too
+disheartened and broken, too overcome by mortal fear, to rally again.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Washington, seeing that the day was on the point of being lost,
+galloped down to the rear to see if nothing could be done with the
+artillery; but he found the gunners in a most disorderly plight,
+benumbed with terror, and utterly unable to manage their guns. What
+Washington did on this occasion, I had better tell you in the words of
+an old Pennsylvania soldier, who was there at the time, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> survived
+the battle for half a hundred years or more; and used often, for the
+entertainment of your Uncle Juvinell and other little boys, to fight
+his battles over again as he sat smoking in his chimney corner.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I saw Col. Washington," he would say, "spring from his panting
+horse, and seize a brass field-piece as if it had been a stick.
+His look was terrible. He put his right hand on the muzzle, his
+left hand on the breech; he pulled with this, he pushed with
+that, and wheeled it round, as if it had been a plaything: it
+furrowed the ground like a ploughshare. He tore the sheet-lead
+from the touch-hole; then the powder-monkey rushed up with the
+fire, when the cannon went off, making the bark fly from the
+trees, and many an Indian send up his last yell and bite the
+dust."</p></div>
+
+<p>This, however, gave the savages but a momentary check, as he could not
+follow it up; there being no one by ready and willing to lend him a
+helping hand. The Virginia rangers and other provincial troops, who
+had done the only good fighting of the day, were thinned out to
+one-fourth their number; and the few that remained were too weary and
+faint to hold out longer against such fearful odds. Between the
+well-aimed firing of the enemy and the random shooting of the
+regulars, the slaughter of the English officers had been frightful:
+out of the eighty-six who went into the battle, only twenty-four came
+off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> unhurt. Gen. Braddock had five horses killed under him. By this
+time, he had given up all hope of regaining the day; and, galling as
+it must have been to his proud spirit, was at last forced to think of
+retreating as their only chance of safety. Just as he was on the
+point, however, of giving orders to this effect, a bullet&mdash;said by
+some to have been a random shot from one of his own soldiers&mdash;passed
+through his arm, and, lodging itself in his lungs, brought him to the
+ground, mortally wounded. His officers placed him in a tumbrel, or
+pioneer's cart, and bore him from the field, where, in his despair, he
+prayed them to leave him to die.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing their leader fall, a fresh panic seized the army. And now
+followed a wild and disorderly rout, the like of which was never known
+before, and has never since been known, in our border-wars. The
+soldiers in front fell back on those in the centre; those in the
+centre fell back on those in the rear: till foot and horse, artillery
+and baggage, were jammed and jumbled together, making a scene of
+dismay and confusion it would be vain for me to attempt to describe.
+To add wings to their speed, the Indians, with a long, loud yell of
+fiendish triumph, now rushed from their ambush, and, brandishing aloft
+their murderous tomahawks, began to press hard on the heels of the
+terrified fugitives. The better to elude their savage pursuers, the
+regulars threw away their arms, the gunners abandoned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> their guns, and
+the teamsters cut their horses from the traces, and, mounting them,
+fled, never halting until they reached Col. Dunbar's camp,&mdash;a gallop
+of forty miles. A few fell under the tomahawk before the farther bank
+of the river could be gained. Here, luckily for the survivors, the
+Indians gave over the pursuit, in their eagerness to plunder the
+slain, and gather what else of booty might be found on the field.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended this bloody battle, or rather slaughter; for in truth it
+could be called nothing else. Of the sixteen hundred valiant men who
+had that morning, in all the bright array of gleaming arms and waving
+banners, marched along the banks of that beautiful river, nearly
+one-half, ere the sun went down, had fallen on Braddock's Hill. What
+made this disaster more shameful still was the weakness of the enemy's
+force, which did not exceed eight hundred, of whom only a fourth were
+French; and, of all this number, scarcely forty fell in the fight.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Washington was now ordered to ride back with all speed to
+Dunbar's camp, to fetch horses, wagons, and hospital-stores for the
+relief of the wounded. Although still quite weak from his ten days'
+fever, which indeed had left him with no more strength than should
+have sufficed for the fatigues of that trying day, yet he set out on
+the instant, and, taking with him a guard of grenadiers, travelled the
+livelong night. What with those terrible sights and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> sounds still
+ringing in his ears, and flashing before his eyes; what with the
+thought of the many dead and dying that lay on the lonely hillside far
+behind, with their ghastly upturned faces, more ghastly still in the
+light of the moon; and what with the bitter, bitter reflection, that
+all this would never have been but for the pride and folly of a single
+man,&mdash;that ride through the dark and silent woods must have been a
+melancholy one indeed. He pushed on, without leaving the saddle, till
+late in the afternoon of the following day, when he reached Dunbar's
+camp; and gathering together, without loss of time, the necessaries
+for which he had been sent, started on his return that same night,
+scarcely allowing himself and men an hour for food and rest. Early
+next morning, he met the main division at Mr. Gist's plantation,
+whither they had dragged their shattered lines the evening before.
+From thence they all went on together to the Great Meadows, where they
+arrived that same day, and halted.</p>
+
+<p>For the four and twenty hours following the battle, Braddock had
+remained sad and silent; never speaking except to say, "Who would have
+thought it?" The second day, he seemed more cheerful; for he said, "We
+shall better know how to deal with them another time." He spoke in
+high praise of the skill and courage shown by the Virginia rangers and
+other provincial troops during the whole engagement. He now saw, but
+too late, and to his deep regret, that he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> not given these rough
+and hardy men half the credit due them as good soldiers; and also that
+he had made a fatal mistake in underrating the strength, skill, and
+address of the enemy he had been sent there to subdue. To Washington
+he made a frank and manly apology for the contempt and impatience with
+which he had so often treated his prudent and well-timed counsel. As
+if wishing to make still further amends for this, he bequeathed to him
+his faithful negro servant, Bishop, and his fine white charger, both
+of whom had helped to carry their wounded master from the field. On
+the fourth day after the battle, he died; having been kindly and
+tenderly cared for by Washington and his other surviving officers.</p>
+
+<p>They dug him a grave by the roadside, not a stone's-throw from Fort
+Necessity, in the depths of that lonely wilderness; and there, before
+the summer morn had dawned, they buried him. In the absence of the
+chaplain, the funeral service was read by Washington, in a low and
+solemn voice, by the dim and flickering light of a torch. Fearing lest
+the enemy might be lurking near, and, spying out the spot, commit some
+outrage on his remains, they fired not a farewell shot over the grave
+of their unfortunate general,&mdash;that last tribute of respect to a
+departed soldier, and one he had himself paid, but a short time
+before, to a nameless Indian warrior. So there they laid him; and, to
+this day, the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> highway leading from Cumberland to Pittsburg goes
+by the name of Braddock's Road.</p>
+
+<p>I would, my dear children, have you dwell on these glimpses of a more
+manly and generous nature that brightened the closing hours of
+Braddock's life; because it is but Christian and just that we should
+be willing to honor virtue in whomsoever it may be found. With all his
+self-conceit and obstinacy, he had a kindly heart, and was a brave
+man; and had it been his lot to deal with a civilized enemy, instead
+of a savage one, he would, no doubt, have proved himself a skilful
+general. And we should not deal too harshly with the memory of a man,
+whose faults, however great they may have been, were more than atoned
+for by the inglorious death he died, and by "a name ever coupled with
+defeat."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>EXPLANATIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Here, again, Uncle Juvinell paused in his story, and looked beamingly
+around on his little auditors. They were all sitting with their eyes
+bent earnestly on the burning logs, thinking deeply, no doubt, and
+looking as sober as tombstones in the light of a spring morning.</p>
+
+<p>All on a sudden, Willie leaped from his chair, and gave a shrill
+Indian war-whoop, that threw the whole bevy into a terrible panic;
+making some of the smaller fry scream outright, and even Uncle
+Juvinell to blink a little. "There," said the youngster, "is something
+to ring in your ears for weeks hereafter, and never to be forgotten
+even to your dying day. I heard it the other night at the Indian
+circus, and have been practising it myself ever since. I fancy it must
+be a pretty fair sample of the genuine thing, or it wouldn't have
+scared you all up as it did." Whereupon Uncle Juvinell, frowning over
+his spectacles with his brows, and laughing behind them with his eyes,
+bade the young blood to pack himself into his chair again, and be
+civil; at the same time threatening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> to put him on a water-gruel diet,
+to bring his surplus spirits within reasonable bounds. Then all the
+little folks laughed, not so much at what their uncle had said, as to
+make believe they had not been frightened in the least; in which
+Willie, the cunning rogue, joined, that, under cover of the general
+merriment, he might snicker a little to himself at his own smartness.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, my dear children," continued the good man, "hand me the
+notes you have written down, that I may see what it is you would have
+me explain."</p>
+
+<p>"In five minutes' time after you began," said rattle-brained Willie,
+"I became so much interested in the story, that I quite forgot all
+about the notes, till it was too late to begin; but I was thinking all
+along, that I should like to understand more clearly the difference
+between a province and a colony, and"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, uncle," broke in Dannie, "you made every thing so clear and
+plain as you went along, that I, for one, didn't feel the need of
+writing down a single note."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Dannie," said his uncle, "that being the case, you can perhaps
+enlighten your cousin Willie as to the difference between a colony and
+a province."</p>
+
+<p>Had his uncle called upon him to give the difference between Gog and
+Magog, Daniel would have made the venture. So he promptly answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A province is a country, and a colony is the people of it."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+<p>Uncle Juvinell would have laughed outright at this answer; but he knew
+it would mortify the young historian: so he only smiled, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That will do pretty well, Dannie, as far as it goes; but it does not
+cover more than an acre of the ground. Now, a colony, you must know,
+Willie, is a settlement made by a country&mdash;called, in such cases, the
+mother-country&mdash;in some foreign region at a distance from it, but
+belonging to it; as, for example, the English colonies in America,
+which are separated from the mother-country, England, by the great
+Atlantic Ocean. A province, on the other hand, is a similar extent of
+foreign territory, belonging to a nation or a kingdom, either by
+conquest or purchase or settlement; and it may also be a division or
+district of the kingdom or nation itself. Thus, you see, a foreign
+region, settled and owned by the mother-country, may, with nearly
+equal propriety, be called either a colony or a province; while one
+that belongs to a nation or a kingdom by conquest or purchase is a
+province, and nothing else. Thus, for example, Canada is a province of
+Great Britain, won from the French by conquest, as you will learn
+to-morrow evening. From this you may see, that although a province
+may, yet a colony can no more exist within the boundaries of a
+mother-country, than can a man live at home and abroad at one and the
+same time."</p>
+
+<p>The other children were then called on to produce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> their notes. Laura
+said, that, after she had written two or three, she found she was
+losing more than she was gaining; for, when she stopped to take down
+any item she wished to remember, she did not hear what came right
+after. Ellen chimed in with the same; and Ned said he was not yet out
+of his pot-hooks, and couldn't write; but that he was thinking all the
+time of getting Willie or Dannie to tell him all about it after they
+went to bed. So, what with this excuse, and that, and the other, not a
+single note was forthcoming, except a few that Master Charlie, the
+knowing young gentleman, had written on a very large slate, in letters
+quite of his own inventing, which he now laid before his uncle. To set
+off his penmanship to the best advantage, and couple the ornamental
+with the useful, he had drawn just above it a picture of Gen.
+Braddock, mounted on his dashing white charger, and waving aloft a
+sword of monstrous length. One unacquainted with the subject, however,
+would sooner have taken it for a big baboon, geared up in a cocked hat
+and high military boots, with a mowing-scythe in his hand, and
+astraddle of a rearing donkey heavily coated with feathers instead of
+hair. The old gentleman's spectacles seemed to twinkle as he ran his
+eye over the slate; and after making out two or three rather
+savage-looking <i>s</i>'s, as many long-legged <i>p</i>'s, a squat <i>h</i> or two, a
+big bottle-bellied <i>b</i>, three or four gigantic <i>l</i>'s, a broken-backed
+<i>k</i> or two,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> a high-shouldered <i>w</i>, a heavy-bottomed <i>d</i>, and a long
+slim-tailed <i>y</i>, it struck him, at length, that speech-belt, Long
+Knife, knapsack, Silver Heels, wigwam, and powder-monkey, were the
+items concerning which Master Charlie desired further enlightenment.</p>
+
+<p>"For information touching these matters, my dear Charles," then said
+Uncle Juvinell, "I will pass you over to Willie and Dannie, who, I
+dare say, are quite as well posted up in matters of this kind, as your
+old uncle; for, if I mistake not, they have just been reading Catlin's
+book on the Indians, and Gulliver's Travels in Brobdignag."</p>
+
+<p>"How is it," inquired Ellen, "that Washington, being the good man that
+he was, could have taken part in that wicked war between the French
+and English about a country that didn't belong to either of them, but
+to the poor Indians?"</p>
+
+<p>Now, although Uncle Juvinell was satisfied in his own mind that
+Washington's conduct in this matter was just what it should have been,
+yet, for all that, he was a little puzzled how to answer this question
+in a way that the little folks would rightly understand.</p>
+
+<p>"This very thing, my dear niece," replied he after a moment's pause,
+"grieved and troubled his mind a great deal, as you may well believe:
+but he knew, that, if the English did not get possession of this land,
+the French would; and this, by increasing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> the strength of the enemy,
+would by and by endanger the safety of his own native land, and even
+the lives and liberties of his countrymen. And he also knew that it
+would be far better for the spread of useful knowledge and the true
+religion, that all this rich country should be in the hands of some
+Christian people, who would make it a place fit to live in, and to be
+peaceful and prosperous and happy in, than that it should be left
+entirely to those barbarous savages, who only made of it a place to
+hunt and to fish in, to fight and scalp, and to burn and torture each
+other like devils in. Besides this, it is the duty of every true
+patriot (and no one knew this better than he) to serve and defend the
+country, under the protection of whose laws he has lived in peace and
+plenty, against all her enemies, whether at home or abroad, even
+should she now and then be a little in the wrong; for, by so doing, he
+defends his own home and family, rights and liberty,&mdash;objects that
+should be as dear to him as life itself."</p>
+
+<p>"O uncle!" exclaimed Ned with a start, as if he had just caught a
+passing recollection by the tail as it was about skedaddling round the
+corner, "tell me, will you? what kind of a life a charmed life is."</p>
+
+<p>"Really Ned," cried Uncle Juvinell, "I am very glad that you mentioned
+it; for it puts me in mind of something I should have told you before,
+and which I might else have forgotten. This, however, is as good a
+time as any; and, when you hear what I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> now going to tell you, you
+will readily understand, without further explanation, what is meant
+when it is said of a man that he bears a charmed life about him. To do
+this, I must anticipate a little, or, to speak more clearly, take time
+by the forelock, and, going forward a little in our story, tell you of
+a circumstance which your Uncle Juvinell, when a boy, often heard
+related by Dr. Craik, who was then an aged and venerable man.</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen years after poor Braddock had been laid in his unhonored
+grave, Col. Washington, taking with him his friend Dr. Craik, went on
+an exploring expedition to the Ohio, in behalf of the brave soldiers
+who had served under him at the Great Meadows, and to whom, it must be
+remembered, Gov. Dinwiddie had promised two hundred thousand acres of
+the best land to be found on this great river or its branches. There
+was peace then along the border, and little or no danger was to be
+apprehended from the Indians. They travelled in a large canoe, rowed
+by two or three hunters; and what with fishing in the streams (for
+they took with them their fishing tackle), what with hunting in the
+woods (for they took with them their hunting rifles), what with
+camping on the green shore at night (for they took with them their
+camp utensils), and what with the comfortable thought that there was
+not an Indian warrior within a hundred miles whose fingers were
+itching for their scalps (for they took with them this and many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> other
+pleasant thoughts besides), they had, you may depend upon it, a
+glorious time.</p>
+
+<p>"One day, there came to their camp, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha,
+a party of Indians, headed by an old chief of grave and venerable
+aspect, who approached Washington with deep reverence, as if entering
+the presence of some superior being. After several pipes of tobacco
+had been smoked, and several haunches of venison had been eaten,&mdash;the
+first to show that they had come friendly, the last to show that they
+came hungry,&mdash;the old chief addressed Washington in a speech, which
+your Uncle Juvinell cannot repeat to you word for word as he heard it
+from the lips of the worthy old doctor; but he well remembers the
+substance thereof, and will give it you as nearly as he can in the
+Indian style of oratory.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'They came and told me,' began the old chief, 'that the great
+Long Knife was in our country; and I was very glad. I said to
+them, though I be old and feeble, though the way be long, and
+the hills many and high, and the rivers many and wide, yet must
+I go and see him once more before I die; for it is the young
+warrior, whom, years ago, I saw shielded from our bullets by
+the hand of the Great Spirit. Let the pale-faces hear my words.
+Fifteen summers ago, when the woods and thickets were dense and
+green, the French and Indians went out to lay in ambuscade for
+the big English general, among the Monongahela hills. I took my
+warriors, and went along, and we lay in wait together. The
+English were many and strong; we were few and weak: thus we had
+no thought of victory in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> our minds, but only to give our
+enemies a little trouble, and keep them back a while till the
+big French army came down from the Great Lakes. We saw the
+English army cross the river and come up the hill; yet they
+suspected not. We saw them walk into our snare, up to the very
+muzzles of our guns; nor did they dream of danger, till our
+war-whoop went up, and our bullets began to fly as fast as
+winter hail. I saw the red-coats fall, and strew the ground
+like the red leaves of the woods nipped by an untimely frost,
+and smitten by the unseen hands of a mighty wind. The snows of
+eighty winters have fallen upon my head. I have been in many a
+bloody battle; yet never saw I the red life-stream run as it
+that day ran down Braddock's Hill from English hearts. Listen!
+I saw that day, among the English, a young warrior who was not
+an Englishman. I singled him out as a mark for my rifle; for he
+was tall and strong, and rode grandly, and his presence there
+was a danger to us. Seventeen times did I take slow and steady
+aim, and fire; but my bullets went astray, and found him not.
+Then I pointed him out to my young men, whose eyes were sharper
+and whose hands were steadier than mine, and bade them bring
+him down. It was all in vain: their bullets glanced from him as
+if he had been a rock. I saw two horses fall under him, shot
+dead; yet he rose unhurt. Then did I lay my hand on my mouth in
+wonder, and bade my young men turn their rifles another way;
+for the Great Spirit, I knew, held that young warrior in his
+keeping, and that his anger would be kindled against us if we
+desisted not. That young warrior, the favorite of Heaven, the
+man who is destined never to fall in battle, now stands before
+me. Once more mine eyes have seen him, and I shall now go away
+content.'</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+<p>"And now, Ned, my boy," said Uncle Juvinell, after he had ended this
+oration, "can you tell me what a charmed life is?"</p>
+
+<p>"One that is bullet-proof, I suppose," replied Ned.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to say that Washington was bullet-proof, do you, Uncle
+Juve?" put in doubting Charlie.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not exactly that, my little nephew," replied his Uncle Juvinell;
+"and yet a great deal more: for, beyond all doubt, an all-wise
+Providence raised up George Washington to do the good and great work
+that he did, and to this end shielded him when encompassed by the
+perils of battle, strengthened him when beset by the wiles of
+temptation, and cheered him when visited by the trials of adversity.
+Dr. Davis, a famous preacher of that day, seemed to have looked upon
+him, as did the old Indian, as one favored of Heaven; for, in a sermon
+preached by him a few weeks after Braddock's defeat, he spoke of Col.
+Washington as 'that heroic youth, whom, he could not but hope,
+Providence had preserved in so signal a manner for some important
+service to his country.' And now, my little folks, the clock strikes
+nine, and our Christmas logs burn low: so join your old uncle in an
+evening hymn; then haste you to your happy beds to sleep and dream the
+peaceful night away."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WORK IN EARNEST.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hardly had the last clod been thrown on poor Braddock's grave, when
+his army was seized with a second and most unaccountable panic; for no
+one could tell from whence or how it came. With those horrid yells
+still sounding in their ears, and those ghastly sights of blood and
+carnage still fresh in their memories, they fancied they heard, in
+every passing gust that stirred the dead leaves, warning whispers of
+the stealthy approach of the dreaded enemy, and that in every waving
+thicket he might be lurking for them in ambush.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Dunbar, as next in rank, had, for the time being, taken command
+of the troops; but, cowardly as the old general was rash, he shared in
+the general panic, and could do nothing to re-assure his men or give
+them a little confidence. So, without waiting to know by whose orders,
+or if by any at all, they fell to, and destroyed all the heavy
+baggage, baggage-wagons, and artillery; every thing, in fact, that
+could hinder them in their retreat. Thus disencumbered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> they set out
+in hot haste; and after a hurried and disorderly march, or rather
+flight, they reached Fort Cumberland.</p>
+
+<p>Here Col. Washington, who had taken no part whatever in the
+unsoldierly proceedings just mentioned, stopped a few days to recruit
+a little after the severe fatigues he had, for a week past, been
+called upon to undergo, while still too much enfeebled from his
+ten-days' fever. The first use he made of this breathing spell was to
+write an affectionate letter to his much-honored mother to ease her
+mind of the anxiety he knew she would be feeling on his account, when
+rumors of the late disaster should reach her ears. He told her of his
+almost miraculous deliverance from a cruel and bloody death, in
+language full of gratitude to the God of battles, who had shielded him
+in so signal a manner, when his brave comrades were falling by
+hundreds around him. Writing to his brother Augustine at the same
+time, he wittily says, "Since my arrival at this place, I have heard a
+circumstantial account of my death and dying speech; and I take this
+early opportunity of contradicting the former, and assuring you that I
+have not yet composed the latter."</p>
+
+<p>When he had so far regained his strength as to enable him to travel,
+he betook himself once more to the peaceful shades of Mount Vernon. He
+re-entered at once upon his duties as Adjutant-General of the Northern
+District,&mdash;a post he still continued to hold,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> although his connection
+with the regular army had ceased with the death of Braddock.</p>
+
+<p>But we must return for a few moments to Fort Cumberland, where we left
+the valorous Col. Dunbar quite out of breath from the uncommonly brisk
+speed, which seems to have been his habit now and then, of getting
+over very rough and hilly roads. Any soldier, with a spark of manly
+spirit under his sword-belt, would have made a resolute stand at a
+place of so much importance, and held it to the death, rather than
+left the defenceless inhabitants exposed to the horrors of a border
+war. Col. Dunbar was not, by any means, the true soldier just hinted
+at; and consequently did no such thing. Seeing that the sick and
+wounded were but so many clogs to rapid and easy motion, he resolved
+to leave them behind under the care of the slender garrison he had
+placed in the fort, who were expected to defend it against an enemy
+that he, with a force of fifteen hundred strong, had not the courage
+to face. Thus rid of his hinderances to the last degree of
+lightsomeness, he pushed on by forced marches, as if a legion of
+painted savages were yelling at his heels; and never slackened speed
+until he found himself safe within the friendly walls of Philadelphia,
+where he went into comfortable winter-quarters while yet the dog-days
+were at their hottest.</p>
+
+<p>Thus basely deserted by these doughty regulars, who had been sent
+over so many thousand miles of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> salt water for their protection,
+the colonists saw with dismay the whole line of their vast frontier,
+from Lake Ontario to the Carolinas, open to the inroads of the
+French and their Indian allies. In the long-run, however (as you
+shall see hereafter), two luckier mishaps than Braddock's defeat
+and Dunbar's retreat, that seemed at the time so fraught with evil,
+could not have befallen them. They were thereby taught two wholesome
+lessons, which they might otherwise have been a long time in learning,
+and without which they never could have gained their independence
+and made themselves a nation. The first, by proving that British
+regulars were not, by any means, the never-to-be-beaten, and the
+never-to-be-made-to-skedaddle warriors that they boasted themselves to
+be, and that one-half of the Americans were foolish enough to believe
+them to be. Thus, when the War of Independence broke out, our
+Revolutionary fathers remembered this, and were not afraid to meet the
+English even on such unequal terms. The second, by opening their eyes
+to the fact, that, as they (the colonists) could no longer look to the
+mother-country for protection, they must henceforward rely upon their
+own strength and resources for their defence and safety.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Virginia, seeing the forlorn condition of things, were
+at last awakened to a full sense of the danger that threatened, not
+only their back settlements, but even the heart of the Old Dominion
+itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> They therefore began to bestir themselves in right good
+earnest to put the province in a better posture of defence; and, to
+this end, resolved to send more troops into the field, raise more
+money, procure new arms and fresh supplies of military stores, and
+erect a chain of twenty block-houses, or small forts, stretching along
+the whole line of their frontier, from Pennsylvania to North
+Carolina,&mdash;a distance of three hundred and sixty miles. Washington's
+career as a soldier had not, up to this time, been marked by any of
+those daring and brilliant exploits that charm and dazzle vulgar
+minds; but had, on the contrary, been one unbroken train of
+misfortunes and disasters. Notwithstanding this, however, the
+confidence his countrymen had placed in his prudence, courage,
+ability, and patriotism, so far from having been diminished thereby,
+had gone on steadily gaining strength from the very beginning. They
+well knew, that, had the headstrong and unlucky Braddock given heed to
+his prudent and timely counsel, the late campaign could never have
+ended in the disgraceful and disastrous manner that it had. As the
+most flattering proof of their esteem and confidence, they now turned
+to him in their hour of peril, and, although he was not yet
+twenty-four years of age, called upon him, as with one voice, to take
+the chief command of all the forces of the province. After some
+deliberation, being persuaded that it was really their earnest desire,
+he modestly accepted the appointment, on condition that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> certain
+changes should be made in the military, and that he should be allowed
+to choose his field-officers. This was readily agreed to by the
+Virginia House of Burgesses; who, in addition, voted him fifteen
+hundred dollars by way of compensating him for the many losses he had
+suffered, in horses, baggage, and money since the beginning of the
+war.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, early in the autumn, he took up his headquarters at the
+frontier town of Winchester, beyond the Blue Ridge, in the beautiful
+Valley of the Shenandoah. As four great highways met here from as many
+different quarters of the country, it was a post of much importance;
+and he resolved, by strongly fortifying it, to make it the
+rallying-point of all the border. His men were all raw recruits, just
+taken from the plough or forge or carpenter's bench, as the case might
+be; and, to render them fit for the peculiar service in which they
+were to be employed, it became his duty, besides training them in the
+regular military exercises, to instruct them in the arts and
+stratagems of Indian warfare, or bush-fighting, as it is more aptly
+called. Long, however, before he was ready to take the field, the
+French and Indians, made daring and audacious by their great victory
+on the Monongahela, had crossed the mountains at several different
+points in great numbers, and had already begun their bloody work. The
+terrified and defenceless inhabitants dwelling in the distant parts of
+the wilderness now came flocking to the Shenandoah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> Valley for
+protection from the merciless enemy, some of them never stopping till
+they had passed on over to the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, a rumor found its way to Winchester, that a large party
+of Indians were within twelve miles of that place, pillaging, burning,
+and murdering at a frightful rate. Straightway a great fear fell upon
+the inhabitants. Little children ran, and hid their faces in their
+mothers' aprons, crying piteously; women ran hither and thither,
+screaming, and wringing their hands; and broad-shouldered,
+double-fisted men stood stock-still, and shook in their moccasins.
+Washington tried to prevail upon some of his soldiers to sally out
+with him, and drive the enemy back from the valley; but, being
+strangers to military obedience, not a leather-shirt of all the rabble
+could he get to venture beyond the ditches. When he put them in mind
+of what was expected of them as men and soldiers, they only answered,
+that, if they must die, they would rather stay there, and die with
+their wives and families. Having a lurking suspicion, that, after all,
+there might be more smoke than fire in these flying rumors, he sent
+out a scout to bring him some more certain tidings of the matter. In a
+wonderfully short time, the scout came back, pale and affrighted, with
+the dismal intelligence that he had, with his own ears, heard the guns
+and yells of the Indians not four miles distant, and that Winchester
+would be beset by the savages in less than an hour.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> Whereupon
+Washington made another appeal to the courage and manhood of his men;
+which proved so far successful, that a forlorn hope of forty finally
+screwed up pluck enough to follow him to the scene of danger. Moving
+with great caution and circumspection, and keeping all their ears and
+eyes about them, the party came at length to the spot mentioned by the
+scout; where, sure enough, they heard a somewhat scattering discharge
+of fire-arms, and divers outlandish noises, that bore, however, but a
+very slight resemblance to the terrific yells and whoops of Indian
+warriors. Advancing a few paces farther, a sudden turn of the road
+brought them in sight of two drunken soldiers, who were cursing and
+swearing and hallooing in a manner quite outrageous and immoral; and
+now and then, by way of adding a little spice to this part of their
+entertainment, firing off their pistols into the tree-tops. And this
+it was that had given rise to those wild rumors that had thrown the
+whole country into such a terrible panic. To this imprudent waste of
+breath and ammunition, the latter of which they had but little enough
+to spare, Washington put a rather sudden stop by ordering the lively
+young blades to be seized, and carried as prisoners to Winchester,
+where he kept them in severe confinement for more than a week after
+they had regained their sober senses. All this was ludicrous enough;
+and you may be sure that Washington, although grave and dignified
+beyond his years, had a hearty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> laugh over it the first time he found
+himself alone with one or two of his brother-officers.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to his other cares, the duties of his office required him
+to visit, from time to time, the several forts along the frontier, to
+see that those already finished were kept in fighting order, and give
+directions for the proper construction of those still under way. Now,
+the little garrison of forty men, that Col. Dunbar had left to hold
+and defend Fort Cumberland against the combined armies of the French
+and Indians, was commanded by a certain Dagworthy, who, pluming
+himself upon the king's commission as captain, refused to own the
+authority and render obedience to the orders of Washington, who held
+only a governor's commission as colonel. It will be remembered, that
+Washington had a similar misunderstanding with Capt. Mackay, eighteen
+months before, at the Great Meadows, touching this same question of
+rank between royal and provincial officers, which had caused him great
+trouble and annoyance. Matters had now come to such a pass, that a
+little upstart captain of forty men could set at naught the authority
+of the commander-in-chief of the forces of a whole province, merely
+because he could boast a bit of paper embellished with the king's
+name. This was a degradation too grievous to be longer borne by a
+manly, independent spirit. Though sorely vexed and annoyed, Washington
+had too much self-respect and prudence to make a noise about the
+matter;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> but he inwardly resolved, that, as soon as the coming-on of
+winter would oblige the Indians to recross the mountains to the
+shelter of their homes beyond, he would take advantage of the
+breathing spell thus allowed him to make a journey to Boston, there to
+submit the question for final settlement to Gen. Shirley, who had
+succeeded Braddock to the chief command of all the British forces in
+America.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, when the departure of the Indians brought the distressed
+inhabitants of the border the prospect of a few months' peace and
+quiet, he departed for Boston, in company with two of his
+brother-officers, Capts. Stewart and Mercer.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in those days, a journey from the Old Dominion to the Bay City, a
+distance of but five hundred miles, in the depth of winter, when the
+roads were either deep and stiff with mire, or rough and knobby with
+frost, was really a greater undertaking than a voyage in a steamship
+from Boston to Constantinople would now be considered. Our young men
+travelled on horseback, as was the fashion of the day; and took with
+them their negro servants, who, riding behind with their masters'
+saddle-bags and portmanteaus, and dressed in fine livery, with gold
+lace on their fur hats, and blue cloaks, gave quite an air of style
+and consequence to the little cavalcade.</p>
+
+<p>Washington's fame had long since gone before him, as was proved by the
+marked distinction and respect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> with which he was treated at
+Philadelphia, New York, and other places along the route. All were
+eager to behold with their own eyes the youthful hero, whose gallant
+conduct and wonderful escape at the defeat of Braddock had been so
+noised throughout the Colonies; and when we add to this his tall and
+commanding form, the manly beauty of his face, his dignified bearing,
+his rich and handsome dress, and the unequalled skill with which he
+managed his large and noble horse, we cannot wonder at the interest
+and admiration his appearance awakened in the minds of all who saw
+him.</p>
+
+<p>When he got to Boston, where he likewise met with a flattering
+reception, he lost no time in making known to Gen. Shirley the
+business that had taken him thither. The justness and reasonableness
+of his complaints were promptly acknowledged by this officer, who, to
+place the vexed question beyond dispute, declared, that henceforward
+Capt. Dagworthy and all inferior officers, holding king's commissions,
+should own the authority and render obedience to the orders of all
+provincial officers of superior rank. This, the main object of his
+journey, thus happily disposed of, Col. Washington set out on his
+return to Virginia: but, knowing that the Indian war-whoop was not
+likely soon to be heard in the Shenandoah Valley, he indulged himself
+so far as to tarry two whole weeks at New-York City; and for the best
+of reasons, as I will tell you.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+<p>On his way to Boston, he had met here with the beautiful and
+accomplished Miss Phillipps, with whom he was vastly pleased; and it
+was for the nearer study of this young lady's charms, and further
+cultivation of her acquaintance, that our young Virginia colonel was
+now tempted for once in his life thus to linger on his way. Nothing
+came of it, however, that anybody now can tell; although the lady, you
+may stake your heads upon it, must and ought to have been highly
+flattered at being thus singled out by the young hero whose name and
+praise were in everybody's mouth. Perhaps his admiration never ripened
+into love; and, if it did, his modesty, as in the case of the Lowland
+Beauty, must have hindered him from making known his partiality.
+Whatever it may have been, it is, at this late day, of little
+consequence; for long before that year had passed away, with all its
+anxious cares, its perils and privations, and with all its train of
+ghastly Indian horrors, these tender sentiments had become to him
+nothing more than pleasant memories.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>DARK DAYS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It were long to tell you, my dear children, all that happened to
+Washington, and all that he did for the next two or three years of his
+life. I shall, therefore, in as brief and clear a manner as may be,
+present to your minds a picture simply of those scenes in which he
+figured as the chief actor; although there were, it must be
+remembered, others who played a far more important part in this old
+French War than our young Virginia colonel.</p>
+
+<p>The French and Indians, early in the spring of these years, were wont
+to cross the mountains at different points, and for months together
+follow their usual programme of fire, plunder, and massacre, till the
+approach of winter, when, loaded with booty and scalps, they would go
+as they had come, only to return on the opening of the following
+spring. With these cruel savages, and their scarcely less cruel white
+allies, neither age nor sex found mercy; old men, tender women, and
+helpless children, alike falling victims to their murderous tomahawks
+and scalping-knives. Farms were laid waste, crops <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>destroyed, cattle
+butchered; and often, for days and nights together, the smoke could be
+seen in many directions at once, as it rose from burning barns and
+dwellings, and hung like a pall over the ill-fated land. At last, so
+great became the audacity of these pestilent savages, that they
+carried their depredations within cannon range of the very walls of
+Winchester; and, under their destroying hand, the rich and beautiful
+Valley of the Shenandoah seemed likely soon again to become a waste
+and desert place. It was a boast of theirs, that they could take any
+fort that could be fired; and round these places of refuge they would
+skulk and lurk with the greatest patience for a week at a time, quite
+content could they but get a single shot at such of the garrison as
+dared to show themselves beyond shelter of the walls. Sometimes,
+suddenly darting from their hiding-place, they would pounce upon
+little children playing in the woods, and, in full view of the fort,
+bear them away captives, never more to be seen by their bereaved
+parents, who could only listen in helpless anguish to the piteous
+cries of their little innocents, that grew fainter and fainter as
+their savage captors hurried them farther and farther into the gloomy
+depths of the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Often, in their excursions along the frontier, Washington and his men
+would come upon the still smoking ruins of a happy home, or the hacked
+and mangled body of an unfortunate traveller who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> been waylaid and
+murdered by the Indians in some lonely mountain glen. In after-life,
+the recollection of these harrowing scenes was to Washington so
+painful, that he could but seldom be brought to speak of them. Now and
+then, however, he would relate to a few friends some of these dark
+experiences; among which is the following, given in his own words, as
+a fair example of all the rest:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"One day," said he, "as we were traversing a part of the
+frontier, we came upon a small log-house, standing in the
+centre of a little clearing, surrounded by woods on all sides.
+As we approached, we heard the report of a gun,&mdash;the usual
+signal of coming horror. Our party crept cautiously through the
+underwood, until we had approached near enough to see what we
+had already foreboded. A smoke was slowly making its way
+through the roof of the house; when, at the same time, a party
+of Indians came forth, laden with plunder,&mdash;consisting of
+clothes, household furniture, domestic utensils, and dripping
+scalps. We fired, and killed all but one, who tried to get
+away, but was soon overtaken and shot down. Upon entering the
+hut, there met us a sight, which, though we were familiar with
+scenes of blood and massacre, struck us&mdash;at least myself&mdash;with
+feelings more mournful than I had ever experienced before. On a
+bed, in one corner of the room, lay the body of a young woman,
+swimming in blood, with a gash in the forehead that almost
+separated the head into two parts. On her breast lay two little
+babes, less than a twelvemonth old, also with their heads cut
+open; their innocent blood, that had once flowed in one common
+vein, now mingling in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> the same current again. I was inured to
+scenes of bloodshed and misery; but this cut me to the heart;
+and never in my after-life did I raise my arm against a savage,
+without calling to mind the mother and her little twins with
+their heads cleft asunder. On examining the tracks of the
+Indians to see what other murders they might have committed, we
+found a little boy, and, a few steps forward, his father, both
+scalped, and both stone-dead. From the prints of the boy's
+feet, it seemed that he had been following the plough with his
+father, whom he had probably seen shot down; and, in attempting
+to escape, had been pursued, overtaken, and murdered. The ruin
+was complete: not one of the family had been spared. Such was
+the character of this miserable warfare. The wretched people of
+the frontier never went to rest without bidding each other
+farewell; for the chances were they might never wake again, or
+wake only to find their last sleep. When leaving one spot for
+the purpose of giving protection to another point of exposure,
+the scene was often such as I shall never forget. The women and
+children would cling around our knees, and mothers would hold
+up their little babes before our eyes, begging us to stay and
+protect them, and, for God's sake, not leave them to be
+butchered by the savages. A hundred times, I declare to Heaven,
+I would have laid down my life with pleasure under the tomahawk
+and scalping-knife, could I, by the sacrifice, have insured the
+safety of these suffering people."</p></div>
+
+<p>The little folks can well imagine how scenes like these must have
+pained and wrung a heart like Washington's. But what could he do? His
+whole force<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> did not exceed one thousand fighting men; with which he
+had to man more than twenty forts, and guard a frontier of nearly four
+hundred miles' extent. In addition to this, his men had been so
+scattered all the while at these different points, as to have placed
+it altogether beyond his power to give that attention to their
+military training which he had had so near at heart when he first
+entered upon his command. It naturally followed, then, that there was
+among the greater number an almost total want of order and discipline.
+They came and went when and where it suited their humor best; were
+impatient of control; wasted their ammunition, of which there was a
+great scarcity, in target-shooting; were far more ready to trouble
+their officers with good advice than aid them by prompt obedience to
+orders; and, if their sagacious counsels went unheeded, they would,
+without more ado, shoulder their rifles in high dudgeon, and tramp
+home. And, withal, so tender were they of what they were pleased to
+call their <i>honor</i>, that they would take it as quite an insult to be
+put on soldiers' rations; and were too proud or lazy&mdash;which with them
+was the same thing&mdash;to carry their own provisions while on the march;
+choosing, rather, to risk what chance might bring them, in the shape
+of bullocks, sheep, or pigs, which they would knock down, without a
+"By your leave" to the owner, and, after eating as much as satisfied
+their present hunger, would throw the rest away. Thus, between their
+wasteful defenders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> and their wasting invaders, the poor distressed
+inhabitants were brought to the verge of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>The forts were too far apart to prevent the Indians from passing
+between; and the garrisons were too weak to lend each other aid when
+any of them chanced to be in hard, besetting need. This plan of giving
+defence to the border had been strongly opposed by Washington, who
+foresaw the disadvantages just hinted at, and had urged the exact
+contrary. This was, instead of having so many small forts, with but a
+handful of men in each, to fortify Winchester in the completest manner
+possible, with a view of making it the only stronghold and
+rallying-point of all the border, and to be manned by the main body of
+the troops, who were to give support to the smaller parties in their
+excursions against the enemy. Long before the war was ended, it was
+clearly to be seen, that, had this plan been adopted, much useless
+expenditure of money and shedding of blood would have been avoided. As
+it was, the cunning and watchful foe, whose motions were swift as the
+birds, and secret as death, could pass between these forts, not only
+unopposed, but even unobserved, and, without let or hinderance, lay
+waste the country for the protection of which they had been built.
+Under this most melancholy state of things, all the region west of the
+Blue Ridge was fast becoming the dreary and silent wilderness it had
+been in days gone by. Scarcely a shadow of its former population was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+left: some had fled to the forts for refuge; some had resettled in the
+eastern parts of the province; some had been carried away into cruel
+captivity; and many, very many, had met with a horrible death at the
+hands of the merciless invaders.</p>
+
+<p>As if all this we have just related were not enough to try the
+patience and fortitude of young Washington, evil reports, injurious to
+his character, and charging him with being the author of all these
+failures and calamities, were set agoing by secret enemies at home.
+Foremost among these, you will be surprised and sorry to learn, was
+Gov. Dinwiddie, who had for some time past regarded with a jealous and
+envious eye this rising hope of the land, and was now seeking, by a
+variety of underhand means, to have him disgraced from the service,
+that Col. Innez, a particular chum of his, might be advanced to the
+chief command of the Virginia troops instead. The lower offices of the
+army he was zealous to bestow upon a knot of needy adventurers, who,
+being Scotchmen like himself, were in high favor with him, and
+scrupled not to make his likes and dislikes their own, if, by so
+doing, they could further their own private advantage. Perhaps Gov.
+Dinwiddie himself may not have been the direct author of these
+reports; but it is quite certain that his hungry hangers-on would
+never have dared whisper them had they not been fully aware of the
+ill-will he bore the person by whose injury they hoped to profit, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+that they had but to do the thing, when their patron would not only
+wink at it, but even give it his secret approval.</p>
+
+<p>When these malicious whisperings came to the ears of Washington, he
+was stung to the quick by such unfair and unmerited treatment. Feeling
+assured in his own conscience that he had done his whole duty as far
+as in him lay, all his strong and manly nature was roused to indignant
+anger, that his fair name should thus become the target of these
+arrows flying in the dark, without an opportunity being allowed him of
+a fair and open hearing in his own defence. He would have left the
+service at once,&mdash;the very end his enemies had been plotting so hard
+to bring about,&mdash;had not the frontier settlements, just at that
+moment, been threatened with more than usual peril; and to have
+deserted his post at such a time would have given his accusers real
+grounds for the charges, which heretofore had been but a mere
+pretence. Before the immediate danger was past that kept him at his
+post, many of his warmest and most influential friends, residing in
+different parts of the province, had written to him, earnestly
+entreating him not to think of resigning his command; assuring him, at
+the same time, that the base slanders of those evil-minded men had
+found no place whatever in the minds of his fellow-countrymen. On the
+contrary, beholding the courage, patience, and humanity with which he
+was discharging the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> high and sacred duties they had intrusted to him,
+they felt their love for him, and confidence in him, increasing every
+day. With this gratifying assurance that his conduct and motives were
+rightly understood by those whose approbation he was most desirous of
+winning, Washington now held on his course with renewed hope and
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Thenceforward, Gov. Dinwiddie, as if to revenge himself for this
+failure of his base and selfish design, never let an opportunity slip
+of thwarting or annoying the man whose high public character his petty
+malice could not reach, and whose private worth his mean envy could
+not tarnish. His letters to Washington, the tone of which heretofore
+had been uncivil enough, now became harsh and insolent, full of
+fault-finding, and bristling all over with biting reproofs and unmanly
+insinuations. Although wretchedly ignorant of military matters, and at
+a distance from the seat of active operations, yet he must needs take
+upon himself the full control of all the troops of the province,
+without seeming to trouble his mind as to what might be the wishes and
+opinions of him who was in fact their true leader. Whether from a
+spiteful desire to perplex the object of his dislike, or natural
+fickleness of character, every letter from him brought with it some
+new plan. To-day, he ordered this; to-morrow, he ordered that; and,
+the next day, upset the other two by something quite different from
+either: so that Washington was often left <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>completely in the dark as
+to what the uncertain meddler's wishes or plans really were.</p>
+
+<p>At last, from being thus harassed in mind by these petty annoyances,
+and worn in body by the hardships of such rough service, his health
+failed him; and he was advised to repair to Mount Vernon, and there
+remain until his disease should take a more favorable turn. Here he
+lay for four long, weary months, before he could rejoin big regiment;
+during much of which time, his friends, who nursed and watched him,
+really regarded his recovery as doubtful. This is another instance of
+what so often seems to us a matter of wonder,&mdash;the power of a
+narrow-minded, mean-spirited, ill-tempered, false-hearted man to
+inflict pain on a noble and lofty nature.</p>
+
+<p>A short time before the close of the war, it becoming quite certain
+that he had been putting public money, intrusted to his keeping, to
+private or dishonorable uses, Gov. Dinwiddie was recalled, and another
+sent over to fill his place. Being the man here described, and a petty
+tyrant withal, nobody was sorry to see him go, except the needy
+toadies who had hung about him, and who, seeing that nothing was
+likely to turn up for them in the New World, packed off to Scotland
+with their patron, as hungry and empty-handed as they came.</p>
+
+<p>By the by, I must not forget to tell you of the heroic conduct of old
+Lord Fairfax. Greenway Court, as you no doubt remember, was in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>Shenandoah Valley, not many miles from Winchester; and, situated on
+the very edge of a vast forest, was quite open to the inroads of the
+Indians, any one of whom, would have risked limb or life to get his
+bloody clutches on the gray scalp of so renowned a Long Knife. To meet
+this danger, as well as do his part towards the general defence, he
+mustered his hunters and negro servants, to the number of a hundred or
+thereabouts, and formed them at his own expense into a company of
+horse, with which the keen old fox-hunter, now as daring a trooper,
+scoured the country from time to time, and did good service.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>A NEW ENTERPRISE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>And thus these melancholy years came and went, with all their dark and
+painful experiences. A firm and self-reliant spirit like Washington's,
+however, could not be long cast down by even severer trials than those
+by which we have just seen his strength and manhood tested: so, from
+that time forward, come what might, he resolved to hold right on, nor
+bate a jot of heart or hope or zeal or patience, till the coming-on of
+better days, when, God willing, he might render a good and faithful
+account of this, his country's trust.</p>
+
+<p>But the little folks must not suppose that Col. Washington and Gov.
+Dinwiddie were by any means the only persons of consequence who
+figured in this Old French War. On the contrary, there were others of
+far more importance at the time than they, not so much from any
+peculiar merit of their own, as from the part they played in those
+events; and upon whom, as such, I must needs bestow some passing
+notice, were it but to give to our story<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> greater clearness and
+completeness. What concerns you to know of them at present I will
+briefly sum up in a few words, and make it as plain to you as a table
+of simple addition.</p>
+
+<p>As Commander-in-chief of all the British forces in America, Braddock,
+as I have told you elsewhere, was succeeded by Gen. Shirley; who,
+proving himself unfit for the place, was soon recalled, and Lord
+Loudoun sent over from England instead; who, proving himself equally
+unfit, was dealt with in the same manner, and Gen. Abercrombie sent
+over instead; who also, proving himself incompetent, was also
+recalled, and Gen. Amherst sent over; who, proving a wiser choice,
+there followed happier results; and it fell to him, and to the brave
+young general, Wolfe, his next in rank, to bring this long and irksome
+war, in due course of time, to a glorious end. After the failure of
+Braddock's designs against Fort Duquesne, the conquest of Canada was
+made the chief object of the British Government; and the regions of
+the North thenceforth became the seat of war. While our young Virginia
+colonel, making the best use of the slender means allowed him, was
+struggling to keep back the pestilent savages and their pestilent
+white allies from his long line of frontier in the South and West,
+some of these leaders with their red allies, and some of the French
+leaders with their red allies, were, with various fortunes and
+misfortunes on either side, carrying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> on the war along the borders of
+the great Lake Ontario, the little Lakes Champlain and George, and up
+and down the mighty St. Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>Of these English leaders, I will mention Lord Loudoun merely, as being
+the only one with whom Washington had any special dealings. Had this
+nobleman come up to the hopes and expectations which many of the
+colonists were at first wild enough to entertain respecting him, he
+would have regained what Braddock had lost, overrun and conquered
+Canada, and made a clean finish of the whole French empire in America,
+in less than six months' time. They soon discovered, however, that he
+was one of those unlucky persons, who, knowing much, seldom know what
+use to make of their knowledge; who, having no will that they can call
+their own, can never turn the will of others to any good or seasonable
+purpose; and who, making a great show of doing, have never any thing
+to show in the end what they have done. In this last particular, Dr.
+Franklin, with that peculiar humor all his own, likened him to the
+picture of St. George on the sign, that was always on horseback, but
+never riding on.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the recapture of Fort Duquesne, ever since the disgraceful
+failure of that first attempt, had been the one object nearest to
+Washington's heart. Foreseeing that there could never be peace or
+safety for the back settlements of the middle provinces so long as
+this stronghold of the enemy sent out its savage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> swarms to scourge
+and waste the border, he had repeatedly called Lord Loudoun's
+attention to the fact, and most earnestly urged its seizure as the
+only remedy. It was not, however, until early in the autumn of 1758,
+that an expedition, having for its object his long-cherished scheme,
+was set on foot. It was undertaken with a force of three thousand
+Pennsylvanians, twelve hundred North Carolinians, Washington's
+detachment of nineteen hundred Virginians, seven hundred Indians, and
+a few hundred regulars,&mdash;numbering in all seven thousand men, or
+thereabouts,&mdash;with Gen. Forbes for their chief commander.</p>
+
+<p>As an easy and rapid communication between the back settlements of
+Virginia and Pennsylvania would greatly lessen the difficulties of the
+coming campaign, this officer caused a road to be opened between Fort
+Cumberland and Raystown, a frontier post of the last-named province,
+where he had fixed his headquarters. Before the expedition could be
+put in motion, it was necessary that Col. Washington should go to
+Williamsburg to make known to the Virginia Legislature the needy
+condition of his soldiers, and make a call upon them for fresh
+supplies of tents, blankets, clothing, wagons, arms, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, attended by his trusty negro servant Bishop, and mounted
+on his splendid white charger,&mdash;both of which had been bequeathed to
+him by poor Braddock,&mdash;he set out on his journey, which proved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> an
+eventful one indeed to him, as you shall directly see. At the ferry of
+the Pamunkey, a branch of York River, he fell in with Mr. Chamberlin,
+an acquaintance of his, who, according to the hospitable customs of
+those good old times, invited him to call at his house, not far
+distant, and be his honored guest till morning. The young colonel
+would be only too happy to do so: but the nature of his business was
+such as would not admit of an hour's delay; indeed, it was quite out
+of the question, and he must hasten on. But, his friend repeating the
+invitation in a manner too earnest to be mistaken, he felt it would be
+uncourteous to refuse; and consented to stop and dine with him; on
+condition, however, that he should be allowed to proceed on his
+journey that same evening. At his friend's hospitable mansion he met
+with a gay and brilliant throng of ladies and gentlemen, who, though
+strangers to him, knew him well by reputation, and were but too proud
+to be thus unexpectedly thrown in his company. Among them was Mrs.
+Martha Custis, a young and beautiful widow of good family and large
+fortune. Her husband had died three years before; leaving her with two
+small children, a girl and a boy. She is said to have been a lady of
+most winning and engaging manners, and of an excellent and cultivated
+understanding. In stature she was a little below middle size, and of a
+round and extremely well-proportioned form; which, on this occasion,
+was set off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> to the best advantage by a dress of rich blue silk. Her
+hair was dark; her features were pleasing and regular; and there was a
+look of earnest, womanly softness in her hazel eyes, that found its
+way at once to the heart and confidence of all on whom it chanced to
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>The little folks will not, I hope, suffer their admiration and respect
+for our young hero to be lessened in the least, if I tell them, that,
+like the rest of mankind who came within the magic circle of those
+bewitching charms, he was first surprised into admiration, and then
+led, whether or no, at a single step, into the enchanted realms of
+love. You have seen, how that, in his boyhood, he wrote broken-hearted
+verses to his Lowland Beauty; and how that, two or three years before,
+he had nearly yielded himself captive to the beautiful Miss Phillipps:
+which ought to prove to the satisfaction of all reasonable minds, that
+Washington, like other men, had a heart of real human flesh, that now
+and then gave him not a little trouble, despite that grave and
+dignified reserve which hung about him like a spell, and, even at that
+early age, was something to many quite overawing. The dinner, that had
+at first, in his hurry, seemed so long in coming on, seemed now quite
+as fast in going off. Not that I would have you suppose by this, that
+he thought the guests were showing any indecent haste to make way with
+the dishes that were set before them without number, and heaped up
+without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> measure, on Mr. Chamberlin's ample board. On the contrary,
+they partook of the good things of the table with a well-bred
+slowness, that would have been beyond his endurance to bear, had Mars
+been thundering with his iron fist at the gates of his fortress. But
+as it was Cupid, only tapping with his rosy knuckles at the casement
+of his heart, that dinner seemed no longer to him than, no, not half
+so long indeed as, the shortest snack he had ever eaten on horseback
+in the hurry of a forced march. The dinner over, Washington seemed in
+no haste to depart.</p>
+
+<p>The trusty Bishop, knowing well what a punctual man his master always
+was, had appeared, according to orders, with the horses; and was
+plainly enough to be seen from the parlor window, had any one cared to
+look that way, patiently waiting with them in the pleasant shade of an
+apple-tree. The fiery white charger soon began to paw the ground,
+impatient at his master's unwonted tardiness; but no rider came.
+Bishop Braddock shifted his place once, twice, thrice, to keep himself
+and horses in the shade of the apple-tree; but still his master
+lingered: and the ivory grin that settled by degrees on his ebony mug
+showed that he had a sly suspicion of what was going on in the house.
+The afternoon sped away as if old Time, all of a sudden forgetting his
+rheumatism, had reached sunset at a single stride. Of course, they
+would not suffer him to depart at this late hour:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> so Bishop was
+ordered to restable the horses, and make himself easy and snug for the
+night with the colored folks down at their quarters. The next morning,
+the sun was hours on his journey to the west, before our love-smitten
+hero was on his way to Williamsburg.</p>
+
+<p>Once in the saddle, however, all his yesterday's impatience returned
+upon him with redoubled force; and, giving his fiery white charger the
+spur, he dashed away at a break-neck speed on the road to the Virginia
+capital. It is said, so fast did he travel on that day, that, to keep
+up with him, Bishop Braddock ran serious risk of having his woolly nob
+shaken from his shoulders by the high, hard trotter he rode; and so
+sore was he made by the jolting he got, that, for a week thereafter,
+it was quite as much as he could do to bring his legs together. This
+last, by the way, is merely traditional, and must be received by the
+little folks with some caution.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily, the White House, the residence of Mrs. Custis, was situated
+within a very few miles of Williamsburg; which gave young Washington
+many opportunities, during his two-weeks' stay at that place, of
+seeing her, and still further cultivating her acquaintance.
+Experience, that sage teacher who never spoke to him in vain, had
+taught him, that although there are many blessings of this world which
+seem to come of their own accord, yet there are a few that never come
+except at the asking for; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> the chiefest of these is woman's love.
+So, resolving to profit by this knowledge, he did precisely what any
+wise and reasonable man would have done in his place,&mdash;overcame his
+troublesome bashfulness, and made the lady an offer of marriage; which
+she, precisely as any wise and reasonable woman would have done in her
+place, modestly accepted. The business that had called him to
+Williamsburg being at last disposed of, Washington took leave of his
+intended, after it had been agreed between them to keep up an
+interchange of letters until the close of the present campaign, when
+they were to be united in the holy bonds of wedlock.</p>
+
+<p>Upon his return to Winchester, he was dismayed to find that the
+English generals had taken it into their inexperienced heads to cut a
+new road from Raystown to Fort Duquesne by the way of Laurel Hill,
+instead of marching there at once by the old Braddock Road, as he
+naturally supposed had been their intention from the beginning.
+Foreseeing the consequences, he, in an earnest and forcible manner,
+hastened to represent to them the difficulties and disadvantages of
+such an undertaking. Cold weather would be setting in, he urged, long
+before they could cut their way through so many miles of that mountain
+wilderness to the point in question; and they would be obliged either
+to winter at Laurel Hill, or fall back upon the settlements until
+spring. This would give the enemy time to get full intelligence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+their threatened danger, and send to Canada for re-enforcements. Their
+Indian allies too, as was their wont, would grow impatient at the long
+delay that must needs attend this plan if carried out; and, returning
+to their homes in disgust, would fail to render to the expedition
+their valuable services as scouts and spies, as had been expected of
+them. On the other hand, by taking the old road, they could march
+directly to the fort; which, being at that time but feebly garrisoned,
+must fall almost without a blow, and this, too, in less than half the
+time, and with less than half the trouble and expense. This prudent
+counsel, coming from one, who, from his knowledge of the country, had
+so good a right to give it, was nevertheless overruled. The English
+generals had gathered a most appalling idea of the difficulties and
+dangers of this route from the account Braddock had given of it in his
+letters. He had therein described it as lying through a region where
+the mountains were of the highest and steepest, the forests of the
+thickest and tallest, the rocks of the most huge and rugged, the
+swamps of the deepest, and the torrents of the swiftest. The route for
+the new road, on the contrary, according to the Pennsylvanians, who
+saw in it a great advantage to themselves, lay through a region where
+the mountains were not by far so lofty, the woods so thick, the rocks
+so huge, the swamps so deep, nor the streams so swift, or half so
+given to running rampant over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> their banks. All these advantages this
+route had, besides being fifty miles shorter. So, under the mistaken
+notion that more was to be gained by following a short road that would
+take them a long time in getting over, than by following a long one
+that would take them but a short time in getting over, they resolved
+to cut the new road.</p>
+
+<p>This was a sore disappointment to Col. Washington; for he saw in it a
+likelihood of Braddock's folly being played all over again, and that,
+too, on a still larger scale. The tidings of glorious victories won by
+British arms in the North had filled the whole country with triumph
+and rejoicing, that rendered him all the more impatient at the
+tardiness with which their own expedition was moving forward. "He
+wished to rival the successes of the North by some brilliant blow in
+the South. Perhaps a desire for personal distinction in the eyes of
+the lady of his choice may have been at the bottom of his impatience."
+This last, it is but fair to say, is an assertion of our great
+countryman, Washington Irving; who, being a wise and learned
+historian, would not have made it, you may be sure, had not his deep
+insight into the workings of the human heart given him a perfect right
+so to do. If this be not enough to convince you that such was really
+the case, know that your Uncle Juvinell is entirely of the same
+opinion.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>MORE BLUNDERING.</h3>
+
+
+<p>At last, about the middle of September, the expedition was set in
+motion. Gen. Forbes sent Col. Boquet in advance, with nearly two
+thousand men, to open and level the road. In order to get more certain
+information touching the condition of the enemy,&mdash;his number,
+strength, and probable designs,&mdash;it was thought advisable by some of
+the officers to send out a large party of observation in the direction
+of Fort Duquesne. It was to be made up of British regulars, Scotch
+Highlanders, and Pennsylvania and Virginia rangers,&mdash;eight hundred
+picked men in all. Washington strongly disapproved the plan, on the
+ground that the regulars, being wholly unacquainted with the Indian
+mode of fighting, and unable to operate at so great a distance without
+taking with them a cumbrous train of baggage, would prove a
+hinderance, instead of a furtherance, to an enterprise which must
+needs owe its success to the caution, silence, secrecy, and swiftness
+on the part of those engaged. He therefore advised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> the sending-out of
+small companies of rangers and Indian hunters, who, knowing the
+country well, could spy out the enemy with less risk of detection to
+themselves, and, moving without baggage, could make far better speed
+with the tidings they may have gathered. The like advice, you may
+remember, he gave to Braddock. It met with a like reception, and the
+like disaster was the consequence.</p>
+
+<p>The party set out from Laurel Hill, and began its tedious tramp across
+the fifty miles of wilderness that lay between that point and Fort
+Duquesne. It was headed by Major Grant, a noisy, blustering braggart,
+who, hankering after notoriety rather than seeking praise for duty
+well and faithfully done, went beyond the limits of his instructions;
+which were simply to find out all he could about the enemy, without
+suffering the enemy to find out more than he could help about himself,
+and, by all possible means, to avoid a battle. But, instead of
+conducting the expedition with silence and circumspection, he marched
+along in so open and boisterous a manner, as made it appear he meant
+to give the enemy timely notice of his coming, and bully him into an
+attack even while yet on the way. The French, keeping themselves well
+informed, by their spies, of his every movement, suffered him to
+approach almost to their very gates without molestation. When he got
+in the neighborhood of the fort, he posted himself on a hill
+overlooking it, and began throwing up intrenchments in full view of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> garrison. As if all this were not imprudence enough, and as if
+bent on provoking the enemy to come out and give him battle on the
+instant, whether or no, he sent down a party of observation to spy out
+yet more narrowly the inside plan and defences of the fort; who were
+suffered not only to do this, but even to burn a house just outside
+the walls, and then return to their intrenchments, without a hostile
+sign betokening the unseen foe so silent yet watchful within.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning, as if to give the enemy warning of the
+threatened danger, the drums of the regulars beat the <i>r&eacute;veille</i>, and
+the bagpipes of the Highlanders woke the forest-echoes far and wide
+with their wild and shrilly din. All this time, not a gun had been
+fired from the fort. The deathly silence that reigned within was
+mistaken for fear, and made the fool-hardy Grant so audacious as to
+fancy that he had but to raise his finger, and the fort must fall. As
+Braddock's day had begun with martial parade and music, so likewise
+did this. As on that day the regulars were sent in advance, while the
+Virginians were left in the rear to guard the baggage, so was likewise
+done on this. On this day, as on that, not an enemy was to be seen,
+till, all of a sudden, a quick and heavy firing was opened upon them
+by Indians lurking in ambush on either side; while, at the same
+moment, the French flung open their gates, and, rushing out, mingled
+their loud shouts with the horrid yells of their savage allies. On
+this day, as had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> been done on that, the regulars, surprised,
+bewildered, panic-stricken, were thrown at once into disorder, and
+began firing their pieces at random, killing friend as well as foe.
+Unlike them, however, the Highlanders stood their ground like men,
+and, fighting bravely, cheered each other with their slogan, or wild
+battle-cry. On this day, as on that, the Virginians came up in the
+very nick of time to rescue the helpless regulars from utter
+destruction. On this, as on Braddock's day, the Indians, seeing the
+hopeless confusion into which the English had fallen, rushed out from
+their ambush with yells of triumph, and fell upon them, tomahawk and
+scalping-knife in hand. Major Lewis, the brave leader of the
+Virginians, fought hand to hand with a tall warrior, whom he laid dead
+at his feet; but, soon overpowered by numbers, he was forced to
+surrender himself to a French officer, who received his sword. The
+blustering Grant, more lucky than the headstrong Braddock, saved his
+life by yielding himself up in like manner.</p>
+
+<p>And now the rout became general, and the slaughter dreadful. Seeing
+the unlooked-for turn affairs had taken, Capt. Bullitt, whom Major
+Lewis had left to guard the baggage, gathered a few of his brave
+Virginians about him, and prepared to make a desperate stand. Sending
+back the strongest horses with the baggage, he blocked up the road
+with the wagons, and, behind the barricade thus formed, posted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> his
+men, to whom he gave a few brief orders how to act. These scanty
+preparations were hardly made, when the Indians, having finished the
+work of plunder, had sprung into swift pursuit, and were now close
+upon them, the wild woods ringing with their terrible whoops and
+yells. When they had come within short rifle-range, Capt. Bullitt and
+his men met them with a well-aimed volley of musketry from behind the
+shelter of their wagons; which, however, checked the savages but for a
+moment. Rallying on the instant, they were pressing forward in still
+greater numbers; when Capt. Bullitt held out a signal of surrender,
+and came out from behind the barricade at the head of his men, as if
+to lay down their arms: but no sooner were they within eight yards of
+the enemy, and near enough to see the fierce light that shone in their
+eyes, than they suddenly levelled their pieces, and poured a murderous
+fire into the thickest of them; then, charging bayonets, scattered
+them in every direction, and sent them yelling with astonishment and
+dismay. Before they could rally again, and renew the pursuit, Capt.
+Bullitt, having picked up many more of the fugitives, began a rapid
+but orderly retreat.</p>
+
+<p>For several days thereafter, the fugitives, singly or in squads, came
+straggling into camp at Loyal Hannon. Of the eight hundred picked men
+who had been sent out with such good promise of success, twenty
+officers and two hundred and seventy-three privates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> had been left
+behind, either killed or taken prisoners. The whole force of the
+enemy, French and Indians, did not exceed that of the English: their
+loss in the battle is not known; but, as the Highlanders fought well
+and the Virginians fought well, it must have been heavy. The disaster
+foreboded by Washington had thus in reality fallen upon them. He was
+at Raystown when the dismal tidings came; and, although complimented
+by Gen. Forbes upon the bravery his rangers had displayed, was deeply
+grieved and mortified. In secret, many a man would have been gratified
+at beholding a prophecy he had uttered thus fulfilled; but Washington,
+incapable of such selfish and unnatural vanity, could but sorrow
+thereat, although it must needs increase his reputation for foresight
+and sagacity. As the only good thing that came from this defeat, I
+must tell you (and you will be glad to hear it) that Capt. Bullitt was
+rewarded with a major's commission for the gallant and soldierly
+conduct he had shown on that disastrous day in the midst of such
+fearful perils.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the middle of November that the whole army came up to
+Loyal Hannon, a little distance beyond Laurel Hill. Winter was coming
+on apace. What with rain and snow and frost, the roads would soon be
+rendered impassable, not only to wheeled carriages, but to pack-horses
+also. Fifty miles of unbroken wilderness lay between them and Fort
+Duquesne,&mdash;so long the goal of their hopes and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> toils, that seemed to
+recede as they advanced, like some enchanted castle we have read of
+before now in books of fairy tales, that poor benighted travellers
+never reach, although, in fancy, every step they take brings them
+nearer. The leaders began to talk seriously of going into
+winter-quarters at that place until the return of spring; and it
+seemed as if another of Washington's prophecies were likely to be
+fulfilled. But, about this time, two prisoners from Fort Duquesne were
+brought into camp; from whom they drew such an account of the weakness
+of the French, and the discontent and daily desertions of their Indian
+allies, as determined them to push forward without further delay, in
+spite of the wintry weather, and, at one fell blow, make a finish of
+the campaign. So, leaving behind them their tents and baggage, and
+taking with them but a few pieces of light artillery, they once more
+resumed their toilsome march. Col. Washington was ordered to go on in
+advance with a part of his detachment, to throw out scouts and
+scouting parties, who were to scour the woods in every direction, and
+thereby prevent the possibility of an ambuscade. This new arrangement,
+which showed that Gen. Forbes had the wisdom to profit by the folly of
+those who had gone before him, was a signal proof of the high esteem
+in which provincial troops were at last beginning to be held; and to
+which, by their courage, skill, and hardihood, they had, even years
+before, won so just a title.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p>
+<p>When within a few miles of the French fort, the road began to show
+signs of the late disaster. Here and there were to be seen the
+blackened and mangled bodies of men, who, while fleeing for their
+lives, had been overtaken, and cut down by the murderous tomahawk; or,
+exhausted from the loss of blood, had there, by the lonely wayside,
+laid them down to die of their wounds. As they advanced, these ghastly
+tokens of defeat and massacre were to be met with at shorter and
+shorter intervals, till at length they lay thickly scattered about the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>Being now in close neighborhood with the enemy, the English moved with
+even greater caution and wariness than before; for they had every
+reason to suspect, that, as he had suffered them to come thus far
+without molestation, he meant to meet them here, under shelter of his
+stronghold, with a resistance all the move determined. When come in
+sight, however, what was their surprise, instead of beholding the high
+ramparts and strong walls, grim and frowning with cannon, which they
+had pictured to their minds, to find a heap of blackened and smoking
+ruins!</p>
+
+<p>Deserted by his Indian allies, threatened with famine, cut off from
+all hope of aid from the North (where the English were everywhere
+gaining ground), and with a force of but five hundred men wherewith to
+defend the post against ten times that number, the French general had
+seen that the attempt to hold it would be but folly; and, like a
+prudent officer, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> resolved to abandon it as his only chance of
+safety. Waiting, therefore, until the English were within a day's
+march of the place, he blew up the magazine, set fire to the works,
+and, embarking in his bateaux by the light of the flames, retreated
+down the Ohio.</p>
+
+<p>Col. Washington, still leading the advance, was the first to enter;
+and, with his own hand planting the British banner on the still
+smouldering heaps, took formal possession thereof in the name of his
+Britannic majesty, King George the Second. And thus this stronghold of
+French power in the Ohio Valley, so long the pest and terror of the
+border, fell without a blow. Under the name of Fort Pitt, it was soon
+rebuilt, and garrisoned with two hundred of Washington's men; and,
+from that time to the war of the Revolution, it was held by the
+English, chiefly as a trading-post; and hence the dingy, smoky, noisy,
+thriving, fast young city of Pittsburg.</p>
+
+<p>They now had leisure to pay the last sad duty to the dead who had
+fallen in the two defeats of Braddock and Grant. For three long years,
+the bodies of Braddock's slaughtered men had lain without Christian
+burial, bleaching in the sun of as many summers, and shrouded in the
+snows of as many winters. Mingled with the bones of oxen and horses,
+or half hidden in heaps of autumn leaves, they lay scattered about the
+stony hillsides,&mdash;a spectacle ghastly indeed, and most melancholy to
+behold. With many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> a sigh of pity for the hapless dead, and many a
+shudder of dark remembrance on the part of those who had been present
+at the scenes of rout and massacre, they gathered together the
+blackened corpses of Grant's men and the whitened bones of Braddock's
+men, and, digging a huge pit, buried them in one common grave. In this
+pious duty all took part alike, from the general down to the common
+soldier.</p>
+
+<p>With the fall of Fort Duquesne, ended, as Washington had years ago
+foreseen, the troubles of the Western and Southern frontiers, and with
+it the power so long held by the French in the Ohio Valley. The
+Indians, with that fickleness of mind peculiar to savage races, now
+hastened to offer terms of amity and peace to the party whom the
+fortunes of war had left uppermost.</p>
+
+<p>Having done his part, and so large a part, towards the restoration of
+quiet and security to his native province, the cherished object of his
+heart, for which he had so faithfully and manfully struggled,
+Washington resolved to bring his career as a soldier to a close. In
+his very soul, he was sick and weary of strife, and longed for peace.
+The scenes of violence and bloodshed had become loathing and painful
+to him beyond the power of words to tell; and, now that his country
+had no longer need of his services, he felt that he could, without
+reproach, retire to the tranquil shades of private life he loved so
+much, and had looked forward to with such earnest longings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> He
+therefore, at the end of the year, gave up his commission, and left
+the service, followed by the admiration and affection of his soldiers,
+and the applause and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>With the fall of Quebec in the course of the following year (1759),
+this long and eventful Old French War was brought to a close, and
+French empire in America was at an end.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WASHINGTON AT HOME.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Having done all that a brave and prudent man could for his country's
+welfare, Col. Washington now lost no time, you may depend upon it, in
+doing what every wise and prudent man should for his own: by which you
+are to understand, that on the sixth day of January, 1759, when he
+wanted but a few weeks of completing his twenty-seventh year, he was
+joined in the holy bonds of marriage with Mrs. Martha Custis, the
+blooming and lovely young widow, and mother of the two interesting
+little children,&mdash;to all of whom you had a slight introduction a short
+time ago.</p>
+
+<p>The nuptials were celebrated at the White House, the home of the
+bride, in the presence of a goodly company of stately dames and fine
+old gentlemen, fair maidens and handsome youth,&mdash;the kith and kin and
+loving friends of the wedded pair. Had some belated traveller been
+overtaken by the little hours of that night, as he chanced to pass
+that way, he might have guessed, from the soft, warm light that shone
+from all of the many windows, and sounds of sweet music that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> came
+through the open doors, mingled with peals of joyous laughter, and the
+light tripping of numerous feet in the merry dance, that it must be a
+much-beloved and fortunate couple indeed that could draw together so
+happy and brilliant a throng under that hospitable roof. Had this same
+belated traveller wanted further proof of this, he had but to turn a
+little aside, and take a peep into the negro quarters, where he would
+have seen the colored folks in a jubilee over the grand occasion, and,
+to all appearances, quite as jolly as if the wedding had been an
+affair of their own getting-up, and in which each son and daughter of
+ebony had a personal interest. He would have seen them feasting on the
+abundant leavings that came down from the great house, till their
+faces shone again; and dancing to the music of Bishop Braddock's
+fiddle in a fashion all their own, and nobody's else.</p>
+
+<p>First and foremost among these, with his wool combed the highest, his
+breeches the reddest, and manners the genteelest, might have been
+spied Black Jerry (who, when a negroling, had been saved from a
+thrashing by little George, as you well remember), showing off his
+heels to the envy of all male and the admiration of all female
+beholders. This last, it is but fair to say, is merely a fancy sketch
+of your Uncle Juvinell's, conjured up by recollections of certain long
+talks he often had, when a boy, with Black Jerry himself, at that time
+a very old negro of most excellent morals, who never failed, when his
+honored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> master's name was mentioned, to show his yellow ivory, and,
+for very respect, uncover his head, the wool of which was then as
+white as a Merino ram's.</p>
+
+<p>This joyous event having passed thus happily off, Col. Washington, a
+short time after, repaired to Williamsburg to take his seat in the
+Virginia Legislature, or House of Burgesses as it was then called, to
+which he had been elected while absent on the last campaign; without,
+however, any particular desire or effort on his part, but by that of
+his numerous friends. Hardly had his name been enrolled as a member of
+that honorable body, when Mr. Robinson, Speaker of the House, by
+previous agreement arose and addressed him in a short but eloquent
+speech; thanking him, in the name of the rest, for the many and
+valuable services he had rendered his country during the past five
+years, and setting forth the gratitude and esteem with which he was
+regarded by his fellow-countrymen. Surprised out of his usual
+composure and self-possession by the honor thus unexpectedly done him,
+Washington, upon rising to thank the House, could only blush, stammer,
+and stand trembling, without the power to utter a single word. Seeing
+his painful embarrassment, Mr. Robinson hastened to his relief by
+saying with a courteous smile, "Sit down, Mr. Washington: your modesty
+equals your valor; and that surpasses the power of any language I
+possess." From that time till near the breaking-cut of the
+Revolution,&mdash;a period of fifteen years,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> he remained an active and
+influential member of this body; being returned from year to year by
+the united voice of the good people whose district he represented.
+Always thorough in whatever he undertook, he rested not until he had
+made himself muster of every point and question touching the duties of
+his new office; and, for method, promptness, prudence, and sagacity,
+soon proved himself quite as good a civilian as he had been a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the following spring, his first session ended, he betook
+himself to the sweet retirement of Mount Vernon; where, cheered by the
+company of his beautiful young wife and her interesting little
+children, he once more resumed those peaceful pursuits and innocent
+amusements to which he had looked forward with such bright
+anticipations amidst the perils and hardships of a soldier's life.
+War, as war, had already, young and ardent as he was, lost for him its
+charms; and he had learned to look upon it as a hard and terrible
+necessity, ever to be avoided, except in cases where the safety of his
+country should demand it as a last desperate remedy. Unlike most men
+of a bold and adventurous disposition, he all his life long took the
+greatest pleasure in the pursuits of a husbandman; and, to his manner
+of thinking, there was no lot or calling in life so happy, and none
+more honorable. Having now ample time for the indulgence of his
+tastes, he set about improving and beautifying his plantations, of
+which he had several, in the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> approved style of that day. He
+planted orchards of various fruits; set his hillsides in grass;
+drained his marshes, and turned them into rich meadow-lands; built
+mills and blacksmith-shops; enlarged his family mansion to a size
+better befitting his elegant and hospitable style of living; adorned
+the grounds about it with shrubbery, trees, and gardens; and converted
+the wild woods hard by into open and verdant parks. To his negro
+slaves he was the kindest of masters; ever mindful of their comfort,
+and extremely careful of them in sickness. Being of industrious habits
+himself, he would not make the least grain of allowance for sloth or
+idleness in them, or indeed in any one about him, but was strict in
+exacting of them the speedy and full performance of their allotted
+tasks; which, however, he always took care should come under rather
+than up to the measure of their strength. In his business habits, he
+was methodical to a nicety; kept his own books, and was his own
+overseer: for, having a strong aversion to being waited on, he never
+suffered others to do for him what he could do for himself. He kept a
+close and clear account, in writing, of the profits arising from the
+grain, tobacco, and other produce of his lands; and also the amount of
+his personal, household, and plantation expenses: by which means he
+could tell at a glance whether he were on the making or losing order,
+and readily detect whether any of whom he had dealings were given to
+careless or dishonest practices. So superior was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> quality of every
+thing produced on his estate, and so widely known did he become for
+his honesty and uprightness in all business transactions, that, in
+time, a box of tobacco or a barrel of flour marked "George Washington,
+Mount Vernon, Va.," would be received into many foreign ports without
+the custom-house authorities opening or inspecting it.</p>
+
+<p>He was an early riser. In winter, getting up before day, and lighting
+his own fire, he wrote or read two or three hours by candle-light.
+After a frugal breakfast of two small cups of tea and four small cakes
+of Indian meal, he mounted his horse, and rode about his plantations;
+seeing to every thing with his own eye, and often lending a helping
+hand. This duty done, he returned to the house at noon, and dined
+heartily, as well beseemed the active, robust man that he was, yet
+never exceeding the bounds of temperance and moderation both as to
+eating and drinking. His afternoons he usually devoted to the
+entertainment of his numerous guests, who thronged his hospitable
+mansion almost daily, and, if from a distance, abiding there for weeks
+together. After a supper frugal as his breakfast, if there was no
+company in the house, he would read aloud to his family from some
+instructive and entertaining book, or from the newspapers of the day;
+and then, at an early hour, retire to his room for the night.</p>
+
+<p>Fish and game abounded in the woods and streams of his domain, as well
+as in those of the adjoining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> plantations; and he was thus enabled to
+indulge his fondness for angling and hunting to the utmost, whenever
+he felt so inclined. Two or three times a week, the shrill winding of
+the hunter's horn and the deep-mouthed baying of the fox-hounds would
+ring out on the clear morning air; when he might be seen at the head
+of a brilliant company of mounted hunters, dashing over the fields,
+across the streams, and through the woods, hot on the heels of some
+unlucky Reynard. I should not say unlucky, however; for although
+Washington was as bold and skilful a rider as could be found in
+thirteen provinces, and kept the finest of horses and finest of dogs,
+yet, for all that, he could seldom boast of any great success as a
+fox-hunter. But having the happy knack of making the best and most of
+every thing, be it toward or untoward, he always consoled himself with
+the reflection, that, if they had failed to catch their fox, they at
+least had their sport and a deal of healthful exercise; which, after
+all, should be the only object of fox-hunting. On such occasions, he
+was either joined by the neighboring gentry, or by such guests as
+chanced at the time to be enjoying the hospitalities of Mount Vernon.
+Among these, it was not unusual to find old Lord Fairfax, the friend
+and companion of his stripling days, who would come down from Greenway
+Court several times a year, with a long train of hunters and hounds,
+and by his presence double the mirth and cheer of all the country-side
+for miles and miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> around. The fate of poor Reynard being duly
+settled, they would repair either to Mount Vernon, or to the residence
+of any one else of the party that chanced to be nearest, and wind up
+the sports of the day by a hunting-dinner, at which they were usually
+favored with the company of the ladies. At such times, Washington is
+said to have entered so keenly into the general hilarity, as to quite
+lay aside his accustomed gravity and reserve, and show himself almost
+as jovial as the merry old lord himself. Speaking of these amusements,
+brings to mind an anecdote of him, which I must tell you, as it will
+give you a still more lively idea of the promptness and decision with
+which he was wont to act whenever occasion demanded.</p>
+
+<p>In those old-fashioned times, among many other laws that would seem
+odd enough to us at the present day, there were many very strict and
+severe ones for the protection of game, which made poaching (that is
+to say, hunting on private grounds without leave or license from the
+owner) no less a crime than theft, and punished the poacher as a thief
+accordingly. Now, there was a certain idle, worthless fellow,
+notorious for his desperate character, as being the most daring
+poacher in seven counties, who was known to be much in the habit of
+trespassing on the grounds belonging to Mount Vernon. This had been
+forbidden him by Washington, who had warned him of the consequences if
+he did not cease his depredations, and keep at a safe distance; but to
+this the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> sturdy vagrant gave little heed. He would cross over the
+river in a canoe, which he would hide, in some secret nook best known
+to himself, among the reeds and rushes that fringed the banks, and
+with his fowling-piece make ruinous havoc among the canvas-back ducks
+that flocked in great multitudes to the low marsh-lands of that
+region.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img272.jpg" width="550" height="649" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>One day, as Washington was going his accustomed rounds about the
+plantations, he heard the report of a gun in the neighborhood of the
+river; and, guessing what was in the wind, he forthwith spurred his
+horse in that direction, and, dashing through the bushes, came upon
+the culprit, just as he, paddle in hand, was pushing from the shore.
+The fellow, seeing his danger, cocked his gun, and, with a threatening
+look, levelled it directly at Washington, who, without heeding this in
+the least, rode into the water, and, seizing the canoe by the painter,
+dragged it ashore. Leaping then from his horse, he wrenched the
+fowling-piece from the astonished poacher, and fell to belaboring him
+in so clean and handsome a manner, as to make the unlucky wight
+heartily wish he had the wide Potomac between him and the terrible man
+whose iron grasp was then on his collar. My word for it, he never
+trespassed again on those forbidden grounds; and I dare be sworn, he
+never saw or ate or smelt a canvas-back thereafter, without feeling a
+lively smarting up and down under his jacket, and, it may be, his
+buckskin breeches too. It was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> that a few dozen or even a hundred
+ducks had been shot on his premises, that Washington was thus moved to
+chastise this fellow; but that, in spite of wholesome warnings, he
+should go on breaking the laws of the land with such impunity; and
+also, that, instead of seeking to earn an honest livelihood by the
+labor of his hands, he should prefer rather to live in idleness, and
+gain a bare subsistence by such paltry and unlawful means.</p>
+
+<p>Although verging on to middle age, Washington was still very fond of
+active and manly sports, such as tossing the bar and throwing the
+sledge, wrestling, running, and jumping; in all of which he had but
+few equals, and no superiors. Among other stories of his strength and
+agility, there is one which you may come across some day in the course
+of your reading, relating how that, at a leaping-match, he cleared
+twenty-two feet seven inches of dead level turf at a single bound.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his modesty and reserve, he took much pleasure in
+society, and ever sought to keep up a free and social interchange of
+visits between his family and those of his neighbors. Besides their
+fine horses and elegant carriages, he, and others of the old Virginia
+gentry of that day whose plantations lay along the Potomac, kept their
+own barges or pleasure-boats, which were finished and fitted up in a
+sumptuous style, and were sometimes rowed by as many as six negro men,
+all in neat uniforms. In these,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> they, with their wives and children,
+would visit each other up and down the river; and often, after
+lengthening out their calls far into the night, would row home by the
+light of the moon, which, lending charms that the sun had not to the
+tranquil flow of the winding stream, and to the waving woods that
+crowned the banks on either hand, caused them often to linger, as
+loath to quit the enchanting scene. A few weeks of the winter months
+were usually spent by Mr. and Mrs. Washington either at Williamsburg
+or at Annapolis, then, as now, the capital of Maryland, where was to
+be found the best society of the provinces, and of which they were the
+pride and ornament. Here they entered into the gayeties of the season,
+such as dinners and balls, with much real relish; and, if the theatre
+added its attractions to the rest, Washington always made it a point
+to attend, as the entertainments there offered were of the sort that
+afforded him much delight. Nor was he loath to join in the dance; and
+your Uncle Juvinell, when a boy, had the rare fortune of meeting, now
+and then, with stately old dames, who had been belles in their days,
+and could boast of having had him for a partner; but, at the same
+time, they were wont to confess, that they were generally too much
+overawed by the gravity and dignity of his demeanor to feel entirely
+at their ease in his company, however flattered they may have been at
+the honor, which he, in his modesty, so little dreamed he was doing
+them.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p>
+<p>Washington's marriage was never blessed with children; but he was all
+that a father could be to those of Mrs. Washington, whom he loved and
+cherished as tenderly as if they had been his own. As their guardian,
+he had the care of their education, and also the entire control of the
+immense fortune, amounting, in negroes, land, and money, to nearly two
+hundred thousand dollars, left them by their father, Mr. George
+Custis; and lovingly and faithfully did he discharge this sacred and
+delicate trust. Of these two children, the daughter (who was the
+younger of the two) died, in early maidenhood, of consumption. She had
+been of a slender constitution from her childhood; but, for all that,
+her death was an unexpected stroke, and was long and deeply mourned by
+Mrs. Washington and her husband. He is said to have been absent during
+her illness; but, returning a short time before she breathed her last,
+was so overcome with pity and tenderness upon seeing the sad change
+wrought in so brief a space by this dreadful disease in her fair young
+face and delicate form, that he threw himself upon his knees by her
+bedside, and, in a passionate burst of grief, poured out a fervent
+prayer for her recovery. The son now became the sole object of
+parental love and solicitude; and being, like his sister, of frail and
+uncertain health, was a source of much affectionate anxiety to his
+step-father as well as to his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Both Mr. and Mrs. Washington were members of the Episcopal Church, and
+persons of the truest Christian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> piety. Every sabbath, when the roads
+and weather permitted, they attended divine worship either at
+Alexandria or at a church in their own neighborhood, and always took
+part in the religious exercises of the day with earnest and solemn
+devotion. In addition to the many charms of mind and person already
+mentioned, Mrs. Washington was a woman of great benevolence, and spent
+much of her time in acts of kindness and charity, which won her the
+love and gratitude of every poor family in the country around.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed away fifteen tranquil years,&mdash;the white days of
+Washington's life. When we behold him as he was then, in the full
+strength and beauty of his ripened manhood, possessed of one of
+the handsomest fortunes in America, living in the bountiful and
+elegant style of those hospitable times, the pride and honor of
+his native province, the object of applause and gratitude to his
+fellow-countrymen, and of esteem and love to all whose privilege it
+was to call him friend; and, above all, blessed, in the partner of his
+choice, with a woman gifted with every grace and virtue that can adorn
+her sex,&mdash;when we behold him thus, well may we exclaim, "Verily, here
+was a man favored of Heaven in a special manner, and blessed beyond
+the lot of common mortals here below." But the clouds were gathering,
+and had long been gathering, that were soon to burst in storm and
+tempest over that happy and rising young land, and force him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> for
+many, many weary years from those, his loved retreats and peaceful
+pursuits, upon a wider, nobler field of action, wherein he was to play
+a part that should, in fine, win for him the name so dear to every
+American heart,&mdash;Father of his Country.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A FAMILY QUARREL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"And now, Dannie, mend the fire with another Christmas log. You,
+Willie, open the windows at top and bottom, to let out the smoke the
+young historian will be sure to raise. Laura, my dear, trim the lamp;
+and you, Ella,&mdash;will you have the kindness to put a little sugar in
+your uncle's cider?&mdash;there's a darling! Ned, my boy, just tumble
+sleepy-headed Charlie there out of his comfortable nap, and touse him
+into his waking senses again. All right? Now I would have every one of
+you put your thinking-caps square and tight upon your heads, and keep
+all your ears about you; for, depend upon it, what I am now going to
+tell you is so full of hard points and tough knots, that, should you
+but lose the crossing of a 't,' or even the dotting of an 'i,'
+thereof, all the rest will be to you as so much hifalutin
+transcendentalism." (Here Uncle Juvinell took a gigantic swallow of
+cider, and pronounced the sugar a decided improvement; while the
+little folks wrote something on their slates, very long, and which no
+two of them spelt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> alike. Uncle Juvinell smacked his lips, and then
+resumed.)</p>
+
+<p>Now, you must know, my dear children, that Great Britain, at the time
+of which we are speaking, was, and for many years had been, and, in
+fact, still is, and, in all human likelihood, will ever continue to
+be, burdened with a mountain-load of debt, which has already given her
+a frightful stoop in the shoulders, and may, in time, grow to such an
+enormous bulk as to break her sturdy old back outright. She had, as
+you have seen, added all French America to her dominions; but with
+this increase of power and glory, that made her king and nobles smile
+and sing with joy, came also an increase of debt and trouble, that
+made her common people scowl and growl with want and discontent. The
+expenses of the late war with France had added the weight of another
+&AElig;tna or Sinai to the already staggering load that chafed her back;
+and, sorely grieved thereat, she began casting in her mind what might
+be done to lighten it a little.</p>
+
+<p>"My young Colonies," said our mother to herself, "which were planted
+by my love so many years ago, have grown to a goodly size, and
+prospered in a wonderful manner, under my fostering care, for which
+they owe me many thanks; and, being quite old and strong enough, must
+now repay it by taking their due share of my heavy burden."</p>
+
+<p>Now, in all this, our mother did but deceive herself: for these
+Colonies had been planted by her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> oppression, not by her love; they
+had grown by her neglect, not by her fostering care. Therefore, they
+did not, as she pretended, owe her either love or thanks, although
+they gave her both; and she had no right to make them carry her burden
+without their consent. Strange as it may appear, these infant Colonies
+loved their mother to distraction, in spite of her unmotherly
+treatment of them; and would have gone any length to serve her,&mdash;even
+to the extent of bearing double the burden she would have laid on
+them,&mdash;had she been wise enough to consult their wishes about the
+matter, and suffer them to lay it on their own shoulders, in their own
+fashion, and of their own free will. To this the perverse old mother
+would not listen for a moment; and, without pausing to reflect what
+might be the consequences, took an &AElig;tna or a Sinai from the load on
+her own shoulders, and clapped it on those of her children, who sat
+down under it plump, and sturdily refused to budge until they should
+be allowed to put it there themselves. Whereupon, this stiff-necked,
+wrong-headed old Britannia (for such was her Christian name) was
+exceeding wroth, made an outlandish noise among the nations, and even
+went so far (you will be shocked to hear) as to swear a little. Seeing
+there was no help for it but to remove this &AElig;tna, she did so with as
+good a grace as could be expected in a family-quarrel; but was so
+indiscreet and short-sighted as still to leave a very small burden,&mdash;a
+mere hillock indeed,&mdash;just by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> way, as she said, of showing that she
+had the right to load and unload them when and how it suited her
+sovereign pleasure best.</p>
+
+<p>Now, be it known, it was not the burden they had to carry of which
+these generous and high-spirited Colonies complained so bitterly; but
+that they should be denied the right of freely judging when and how
+and wherefore they were to be taxed,&mdash;a right that had been the pride
+and boast of Englishmen time out of mind. As for the matter of the
+burden, had that been all, they could have danced, ay, and blithely
+too, under &AElig;tna and Sinai both, had the load but been of their own
+choosing, of their own putting-on, and of their own adjusting.</p>
+
+<p>To add to their distress and humiliation, this hardest and
+unnaturalest of mothers now set over them judges, who were strangers
+to them, and loved them not; who were to hold their places, not, as
+theretofore, during good behavior, but at her will and pleasure.
+Another right, as dear to Englishmen as life itself, was taken from
+them,&mdash;to wit, the right of trial by jury; which gave every person,
+great or small, suspected or known to be guilty of any crime against
+the laws of the land, the privilege of a speedy trial, in open court,
+in the place where the crime may have been committed, and by a jury of
+honest and impartial men. Instead of this, the person accused was to
+be taken aboard some ship-of-war, likely as not a thousand miles from
+Christian land, and there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> tried by some authorities of the navy, who
+would know but little, and must needs care still less, concerning the
+person under trial, or his offence.</p>
+
+<p>Under these and many other oppressions and injuries, the young
+Colonies groaned grievously. But, for all that, they were not to be
+subdued or broken. Time and again, they sent petitions to this
+unkindest and wilfulest of mothers, beseeching her, in humble and
+loving and dutiful terms, to remove this degrading burden from their
+shoulders, and once more receive them as children into her maternal
+bosom; warning her, at the same time, of what must be the melancholy
+consequences, if she hearkened not to their prayers. Then was the
+time, if ever, when, by a few kind words betokening a desire for
+reconciliation, she might have secured and made fast the love of these
+devoted and affectionate children for ever; and, had she been as wise
+as she was powerful, even so would she have done. But, like the Egypt
+of olden times, she did but harden her heart against them all the
+more, even to the hardness of the nether mill-stone; and only sought
+how she could the more easily grind them into obedience and
+submission. She had grown to be mighty among the nations, this
+Britannia. Her armed legions told of her power by land; her ships of
+war and her ships of commerce whitened a hundred seas. The great sun,
+that set on every kingdom of the known earth, she boasted never went
+down on her dominion. Wherefore was she swollen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> and big with pride,
+and from a high place looked haughtily down upon the little nations at
+her feet. What height of presumption was it, then, in these
+insignificant young Colonies, struggling for bare existence off there
+on the uttermost edges of the civilized earth, thus to lift themselves
+against her sovereign will, and dare dispute her high decrees! It was
+not to be borne: she would humble them for this presumption, chastise
+them for their disobedience, and show them what a terrible thing it
+was to provoke her wrath. Her heart thus steeled to mercy, she stayed
+not her hand, but sent her hosts of armed men in her fleets of armed
+ships, to lay her heavy yoke, and fit it firm and fast on the necks of
+her rebellious children.</p>
+
+<p>Beholding this, and that it were vain to hope for reconciliation, the
+Colonies, with one voice, with one indignant voice, exclaimed, "Now,
+since our mother seems bent on treating us as slaves and strangers,
+and not as children, then are we compelled, in our own defence, to
+treat her, not as our mother, but as a stranger and our enemy. And
+bear us witness, O ye nations! how long and humbly and earnestly we
+have prayed that there should be love and peace between us and this
+our mother; and bear us witness also, that, although we now lift our
+rebellious hand against her, there is no hatred in our hearts, even
+now, but rather sorrow unspeakable, that she should at last have
+driven us to this saddest, this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> direfulest of alternatives." Then,
+moved with one spirit (that of the love of freedom), and bent on one
+purpose (that of the defence of their sacred rights), they rose in
+their young strength, and, commending their just cause to the God of
+hosts, made that last appeal,&mdash;which, to a brave and virtuous people,
+has ever been the last,&mdash;the appeal to arms. And so they did, while
+the nations looked on in wonder and applause.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAUSE OF THE QUARREL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>But, my children, I must tell you, in other and perhaps plainer words,
+what these measures were that led to such momentous results, why
+resorted to, how carried out, and by whom.</p>
+
+<p>From what you have just been told, you can have no difficulty in
+guessing that Great Britain was desperately in debt, and in the very
+mood to resort to desperate measures of delivering herself therefrom.
+Her being in this particular mood at that particular time (for it is
+only now and then that she has shown herself so unamiable) was owing
+chiefly to the fact, that she was just then under the rule, or rather
+misrule, of that narrow-minded, short-sighted, hard-fisted,
+wrong-headed man, who commonly goes in history by the name of King
+George the Third. Had he been the superintendent of a town workhouse,
+he might perhaps have acquitted himself respectably enough; or, if I
+may be so bold, he might have served a life-term as Governor of London
+Tower, and gone to his grave without any great discredit or reproach:
+but, in all human reason and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> justice, he certainly had no more
+business on the throne of England than your Uncle Juvinell himself.
+His ministers, who were of his own choosing, were vultures, of the
+same harsh, unsightly plumage, and, at his beck or nod, stood ready to
+do whatever knave's work he might have on hand,&mdash;even to the grinding
+of his people's bones to make his bread, should his royal appetite
+turn that way.</p>
+
+<p>With such men at the helm of State, it is no wonder, then, that unwise
+and oppressive measures should be resorted to for raising money, or,
+as it is more properly called in such cases, a revenue, for paying the
+debts and keeping up the expenses of the government. The first pounce
+they made was on their young Colonies in America, whom they sought to
+burden with heavy taxes laid on exports, or articles of commerce sent
+out of the country, and on imports, or articles of commerce brought
+into the country. The principal articles thus taxed were paper,
+painters' colors, glass, sugar and molasses, and tea. The tax-money or
+revenue scraped together from the sale of these articles&mdash;and which
+made them dearer to him who bought and him who sold, according to the
+amount of duty laid on&mdash;was to be gathered into the public treasury
+for the purposes aforesaid. Another plan for raising revenue, hit upon
+by these ingenious kites, was that famous one called the "Stamp Act,"
+the design of which was to compel the people of the Colonies, in order
+to make their business transactions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> good and valid, to use a certain
+kind of paper, having on it a certain stamp. Each kind of paper had
+its own particular stamp, and could only be applied to a certain
+purpose specified thereon. Thus there was a deed stamp-paper, the will
+stamp-paper, the note-of-hand and bill-of-exchange stamp-paper, the
+marriage stamp-paper; and, in short, stamp-paper for every concern in
+life requiring an instrument of writing. The paper itself was
+altogether a commodity of the government, by whom it was manufactured,
+and sold at prices varying from a few pence up to many pounds sterling
+of good, hard English money, just according to the magnitude or nature
+of the business in hand. Had it gone into effect, it must needs have
+borne on the dead as well as on the living: for, if the last will and
+testament of a deceased and lamented relative were not written on
+paper with the proper stamp, it could not have been good and valid in
+the king's eyes; and this would have led to grievous misunderstandings
+between the bereaved and affectionate heirs, and perhaps the deceased
+himself, in consequence, would have slept uneasily in his grave.</p>
+
+<p>Another oppressive measure&mdash;the design whereof, however, was for
+saving money, rather than for raising revenue&mdash;was that of quartering
+troops upon the country in time of peace; by which means they must
+needs be supported to a great extent by the people so sponged upon.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+<p>But the most brilliant stroke of all was an act forbidding the
+Colonies from trading with any foreign ports, and from manufacturing
+certain articles, lest the value and sale of the same articles
+manufactured in England, and to be sold in America, might be lowered
+or hindered thereby.</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned, how that the right of choosing their judges
+and other civil officers, and the right of trial by jury, had been
+taken from them,&mdash;measures that had a meanness and odium quite their
+own; as serving no end of profit, but merely as safety-valves, through
+which the royal bile might find vent now and then.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the good people of the Colonies, as I have hinted elsewhere,
+would not have raised the hue and outcry that they did against these
+measures, had it not been for one thing, which to them, as Englishmen,
+was all in all; to wit, the right of taxing themselves, and
+legislating or making laws for themselves through persons of their own
+choosing, called representatives. And this is, my little folks, what
+is meant by taxation, and legislation by representation, in a nation.
+You will do well to bear this in mind continually; for it is the very
+keystone to the arch of all true government.</p>
+
+<p>This right of representation, however, was denied them; for what
+earthly reason, no one, not in the secret, could imagine. As the king
+himself was never able to render a reason for any thing he did, his
+ministers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> would not for any thing they did, and the parliament dared
+not for any thing they did.</p>
+
+<p>What could they do, then, but send petitions to the king, and
+remonstrances to the parliament, complaining of, and crying out
+against, their many grievances, and deploring and demanding that they
+be removed and redressed. Although they did this with more dignity and
+respectfulness, with more clearness and ability, than the like thing
+had ever been done before, or has been since, by any people, yet their
+petitions were spurned by the king, because they were just and manly,
+and he was not; and their remonstrances went unheeded by the
+parliament, because they were wise and reasonable, and it was not.</p>
+
+<p>Failing to get redress for their grievances, the colonists resolved
+that the source of these same grievances should not be a source of
+profit to those who imposed them. To bring about this result, they, as
+one man, entered into what was called the "non-importation
+agreement,"&mdash;or, in other words, an agreement by which they solemnly
+pledged themselves to abstain from the use of all articles burdened
+with a tax, until such tax should be removed; and, furthermore, that
+they would not buy or use any thing that they were forbidden to
+manufacture themselves; and, still furthermore, that not a ship of
+theirs should trade with British ports, until the act forbidding them
+to trade with foreign ports should be repealed. Some of them, I dare
+say, would have gone so far, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> that been possible, as to pledge
+themselves not to die, until the Stamp Act, compelling them to write
+their wills on stamp-paper, was also repealed. This agreement was so
+rigidly observed, that the men took to wearing jeans, and the women
+linsey-woolseys, which they wove in their own looms; the old ladies
+drank sassafras-tea, sweetened with maple-sugar; and old gentlemen
+wrote no wills, but declared them on their death-bed to their weeping
+families by word of mouth. Whether the people stopped marrying or not,
+it is not known with certainty; but from my knowledge of human nature,
+which is extensive, I do not think I should greatly hazard my
+reputation as a historian, were I to state flatly, roundly, and
+emphatically, that it had not the least effect in that way.</p>
+
+<p>The days on which these measures were to go into effect were observed
+by the colonists as days of fasting, prayer, and humiliation. All
+business was laid aside, the shops were closed, the churches opened,
+and the church-bells tolled as on some funeral occasion; and between
+praying at church, and fasting at home, and brooding over their
+grievances, the good people were very miserable indeed. Although they
+suffered great inconvenience from their observance of the
+non-importation agreement, yet they bore it patiently and cheerfully,
+like men who felt that their cause was just and right. But the sudden
+stoppage of the immense trade that flowed from the colonial ports into
+those of the mother-country told dreadfully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> on the commerce of Great
+Britain; and British merchants and British manufacturers, and British
+people in general, soon began to suffer even more than the colonists
+themselves. Whereupon, a counter stream of petitions and remonstrances
+set in upon the king and parliament from the people at home, who
+declared that the country would be ruined, if these odious measures,
+crippling American commerce, were not speedily withdrawn. Said they,
+"If we cannot sell the Americans our broadcloths, our flannels, and
+our silks, the obstinate men of that country will stick to their
+jeans, and the perverse women to their linsey-woolseys, till we are
+undone for ever. In that one pestilent little town of Boston, our
+trade in silks alone is not so good by fifty thousand dollars a year
+as it has been heretofore: and we humbly entreat that our American
+brothers be allowed to trade with us and foreign nations as in days
+gone by; for you must see by this time with your own eyes, that we, as
+a nation, are growing poorer every day under this state of things,
+instead of richer every year as had been expected."</p>
+
+<p>The commissioners&mdash;that is to say, the persons who had been appointed
+by the British Government to bring or receive the stamp-paper, and
+give it circulation throughout the Colonies&mdash;were mobbed and pelted by
+the indignant people, whenever and wherever they made the least
+attempt to do their odious work. In consequence of this determined
+opposition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> the paper never went into circulation: so it was stocked
+away in outhouses, and there left to mould and to be eaten by rats and
+mice, if their stomachs were not too dainty for such vile provender.
+Thus this famous piece of ingenuity, the Stamp Act, had no other
+effect than that of giving the civilized world a hearty laugh, and
+increasing the British debt just so much as the paper cost, instead of
+lessening it, as its inventors, in their blind confidence, had hoped.</p>
+
+<p>Beholding how utterly had failed all their pet schemes for raising
+revenue, the narrow-minded king, and the king-minded ministry, and the
+many-minded parliament, were, so to speak, thrown on their haunches,
+and forced to eat their own folly; which, I dare say, they found less
+palatable than their roast beef and plum-pudding. In other words, they
+repealed the Stamp Act; with one stroke of the royal pen, struck off
+the taxes laid on the above-mentioned articles; and once more gave the
+Colonies full liberty to manufacture whatsoever, and re-open
+commercial intercourse with whomsoever, they chose. And thus this
+non-importation agreement worked like a charm: it brought about in a
+trice what petitions and remonstrances had failed to accomplish in
+years.</p>
+
+<p>When tidings came of what had been done at home, there was great
+rejoicing throughout the provinces: the church-bells were tolled to
+another tune than that with which they had been tolled a short time
+before;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> the good people met at church, but this time to give thanks;
+and went home, not to fast, but to feast; and were now quite as
+comfortable as they had before been miserable. But I have gone a
+little too far, however. There was one circumstance that greatly
+dampened the general feeling of joy, and made a mere thanksgiving of
+what might else have been a high-sounding jubilee. This was the tax on
+tea, which had not been struck off along with the rest, but had been
+suffered to remain; not that any great revenue was expected to arise
+therefrom, but simply to show that they&mdash;the king and parliament&mdash;had
+not disclaimed or yielded up the right to tax and burden the Colonies
+when and how they thought fit and proper. This vexed the American
+people sorely; for though the bulk of the nuisance had been taken
+away, yet all the odor still remained: or, speaking more plainly, the
+right of laying such burdens on themselves, of their own free will,
+was still denied them; and this, in fact, was the very thing that made
+it so intolerable for them to bear. "Is it," said Washington in a
+letter to a friend, "the duty of threepence per pound upon tea that we
+object to as burdensome? No; but it is the right to lay this duty upon
+ourselves for which we contend."</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, as far as the commodity tea was concerned, the people of
+the Colonies still observed the non-importation agreement. From some
+of the ports, the ships that had come over from England laden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> with
+this delightful plant were sent back, without being suffered to
+discharge their cargoes; in others, where it had been landed, it was
+not allowed to be sold, but was stowed away in cellars and the like
+out-of-the-way places, where it moulded, or became the food of rats
+and mice, whose bowels, if we may trust the testimony of some of our
+great-grandmothers, were so bound up thereby, that a terrible
+mortality set in among them, that swept them away by cart-loads.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the East-India Company, to whom had been granted the sole
+privilege of trading in tea for the space of a hundred years, if I
+remember rightly, were greatly alarmed at the consequences of the
+tea-tax. Enormous quantities of the article had begun to accumulate in
+their London warehouses, now that there was no market for it in
+America, which hitherto had fed the purse in their left-hand pocket,
+as did that in Great Britain the larger one in their right-hand
+pocket. "Something must be done," said they to themselves (they
+certainly said it to nobody else),&mdash;"something must be done, or these
+high-spirited women of America will drink their wishy-washy sassafras
+till their blood be no thicker than whey, and the purse in our
+left-hand pocket become as light and lean and lank as when we sent our
+first ship-load thither years ago." This "something to be done" was a
+loud petition to parliament, praying for speedy relief from the ruin,
+which has an uncomfortable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> fashion of staring at great mercantile
+companies, and was now staring them full in the face.</p>
+
+<p>So, putting their heads together, the king and parliament hit upon an
+ingenious plan, by which they, the East-India Company, could sell
+their tea, and the government collect the duty thereon. It was this:
+The price of the article should be so far reduced, that it would be
+lower, even with the duty on it, than, at the usual rate of sale,
+without any duty at all. This was a brilliant scheme indeed, and would
+have succeeded to admiration, had the good people of America been a
+nation of bats and geese; but, as they were not, the scheme failed
+disgracefully, as you shall presently see.</p>
+
+<p>By way of giving this plan a trial, a few ships loaded with tea were
+sent over to Boston, where they lay for some time in the harbor,
+without being permitted by the people to land their cargoes. One day,
+as if to show the king and ministers and parliament, the East-India
+Company, and the whole British nation, that they, the Americans, were,
+and had been from the very beginning, desperately in earnest in all
+that they had said and done for years past, a party, composed of about
+fifty of the most sober and respectable citizens of Boston and the
+country around, disguised themselves as Indians, and went aboard these
+ships. Not a word was to be heard among them; but, keeping a grim and
+ominous silence, they ranged the vessel from stem to stern, ransacked
+their cargoes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> broke open the tea-chests, and, pouring their contents
+into the sea, made the fishes a dish of tea, which is said to have had
+the same effect on them as on the rats and mice. This done with
+perfect coolness and sobriety, the party returned to their homes as
+orderly and silent as they had come; not the first movement towards a
+mob or tumult having been made by the people during the whole
+proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>This affair, commonly known in history as the Boston Tea-party, and
+which took place in 1774, overwhelmed his majesty with stupid
+astonishment, threw his ministers into fits of foaming rage, fell like
+a thunder-clap upon the House of Parliament, and effectually
+demolished the last forlorn hope of the East-India Company. The spirit
+of resistance on the part of the Colonies had now been carried to such
+a length, that the home-government determined to send over the
+military to awe them by the terror of its presence into obedience to
+their unreasonable and oppressive demands; and, should not this be
+found sufficient, to compel them into submission by the force of its
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, woful, woful, that ever a tyrant should live to keep his
+dragon-watch on the birth of the free-born thought, the independent
+wish, and ere the full, clear light of heaven descend upon it, warming
+it into strength and beauty, to seize and crush it into slavish fear,
+and love and justice without power to stay his impious hand!</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>With what deep and earnest interest Washington watched the course of
+these momentous events may be readily imagined, if we reflect how much
+of his life had been already spent in the service of the public, and
+how near he had ever kept the good and welfare of his native land at
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a mere looker-on, but one of those who had in the very
+beginning shown themselves ready to enter, heart and hand and fortune,
+into all just and lawful measures of resistance to oppression in every
+shape and form; but, with his usual modesty, forbearing to push
+himself forward, which served, no doubt, to add to his example still
+greater weight and influence, and make it all the more illustrious. He
+rigidly observed the non-importation agreement, and was, in fact, one
+of the first to propose its adoption; and none of the articles therein
+named were to be seen in his house until the odious burdens laid
+thereon had been removed.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+<p>Little or no lasting good, however, could be expected from these, or
+indeed any measures, unless the Colonies should come to a clearer and
+fuller understanding, one with another, touching the troubles that
+concerned all equally and alike. To bring this much-to-be-wished-for
+end about, it was resolved that a general assembly of all the Colonies
+should be called, wherein each province, through its representatives
+chosen by the people thereof, should have a voice. As the first step
+towards this object, conventions were summoned in the various
+provinces, the members whereof had the authority to choose from among
+their number those who were to be their representatives or
+mouth-pieces in this great Colonial Assembly, since known in history
+as the Old Continental Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Patrick Henry (the great American orator), Mr. Pendleton, and
+Washington were those appointed to represent Virginia. Accordingly,
+about the middle of September, 1774, these three Congress-men set out
+together on horseback for Philadelphia, the place of meeting. Arrived
+here, Washington found assembled the first talent, wisdom, and virtue
+of the land. It was to him a sublime spectacle indeed,&mdash;that of the
+people of many widely separated provinces thus met together to give
+voice and expression to what they felt to be their sacred rights as
+freemen and free Englishmen. To add still greater solemnity to their
+proceedings, and give their cause the stamp of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> the just and righteous
+cause they felt it to be, it was resolved to open the business of each
+day with prayer. Next morning, there came a report that Boston had
+been cannonaded by the king's troops, who had been stationed there for
+many weeks past. Although this afterwards turned out to be false, yet,
+at the time, it had a most beneficial effect, in drawing still nearer
+together those who but the day before had met as strangers, by
+impressing their minds with a still deeper sense of the sacredness of
+the trust imposed on them by their country, and by bringing more
+directly home to them their common danger, and dependence one upon
+another. The minister, before offering up his prayer, took up the
+Bible to read a passage therefrom, and, as if providentially, opened
+at the thirty-fifth Psalm, which seemed to have been written expressly
+for this great occasion, and began thus: "Plead my cause, O Lord, with
+them that strive with me; fight against them that fight against me."
+What wonder, then, that, under circumstances like these, they should
+feel their hearts joined together in stronger, holier bonds of union,
+as they knelt side by side on that memorable morning, commending their
+just cause to the Ruler of nations? For several minutes after they had
+resumed their seats, a profound and solemn silence reigned throughout
+the house; each looking the other in the face, as if uncertain how to
+set about the great work that had brought them together, and no one
+willing to open the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>Assembly. The silence was becoming painful and
+embarrassing; when Patrick Henry at length arose, and began addressing
+the House, at first in a faltering voice and hesitating manner, which
+soon, however, as he warmed with his subject, gave place to a bolder,
+higher strain, till, long before he had ended, the hearts of his
+hearers were thrilled with a flow of eloquence, the like of which none
+present had ever heard before; and, when it ceased, each felt that he
+had just been listening to the greatest orator, not of Virginia only,
+but of all America. The burden of his declamation was the oppressive
+and unlawful system of taxation devised by Great Britain against her
+American Colonies; the severe restriction laid on their commerce; the
+abolition of the right of trial by jury, and of choosing their own
+judges; the danger that must ever threaten their liberties, if they
+suffered troops of war to be quartered upon them in times of peace;
+and, above all, that they should be denied the right of taxing
+themselves, of making their own laws, and of regulating their internal
+concerns, as seemed to their judgment wise and proper, through
+representatives of their own choosing. To get redress for these and
+similar grievances, was the chief, and, I may say, the only object for
+which this first Congress had been called; for at that time, and for a
+long time after, no one harbored such a thought as that of breaking
+with the mother-country, with a view of achieving their independence.
+To this end, they now applied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> themselves with deep and sober
+earnestness, and brought to their work all the resources that their
+wisdom and experience could command.</p>
+
+<p>The first session of the Old Continental Congress lasted fifty-one
+days. Such was the decorum with which they conducted their
+proceedings, such the eloquence, force, and precision with which they
+set forth their grievances, such the temperate and dignified tone that
+marked their petitions to the king, and such the manliness, firmness,
+and unwavering constancy with which they persisted in battling for
+their right as freemen to be represented in the councils of the
+nation, that thousands of their brothers across the Atlantic were
+filled with wonder and admiration. And here, for once and for all, be
+it known to you, my dear children, and, in justice to the British
+nation as a people, never fail hereafter to bear it in mind, that
+there were many, very many, perhaps a large majority, of our English
+uncles, who deeply sympathized with our fathers in their troubles, and
+heartily condemned the oppressive burdens heaped upon them by the king
+and his ministers. Even in the House of Parliament itself were there
+many of the greatest spirits of that age, who had all along opposed
+these harsh and unjust measures of the government towards the
+Colonies, and were now so impressed with all that marked the
+proceedings of this first Colonial Congress, that they exerted
+themselves in behalf of their oppressed brothers in America with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> more
+zeal than ever before, and pleaded their cause in strains of eloquence
+that shall ring in our ears, and dwell in our hearts, till history
+shall tell us we have ceased to be a nation.</p>
+
+<p>And well indeed they might admire and praise; for what with the
+eloquence of such men as Henry and Rutledge, the learning of such men
+as Hancock and Adams, the wisdom of such men as Washington, and the
+pure and exalted character of them all, it was a body of men, the like
+of which had never before assembled together in any age or country.</p>
+
+<p>Patrick Henry, upon being asked who was the greatest man in the
+Congress, replied, "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South
+Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but, if you speak of solid
+information and sound judgment, Col. Washington is, beyond all
+question, the greatest man on that floor." Had Mr. Rutledge been asked
+the same question, he would as readily have pronounced Patrick Henry
+the greatest orator, as indeed he was.</p>
+
+<p>Bent on one common object, encompassed by dangers that threatened all
+alike, and glowing with the same ardent and heroic spirit, they seemed
+for the time to have quite forgotten that they were the natives and
+representatives of many different and widely separated provinces, and
+to think that they were, as Patrick Henry happily expressed it, not
+Carolinians, not Pennsylvanians, not Virginians, so much as that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> they
+were Americans; and had been sent there, not so much to represent the
+will and wishes of the people of their respective provinces, as of
+those of the whole American people. Thus Union became the watchword
+throughout the Colonies. And by union alone were they able to make a
+stand against tyranny; by it alone came off victorious in the end; by
+it alone won for themselves a place among the nations; and by it alone
+can their posterity hope to hold that place as a powerful, free, and
+happy people.</p>
+
+<p>Having done all that could be done for the present, the Congress was
+adjourned, and the members returned to their homes to await the result
+of the petitions and remonstrances they had sent on to the king and
+parliament. Although these were couched in moderate and respectful
+terms, expressing their unaltered attachment to the king and his
+family, deploring that there should be aught but peace and good-will
+between them, and entreating him not to drive his children to the
+dreadful alternative of taking up arms in their defence, yet, like
+those that had gone before them, they were received with contempt or
+indifference, and failed to awaken in the king's mind any sentiment of
+mercy, or desire on the part of the parliament for reconciliation with
+their younger brothers in America. Here was the last, the golden
+opportunity, wherein, by an act of simple justice, by an expression of
+Christian kindness, they might have won back to obedience and love
+this much-injured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> people; but under the mistaken and fatal belief
+that they were all-powerful, and that, if they yielded up these
+pretended rights, the colonists would never rest until they had thrown
+off and trampled under foot all authority, they suffered it to pass
+unheeded, lost for ever.</p>
+
+<p>A short time after the adjournment of Congress, at a second Virginia
+Convention, held at Richmond, Patrick Henry, in closing one of the
+grandest efforts he ever made, thus boldly declared his mind: "The
+time of reconciliation is past; the time for action is at hand. It is
+useless to send further petitions to the government, or to await the
+result of those already addressed to the throne. We must fight, Mr.
+Speaker: I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the
+God of hosts is all that is left us!" The great orator did but give
+voice to the feelings and sentiments of thousands of pure patriots,
+among whom was Washington, who represented his district in this
+convention also. No one regretted more sincerely than he that they
+were thus compelled to take up the sword as the only remedy of their
+wrongs and grievances. In his own mind, he had fully resolved, if
+needful, to devote his life and fortune to the cause; and was willing,
+he told his brother, to arm and equip a thousand men at his own
+expense, and lead them to the succor of Boston, at that time blockaded
+by the British fleet. Grave and thoughtful, and pondering deeply all
+these things, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> went to his home; and, in this frame of mind, the
+winter months passed slowly by.</p>
+
+<p>It was now apparent to all, that open hostilities between the Colonies
+and the mother-country were no longer avoidable; and on the nineteenth
+of April, 1775, the battle of Lexington announced to the world that
+the first blood of a desperate struggle had been shed, and that civil
+war, with all its train of horrors, had begun.</p>
+
+<p>When the tidings reached Mount Vernon, the impressions made on
+Washington's mind were solemn and profound, if we may judge from a
+letter written at the time, in which he says, "Unhappy it is to
+reflect, that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's
+breast, and that the once-peaceful plains of America are to be
+drenched with blood, or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can
+a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?" Early in May, as he was just
+on the eve of setting out for Philadelphia to take his seat in the
+second session of the Congress, news reached him of the capture of
+Ticonderoga by Col. Ethan Allen. It was a brilliant little exploit
+enough, and the very kind to raise undue expectations in the many, who
+looked no further into the future than to-night, when it is yet
+evening; but it could have no other effect than to deepen the
+thoughtfulness of a mind like Washington's, that could look through
+the glare of these accidental hits of war, and behold the untried
+perils still further beyond.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+<p>As the war had now begun in earnest, so dreaded and deeply deplored by
+all the good men, as the only remedy left to their distress, the
+deliberations of the second Congress turned chiefly on the devising of
+means for their defence and safety. Towards this object, nothing
+effectual could be done till some person was fixed upon to be the
+leader of the army, which they had yet, in large measure, to raise,
+arm, and equip.</p>
+
+<p>There were not a few, who, for age, talent, experience, fortune, and
+social position, as well as for the sacrifices they had already made
+to the cause, were, in the opinion of their friends, and perhaps in
+that of their own, justly entitled to this high distinction. After
+some time spent in viewing the matter in all its bearings, and
+carefully weighing the claims of each, without being able to fix upon
+a choice, John Adams decided the question by addressing the House to
+the following effect: That the person intrusted with a place of such
+importance to Americans must be a native-born American; a man of large
+fortune, in order to give him a strong personal interest in the issue
+of the contest, and the means of carrying it on; he should be a man of
+military experience, and accustomed to the government of large bodies
+of men; he should be of tried integrity and patriotism, of great
+courage and bodily endurance, and known ability; and a resident of
+some central province, that in him might be blended the extreme
+interests of North and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> South, which would tend to lessen the
+jealousies of the two sections, and harmonize them, as it were, into
+one. Such a province was Virginia, and such a man was Col. Washington;
+whom, therefore, he commended to the favor and consideration of the
+Honorable House.</p>
+
+<p>Before this address was ended, Washington, perceiving that he was the
+person on the point of being singled out, rose from his seat, much
+agitated and embarrassed, and hastily quitted the House.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, Mr. Adams's recommendation was acted upon; and the
+House, without a single dissenting voice, chose <span class="smcap">George Washington</span> to
+be <i>Commander-in-chief</i> of all the army of the United Colonies, with
+the salary of six thousand dollars a year. In his reply, Washington
+expressed his grateful sense of so signal a proof of the confidence
+reposed in him by his countrymen, and added,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"But lest some unfortunate event should happen, unfavorable to
+my reputation, I beg that it may be remembered by every
+gentleman in this room, that I this day declare, with the
+utmost sincerity, that I do not think myself equal to the
+command I am honored with. As to pay, I beg leave to assure the
+Congress, that, as no pecuniary consideration could have
+tempted me to accept of this employment at the expense of my
+domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit
+of it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses: these, I
+doubt not, they will discharge; and that is all I desire."</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+<p>In a letter to Mrs. Washington, informing her of the great change thus
+made in his destiny, he deplores the hard necessity that makes it his
+duty to give up the sweet pleasures of home and her society; and
+exhorts her, in affectionate language, to bear up under their
+separation with cheerfulness and fortitude; at the same time giving
+her the gratifying assurance, that with her he could have more
+happiness at Mount Vernon in one month, than he could hope to find
+without her, were he to remain abroad seven times seven years. From
+the tone of this letter, she must readily have guessed that the place
+was not one of his own seeking.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, on the 21st of June, General Washington,&mdash;for so we must
+now call him,&mdash;having received his commission, set out to take command
+of the American army, then lying before Boston, which, being occupied
+by the king's troops, was in a state of siege. A company of
+Pennsylvania light-horse escorted him from Philadelphia to New York,
+where he was received with all the honor due, not only to the high
+station he had been called to fill, but also to his exalted character
+and distinguished abilities. Here he heard further particulars of the
+battle of Bunker's Hill, fought near Boston a few days before. From
+New York, the general-in-chief proceeded to Boston, and was greeted
+everywhere on the way with the greatest enthusiasm by the people, who
+came streaming in from all quarters to behold the man into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> whose
+keeping had been intrusted the destinies of America.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, my dear children, I have brought you, step by step, up to that
+great event in Washington's life when his character and actions were
+to be subjected to the gaze and scrutiny, not only of his own age and
+country, but of all ages to come, and of all the nations of
+Christendom.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+<hr class="section" />
+<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Here Uncle Juvinell paused, and, with a countenance of undisturbed
+sobriety, emptied his ninth mug. In justice, however, to the good man,
+this pattern of old-fashioned gentility, it must be borne in mind,
+that the mug was a Dutch mug, and consequently a small one (as indeed
+are all things Dutch, from clocks to cheeses); and also that, small as
+it was, he never more than half filled it, except once or twice in the
+course of an evening, when he would gird up his loins, as it were,
+with a brimmer to help him over some passage in his story of unusual
+knottiness and difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Willie (whose surname should have been fox or weasel or lynx), having
+heretofore divided his attention between what his uncle imparted and
+what he imbibed, had, by careful counting, discovered that the ninth
+mug invariably closed their evening lessons: so, without waiting for
+any further signal that such was now the case, he alertly bounced from
+his chair, and, snatching up a basket of big red apples that black
+daddy had just brought in and set on the hearth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> began handing them
+round to the rest of the company with a great show of playing the
+polite and obliging, but taking care, when unobserved, to pick out the
+largest and mellowest one of them all for himself, and smuggle it
+under his coat-tail. When all were helped, he reset the basket on the
+hearth, and with a grand flourish, unmasking his royal red, opened
+wide his mouth, as if he would have bolted it whole: but, seeming to
+think better of it, he carefully laid it in Uncle Juvinell's mug,
+which it exactly filled, saying as he did so, "It goes to my heart to
+part with you; but only the king of historians is worthy to enjoy the
+queen of apples." Then, plunging his hand into the basket, he snatched
+up another, hap-hazard, and began eating it with savage voracity, as
+if made reckless by this act of self-denial. Re-seating himself as he
+had chosen his apple, hap-hazard, he missed his chair, and keeled
+over, bringing his heels in the air where his head should have been,
+and his head on the rug where the dog and cat were, and the
+half-munched plug in his mouth, plump into his windpipe, so as to
+almost strangle him out of his breeches, and cause his buttons to fly
+like grains from a corn-cob when thrown into a corn-sheller. Of
+course, all the little folks fairly screamed with laughter, in which
+even Uncle Juvinell could not help joining right heartily: nor would
+he venture upon the broad wedge which he had cut out of his apple,
+till his chuckle was well ended; when he remarked,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> that "Willie was
+one of the boys we read about." To which Willie, picking himself up
+again, replied, that "he rather thought he was not, just then, but
+perhaps would be as soon as he could get back some of the breath he
+had lost, and gather up the buttons he had shed." Then, drawing down
+his waistcoat from under his arm-pits to hide a breadth of white
+muslin not usually intended for the eyes of a mixed company, he
+reseated himself with such care and circumspection, that the middle
+seam of his breeches tallied exactly with the middle round of the
+chair-back, and began mincing and nibbling his apple delicately like a
+sheep, as if to show that he meant to profit by the lesson his fit of
+strangling had taught him.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while, when he saw that the children had had their fill
+of laughter and red apples, Uncle Juvinell wiped the blade of his
+knife with his bandanna, and said, "And now, my darlings, don't you
+think we are getting along swimmingly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Swimmingly!" they all chimed in with one voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Gloriously?" again inquired Uncle Juvinell.</p>
+
+<p>"Gloriously!" cried all the children at once, as pat to their uncle's
+words as an echo to the sound. Whereupon the old gentleman's
+spectacles shone with a lustre that was charming to see. In a moment
+after, however, Bryce, the pugnacious urchin of ten, expressed himself
+a little disappointed that they had had so much building of forts, and
+digging and cutting of roads, and so much scouting and marching,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> and
+so much getting ready to fight, and yet withal so little downright
+fighting.</p>
+
+<p>"You quite forget, Bryce, that affair of Grant's defeat there at Fort
+Duquesne," said Willie. "In my opinion, that was a very decent,
+respectable piece of bloodshed; and quite as good as Braddock's
+disaster, as far as it goes."</p>
+
+<p>"How heartless you must be, Willie, to speak so lightly of such
+horrible things!" exclaimed Miss Laura with a look of refined disgust.
+"To my mind, Washington's courtship and wedding, and the pleasant life
+he led at Mount Vernon, are more entertaining than all your dismal
+battles."</p>
+
+<p>"And those charming barge-rides by moonlight," chimed in Ella, "that
+the old Virginia planters used to take when they visited each other up
+and down the Potomac."</p>
+
+<p>"You are welcome to your courtships and your weddings and your
+boat-rides by moonlight," cried Willie, turning up his nose; "but I
+would not have given a good fox-hunt with old Lord Fairfax for any of
+them: and what a glorious fellow Washington must have been, with his
+fine horses and his fine dogs, and his jumping twenty-one feet seven
+inches at a bound!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Willie! how can you be so wanting in respect as to call such a
+man as Washington '<i>fellow</i>'?" exclaimed Laura, with a look of pious
+horror. "I am astonished at you!"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+<p>"But I said he was glorious; didn't I now, Miss Over-nice?" retorted
+Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Cousin Laura, William, is quite right in what she says,"
+observed Uncle Juvinell, with something like severity in his look and
+tone. "We should never speak of the good and great in other terms than
+those of esteem and reverence; for the effect of such a habit is to
+cultivate in ourselves those very qualities of mind and heart which
+make them worthy of our love and admiration."</p>
+
+<p>Willie was somewhat abashed by this mild rebuke, and apologized in a
+dumb way by coughing a time or two behind his slate.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle," inquired Ella, "is transcendentalism an art or a science?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can tell you what that is, Ella," Daniel made haste to put
+in; for he never let an opportunity slip of showing off what he knew
+to the best advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not call upon you for information, Mr. Wiseacre," said Ella, a
+little nettled at her brother's air of superior wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," cried Uncle Juvinell, "let us listen, and be wise.
+Come, give us the benefit of your knowledge, Daniel, touching this
+important matter."</p>
+
+<p>"I overheard father say to you the other day," replied Daniel, without
+hesitation, "that your transcendentalism, uncle, was an equal mixture
+of opium, moonshine, fog, and sick-man's dreams."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Good! you have hit it exactly!" cried Uncle Juvinell; "and, to reward
+you for your diligence in picking up and storing away such precious
+bits of knowledge, I promise you for your next Christmas present a
+gilt-edged copy of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you very much, dear uncle," replied Dannie; "but, if it makes
+no difference with you, I would prefer 'Josephus' to 'Bunyan.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly, my dear nephew; it shall be as you wish,"
+replied Uncle Juvinell, a little provoked with himself for having been
+so thoughtless as to overlook the fact, that Daniel, being a
+curly-headed, Jewish boy, was not likely to be much interested in the
+ups and downs of good old Christian's doleful pilgrimage.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, uncle," cried John, who had an ear for rhyme, "what is meant
+by taxation, and legislation by representation, in a nation. Is it
+sense, or only poetry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bad poetry, but mighty good sense, my little boy," replied Uncle
+Juvinell; "and, if you will be right attentive, I will endeavor to
+make clear to you what is meant thereby. In a popular form of
+government,&mdash;such as the one we live under,&mdash;the people tax
+themselves, and make laws for themselves, through persons chosen by
+themselves, and from among themselves, to serve for a certain term of
+months or years in our State Legislatures or in our National
+Congress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> as the case may be. The persons whom the people thus
+authorize to tax them and make laws, or, as it is otherwise termed, to
+legislate for them, representing, as they do, the will, desires, and
+wants of the communities by whom they are chosen, are called
+representatives; and hence the phrase, 'taxation, and representation
+by legislation.'"</p>
+
+<p>"In a nation," added Johnnie, by way of giving it a finish, and to
+show that it was all as clear as day to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in a nation and a state too," rejoined Uncle Juvinell, with a
+merry twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you have the kindness, uncle," said Dannie, "to tell us the
+difference between a legislature and a congress and a parliament?"</p>
+
+<p>"In our own country," replied Uncle Juvinell, "a legislature is the
+law-making assembly of a State, and Congress is the law-making
+assembly of the whole nation; while Parliament is the great law-making
+or legislative assembly of Great Britain and Ireland. The rules and
+regulations in all these bodies are quite similar; and, besides being
+vested with the power of laying taxes and making laws, they perform
+other services necessary to the safety and welfare of the state or
+nation. Thus the old Continental Congress was composed of
+representatives from all the thirteen States, which entitled each,
+through its representation, to one vote, and to equal weight and
+influence with the rest, in the acts and deliberations of this
+assembly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> no matter what may have been its size and population,
+whether large or small; nor what the number of its representatives,
+whether one or several."</p>
+
+<p>"And will you also tell me, uncle, wherein a convention differs from
+all these legislative assemblies?" said Daniel, grappling manfully
+with the tall words, but staggering under them nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply not being legislative at all, as the term is now generally
+used in our country," replied Uncle Juvinell. "A convention is a body
+of men assembled together as representatives of a party or state or
+nation, for some special purpose, such as the formation of a new State
+Constitution, or for making changes in an old one, or to give
+expression to the views and designs of a party, and to nominate
+candidates to the various offices of the government; which purpose
+being effected, they are dissolved, and cease to exist or to have any
+legal force."</p>
+
+<p>"And why, uncle, was the name 'Continental' given to our first
+Congress?" inquired Willie.</p>
+
+<p>"To distinguish it from the Congress of the several States, and as the
+one in which the common interest and welfare of all the States of the
+continent were represented," was Uncle Juvinell's reply; and then he
+added, "And hence the same term was applied to whatever belonged to
+the States conjointly, and grew out of their union or confederation.
+Thus, for example, besides the Continental Congress, there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>
+Continental Army, raised, equipped, and supported at the joint expense
+of all the States, and subject in a great measure to the control of
+the Continental Congress. And there was the Continental uniform, which
+was the uniform worn by an officer or a soldier of the Continental
+Army. And there was the Continental currency, which was the
+paper-money issued and put into circulation by the Continental
+Congress, all the States unitedly holding themselves accountable for
+its redemption in specie; or, in other words, binding themselves,
+after having gained their independence as a nation, to take it back at
+the value specified thereon, and giving to those who held it gold and
+silver in exchange. But more of this in another place."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is a minister, uncle?" inquired Laura. "And what is a
+commissioner, uncle?" chimed in Ella. "And what is a revenue, uncle?"
+put in Charlie. "And what is a remonstrance, uncle?" inquired Bryce,
+following up the attack.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold, you rogues! and one at a time!" cried Uncle Juvinell. "A
+minister, Laura, in the sense in which we have been using the term, is
+a high officer of State, intrusted with the control and management of
+some office or department of the national government, such as that of
+the navy or war or treasury or commerce or foreign affairs. All the
+ministers, taken collectively, make up what is called the ministry;
+who, besides discharging the duties of their respective<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> offices, are
+also expected to serve as counsellors to the king, and aid him in
+carrying out the measures of the government. A commissioner, Ella, is
+an agent appointed and authorized by another, or a number of others,
+or a State, to transact some business of a private or public
+character, as the case may be. A revenue, Charlie, is the income or
+yearly sum of money of a State, raised from taxes on the people or
+their property, from duties on foreign merchandise imported into the
+country, and from the sale of public lands and other sources, to meet
+the expenses of the government. A remonstrance, Bryce, is a
+setting-forth in strong terms, either by writing or by word of mouth,
+the facts and reasons against something complained of or opposed, as
+unjust, unwise, or unadvisable."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't imagine," said Daniel, with the air of one who had weighed
+well in his own mind a matter of importance, "what advantage to
+themselves or to the nation George the Third and his ministers could
+have expected, when they laid those heavy taxes on their American
+Colonies, then took from them the power to pay them by crippling their
+commerce and putting a stop to their manufactures; and it seems
+strange to me that Englishmen could ever have denied to Englishmen the
+rights and liberties of Englishmen, without having something more to
+gain." Here Daniel broke down, and scratched his head; and Uncle
+Juvinell, with an approving, good-humored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> smile, replied, "Those very
+questions, Daniel, have puzzled many an older head than yours, and
+many a wiser head than mine; and, indeed, some of the most learned
+historians, who have written about these matters, have expressed
+themselves perplexed at this strange conduct of the king and his
+ministers, and have been able to account for it only on the
+supposition, that they were all, for the time being, bereft of their
+wits, and therefore rendered incapable of foreseeing the tremendous
+consequences of their unjust and ill-judged measures."</p>
+
+<p>Much gratified at the interest the little folks had taken in such dry
+matters, and seeing that they had no more questions to put to him, and
+that some of the smaller ones were already nodding in their chairs,
+Uncle Juvinell, by way of winding up the evening's entertainment,
+concluded thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Some of you, my dear children, have read how good Christian, in his
+pilgrimage to the Celestial City, went on sometimes sighingly,
+sometimes comfortably, until he came to the foot of a hill called
+Difficulty, where he found three roads to choose between. The one to
+the right went around the bottom of the hill, and led into a
+wilderness of dark woods, out of which no one ever found his way again
+after venturing therein. The one to the left went likewise around the
+bottom of the hill, and led into a wilderness of dark mountains, which
+was even more difficult to escape from than the one to the right. But
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> middle road, which was narrow and straight, went right up the
+steep and flinty sides of the hill, and was the route that led direct
+to Mount Zion. Not being the man to flinch from any difficulty,
+however great, good Christian hesitated not a moment to choose the
+middle road; and accordingly he fell from running to walking, and from
+walking to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and
+knees, till he had made his way to the top. Here, as you must well
+remember, there met his view a stately palace called Beautiful, kept
+by a company of prim, precise, proper, prudent, and pious maiden
+ladies, who gave our weary pilgrim a cordial but well-considered
+reception, and, besides admitting him to the hospitalities of the
+house gratis, entertained him with a variety of pleasing and edifying
+discourse. And you have not forgotten, either, how, when they had a
+clear morning, these discreet and well-ordered damsels, to reward him
+for the zeal and diligence with which he had heretofore pursued his
+journey, as well as to encourage him to still further effort, led him
+up to the top of their house, whence he might have a delightful view
+of the Delectable Mountains, far, far away. And you also still hear in
+mind, how poor Christian must needs pass through the dismal Vale of
+Humiliation, and there meet in deadly fight the terrible monster
+Apollyon; then through the Valley and Shadow of Death, with all its
+doleful sights and sounds; then through the wicked city of Vanity
+Fair;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> then through the gloomy domains of Doubting Castle and Giant
+Despair,&mdash;all before he could hope to set foot on these Delectable
+Mountains of Emanuel's land.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, do you not see, my dear children, that not altogether unlike
+good Christian's case, at this stage of his journey, is that of our
+own at this point of our story? But a little while ago we were
+trudging along, sometimes heavily, sometimes swimmingly, till by and
+by we reached the bottom of our Hill Difficulty; by which, of course,
+you understand me to mean the causes that brought about our
+Revolutionary War. And here, had we gone to the right or the left, we
+should most assuredly have wandered into a wilderness of romance and
+Brobdignagian wonders, among whose mazes we would have become
+entangled beyond all reasonable hope of escape. But our eyes were
+opened to our danger; and like good Christian, by whose example we
+might profit oftener than we do, we knew in what direction lay our
+best interest, and were not to be enticed astray by the prospect of
+ease or novelty, nor turned back by flinty facts and rough realities.
+So straightway up the difficult hill we marched, lofty and steep as it
+was; and hardly left a stone unturned till we had scrambled to the
+top. This gained, we have felt it our privilege to halt and rest a
+while, and refresh ourselves with a little pleasing and edifying
+discourse, one with another, touching what we have seen or heard in
+the course of our journey.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+<p>"We have thus surmounted the most tedious and difficult part of our
+story. But still there lies before us many a hard-fought battle, many
+an irksome siege, many a forlorn retreat, many a gloomy winter-camp,
+and many a season of doubt and discouragement, privation and dire
+calamity, through which we must pass before we can hope to set our
+weary feet on the Delectable Mountains of Freemen's Land, smiling
+invitingly beyond. But to reward you for the diligent attention with
+which you have followed me thus far, as well as to entice you to
+trudge on to the end, I will, from this elevated point, unfold to your
+view a glimpse of this glorious region, ere 'the war-clouds rolling
+dun' from the plains of Lexington and the heights of Bunker's Hill
+have too much obscured our morning sky.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"See yon land of shining mountains,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Stately forests, verdant dells,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sun-bright rivers, sparkling fountains,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Healthful breezes, balmy smells,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Golden grain-fields, pleasant meadows,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Fruitful orchards, gardens fair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lasting sunshine, fleeting shadows!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Freedom dwells for ever there!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hark! what song is that high swelling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Like an anthem dropped from heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of some joyful tidings telling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Some rich boon to mankind given?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Tis a happy people, singing<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thanks for Freedom's victory won;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Valley, forest, mountain, ringing<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With one name,&mdash;great Washington.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through distress, through tribulation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through the lowering clouds of war,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They have risen to be a nation:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Freedom shines, their morning-star.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would we reach those realms of glory,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Would we join that righteous band,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We must speed us in our story:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Come, let's on to Freemen's Land!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next evening, the little folks, upon repairing to the library,
+found their Uncle Juvinell seated, as was his wont, cross-legged in
+his great arm-chair, looking with a fixed and absent gaze into 'the
+glowing embers of the fire,' as if his thoughts were far away.</p>
+
+<p>In his hand he held an open letter which he had just brought from the
+post-office, in the contents whereof, it was evident, he had found
+somewhat of a painful character; for a slight shadow had dimmed the
+brightness of his otherwise placid countenance. So rare a thing as
+that of a cloud on their good old uncle's sunny face caught their
+notice at once; and instead of gathering round him in their usual
+coaxing, teasing, bantering, frolicsome way, they seated themselves
+quietly on either hand, and awaited in respectful silence until he
+should rise to the surface of the deep brown-study into which he
+seemed to be plunged. But the longer he sat, the harder he looked at
+the fire, and the deeper he sank into his revery, till the little
+folks began to fear that it would be a full hour before he would reach
+the bottom and come up again.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
+<p>Daniel, the young historian, sat watching his uncle's countenance with
+his sharp black eyes, expecting each moment to hear him break the
+silence with, "After the battle of Bunker's Hill;" or, "Washington,
+upon his arrival at Boston;" or something to that effect. But, last in
+his own thoughts, Uncle Juvinell still sat cross-legged in his
+arm-chair, and spoke not a word. At last, just by way of reminding him
+that a select and highly enlightened audience were in waiting to hear
+him, Willie softly arose from his chair, and, filling the little Dutch
+mug to the brim with rich brown cider, offered it to his uncle, with a
+forward duck of the head and a backward jerk of the heel, which he, no
+doubt, intended for a genteel bow. Uncle Juvinell took it; but set it
+again, with an absent air, untasted on the table. Then, drawing his
+spectacles down from his forehead, he again perused the letter he held
+in his hand, with earnest attention, the shadow on his brow deepening
+as he read.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, he laid it on the table, and finally broke the
+long silence; his first words falling like ice-water on the ears of
+the little folks.</p>
+
+<p>"Sad news for you, my dear children; sad news for us all! I have just
+received a letter from my old friend and kinsman, Peter Parley, of
+whom you have all heard so much, and to whom, for the many delightful
+books he has written, the younger generations of America are more
+indebted than perhaps to any man now living. In his letter he tells
+me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> that, owing to his declining health, and increasing years, he has
+ceased his literary labors altogether, and betaken himself to New
+Orleans, in whose milder climate he hopes he may, in some measure,
+recruit his failing powers. What he says in addition to this I will
+give you in his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The effects of that unlucky fall on the ice, while crossing
+Boston Common, so many years ago, I have felt in my right hip,
+to a greater or less degree, ever since; and within the past
+year my lameness has so much increased as to have become a
+matter of much anxiety to my friends, and some uneasiness to
+myself. Taking this in connection with the growing infirmities
+of age, I sometimes have a foreboding that I shall never return
+to Boston alive.</p>
+
+<p>"Under this impression, I now write you, my Cousin Juvinell,
+entreating you, as my nearest living kinsman and much-beloved
+friend, to come and see me at this place, and sojourn here with
+me, until, in the wisdom of a kind Providence, it be determined
+whether my span of life is to be shortened or lengthened yet a
+little more. It will be a comfort to me to have you by my side
+at the closing scene; and it may be that your cheerful presence
+and sunny humor will do more to revive me than I can hope for
+even from this mild, pleasant Louisiana air.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that your compliance with my request will for a season
+prove a serious interruption to the enjoyment of the little
+folks in your vicinity, whom you have taken under your wing,
+and to whose entertainment and instruction so much of your
+useful life is devoted. But they will,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> I am sure, without
+hesitation, make this sacrifice in behalf of one who has for
+many long years labored so hard and faithfully for their
+happiness and improvement. Commend me kindly to them. Hoping to
+see you at an early day, I remain, as ever, your affectionate
+friend and kinsman,</p>
+
+<div class="right">"<span class="smcap">Peter Parley</span>."</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Uncle Juvinell went on: "I am gratified, my dear children, to see in
+your grateful and sympathetic looks, saddened and disappointed though
+I know you really to be, that you are ready and willing to sacrifice
+what pleasure and entertainment my company and conversation may afford
+you, to the comfort and wishes of this venerated and excellent man. My
+going-away at this moment will, it is true, cause a sad interruption
+to our story of the life of Washington; but next Christmas, if we all
+be spared, and your Uncle Juvinell keep his memory fresh and green, we
+will gather together again in this very room, and take it up where we
+now drop it, and follow it through all its eventful changes to the
+glorious and happy end. Meanwhile, ponder well in your minds what I
+have already told you of the childhood, youth, and early prime of this
+illustrious man. And after all, now that I give the matter a second
+thought, we could not have been interrupted at a more suitable place;
+for the account I have given up to this point needs scarcely a single
+important particular to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> it a complete and separate story. We
+have followed him step by step, and seen how he rose, first from the
+boy-farmer to the youthful surveyor, from that to the young colonel,
+from that to the legislator of more mature years, and lastly from that
+to commander-in-chief of the armies of a young and rising nation.</p>
+
+<p>"The history of his career after this period is, in fact, so closely
+connected with that of his country, as to be altogether inseparable
+from it.</p>
+
+<p>"And again I repeat, ponder well in your minds what I have already
+told you, as being, after all, the part most necessary for you at
+present to know. Ever strive to keep his example before your eyes,
+ever to cherish his virtues in your hearts. Like him, be industrious
+in your habits, diligent in your studies, polite in your manners,
+orderly in your dress, peaceable in your disposition, upright in your
+dealings, faithful in your friendships, patient under trials,
+persevering under difficulties, strangers to covetousness, content
+with little, moderate with much, generous, self-denying, courageous in
+well-doing, pure in heart, devout in spirit, modest before men,
+reverent to your parents, respectful to your superiors, humble before
+God; and, like him, let the clear light of truth shine forth in all
+your words, in all your actions, in all your looks and gestures, in
+all your secret thoughts, and in your very souls. Be all this, that
+men may reverence you, that angels may honor you, that God may bless
+and reward you."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+<p>Here Uncle Juvinell paused; and, as he looked round on the saddened
+faces of his little auditors, a moisture crept out softly upon his
+eyelashes, and dimmed the brightness of his spectacles. "It grieves me
+much, my dearest children," said he, after a moment or two,&mdash;and there
+was a tremor of deep fatherly feeling in his voice,&mdash;"it grieves me
+much, that our happy little circle must be broken up. It will be but
+for a season, however; and, when we meet again, we shall be happier
+than had we not parted at all. On Monday, I take the stage-coach for
+Louisville; and there I take the steamer 'Eclipse' for New Orleans. As
+it is a long journey I have before me, I must needs write many
+letters, and do a deal of packing, before setting out: so we will sing
+our evening hymn now, and separate for the night."</p>
+
+<p>Then, joining their voices together, they sang that beautiful hymn,
+"Though far away from friends and home." At the second line,
+however,&mdash;"A lonely wanderer I may roam,"&mdash;the little folks fairly
+broke down; their hearts rising into their throats from very grief,
+and choking their voices: but, with all the ease of a professed
+singing-master, Uncle Juvinell, though his heart was full too, glided
+at once from the lowest bass to the highest treble, which he carried
+alone, until some of the children, getting the better of their
+feelings, chimed in with him, when he softly dropped to the very
+bottom of his bass again.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+<p>The hymn ended, the little folks came one by one, and, without
+speaking a word, embraced and kissed their dear old uncle, this best
+of men; he laying his gentle hand upon their bowed heads, and blessing
+them with more than his usual fervor.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE END.</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Farmer Boy, and How He Became
+Commander-In-Chief, by Morrison Heady
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+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,7965 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Farmer Boy, and How He Became
+Commander-In-Chief, by Morrison Heady
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-Chief
+
+Author: Morrison Heady
+
+Editor: William M. Thayer
+
+Release Date: October 24, 2008 [EBook #27012]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FARMER BOY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Karen Dalrymple, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+[Illustration: The Farmer Boy
+
+BOSTON
+
+WALKER WISE & Co.]
+
+
+  THE
+  FARMER BOY,
+  AND
+  HOW HE BECAME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
+
+
+  BY UNCLE JUVINELL.
+
+
+  EDITED BY
+  WILLIAM M. THAYER,
+  AUTHOR OF "THE PIONEER BOY," ETC.
+
+
+  SEVENTH THOUSAND.
+
+
+  BOSTON:
+  WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,
+  245, WASHINGTON STREET.
+  1864.
+
+
+  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
+  WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,
+  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
+    of Massachusetts
+
+
+  BOSTON:
+  STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON.
+  No. 5, Water Street.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+BY REV. WILLIAM M. THAYER.
+
+
+The reader will remember, that, in the preface of "THE PRINTER BOY," I
+promised the next volume should be "THE FARMER BOY; OR, HOW GEORGE
+WASHINGTON BECAME PRESIDENT." That pledge has never been redeemed,
+though some labor has been performed with reference to it. And now
+Providence seems to direct the fulfilment of the promise by the pen of
+another, soon to be well known, I doubt not, to thousands of young
+readers;--"Uncle Juvinell."
+
+The advance sheets of a volume from his pen, upon the early life of
+Washington, have been placed in my hands for examination. I have
+carefully perused the work, and find it to be of so high a character,
+and so well adapted to the exigencies of the times, that I voluntarily
+abandon the idea of preparing the proposed volume myself, and most
+cordially recommend this work to the youth of our beloved land. I take
+this step with all the more readiness, when I learn that the author
+has persevered in his labors, though totally blind and almost deaf;
+and I gladly transfer the title which I proposed to give my own book
+to his excellent work, well satisfied that the act will prove a public
+benefit.
+
+The reader will find that Mr. Heady (Uncle Juvinell) has produced a
+very entertaining and instructive volume. It is written in a racy,
+sprightly style, that cannot fail to captivate the mind. Partaking
+himself of the buoyancy and good humor of boyhood, the author is able
+to write for the boys in a manner that is at once attractive and
+profitable. He has written a live book of one, who, "though dead, yet
+speaketh." It is replete with facts, and lessons of wisdom. The
+virtues are taught both by precept and example, and the vices are held
+up in all their deformity to warn and save. Religion, too, receives
+its just tribute, and wears the crown of glory.
+
+The appearance of this volume is timely. Adapted as it is to magnify
+the patriotic virtues, and the priceless worth of the government under
+which we live, it will prove a valuable contribution to the juvenile
+literature of the land. In this period of mighty struggles and issues,
+when our nation is groaning and travailing in pain to bring forth a
+future of surpassing renown and grandeur, it is important to inspire
+the hearts of American youth by the noblest examples of patriotism and
+virtue. And such is WASHINGTON, the "Father of his Country." It is
+best that the young of this battling age should study his character
+and emulate his deeds. His life was the richest legacy that he could
+leave to unborn generations, save the glorious Republic that he
+founded; and well will it be for the youth of our country when that
+life becomes to them the stimulus to exalted aims. Then loyalty will
+be free as air, and rebellions be unknown; then treason will hide its
+hydra-head, and our insulted flag wave in triumph where the last chain
+of slavery is broken.
+
+This volume will do its part to hasten this consummation of our
+patriot-hopes. Over its pleasant pages, then, we extend the right hand
+of fellowship to its author, though a stranger to us. Long may his
+able pen hold out! Widely may this his last work circulate! Blessed
+may be the fruits!
+
+  W. M. T.
+
+  FRANKLIN, MASS., October, 1863.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Our beloved country, my dear young readers, has passed through one
+great revolution; and it is now in the midst of another, which
+promises to prove even more momentous in its consequences.
+
+Knowing, therefore, the deep and lasting impression the great events
+of the day must needs produce upon your opening minds, the author of
+this book has been casting about him how he might contribute to your
+and the nation's good. As he is altogether bereft of sight, and nearly
+so of hearing, he is, of course, unable to lift a hand in his
+country's defence, or raise his voice in her justification. But she
+has a future; and for that he entertains an earnest hope, that through
+you, the rising generation, he may do something.
+
+To this end, therefore, he has written this volume, wherein he has
+endeavored to set forth, in a manner more calculated to attract and
+impress the youthful mind than has perhaps been heretofore attempted,
+the life and character of our good and great George Washington.
+
+By so doing, he hopes to awaken in your minds a desire to imitate the
+example and emulate the virtues of this greatest and wisest of
+Americans. For should he succeed in this, and thereby influence a
+thousand of you, when arrived at man's estate, to remain loyal to your
+country in her hour of peril (who might else have been tempted to turn
+their hand against her), then shall his humble pen have done more for
+her future welfare than he could have done for her present
+deliverance, had he the wielding of a thousand swords.
+
+And, should he ever have reason to suppose that such were really the
+case, far happier would he be, even in the dark and silent depths of
+his solitude, than the renowned victor of a hundred battle-fields, in
+all the blaze and noise of popular applause. Hoping that this little
+book may, for your sakes, fulfil the object for which it was written,
+and prove but the beginning of a long and pleasant acquaintance, he
+will conclude by begging to subscribe himself your true friend and
+well-wisher,
+
+  MORRISON HEADY.
+
+  ELK CREEK, SPENCER COUNTY, KY., 1863.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  _Introduction_                                                    17
+
+  WHEREIN IT WILL APPEAR WHO UNCLE JUVINELL IS, AND HOW HE CAME TO
+  WRITE THE LIFE OF "THE FARMER BOY" FOR THE LITTLE FOLKS.
+
+
+  I.
+
+  _George at School_                                                35
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BIRTH,
+  CHILDHOOD, AND EARLY EDUCATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, AND THE
+  STORY OF HIS LITTLE HATCHET; FROM WHICH HE MAY DRAW A WHOLESOME
+  MORAL, IF HE BE DESIROUS OF GROWING IN VIRTUE; TOGETHER WITH
+  OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE HARDLY TO BE FOUND
+  ELSEWHERE.
+
+
+  II.
+
+  _The First Sorrow_                                                46
+
+  SHOWING HOW GEORGE MET WITH THE FIRST GREAT SORROW OF HIS LIFE
+  IN THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER; AND HOW HIS MOTHER WAS LEFT A YOUNG
+  WIDOW, WITH THE CARE OF A LARGE FAMILY; WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE
+  PRUDENCE AND WISDOM SUE DISPLAYED IN THE REARING OF HER
+  CHILDREN; TOGETHER WITH THE STORY OF THE SORREL COLT, WHICH
+  UNCLE JUVINELL INTRODUCES BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATING THE CHARACTERS
+  OF BOTH MOTHER AND SON.
+
+
+  III.
+
+  _Playing Soldier_                                                 54
+
+  WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND HOW GEORGE FIGURED AS A
+  LITTLE SOLDIER AT SCHOOL; WITH SOME REMARKS TOUCHING HIS
+  WONDERFUL STRENGTH AND ACTIVITY OF BODY, AND COURAGE OF SPIRIT;
+  AND HOW HE WOULD HAVE FIGURED AS A LITTLE SAILOR, HAD HE NOT
+  BEEN PREVENTED BY A MOTHER'S ANXIOUS LOVE; WHICH INFLUENCED NOT
+  ONLY THE WHOLE COURSE OF HIS FUTURE LIFE, BUT ALSO THE DESTINY
+  OF HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, AND, IT MAY BE, THAT OF THE WHOLE WORLD;
+  AS THE LITTLE READER WILL FIND OUT FOR HIMSELF. IF HE BUT HAVE
+  THE PATIENCE TO BEAR UNCLE JUVINELL COMPANY TO THE END OF THIS
+  INTERESTING HISTORY.
+
+
+  IV.
+
+  "_Rules of Behavior_"                                             61
+
+  AFFORDING TO THE READER ANOTHER AND HIS LAST GLIMPSE OF
+  WASHINGTON AS A SCHOOL-BOY. HERE HE WILL LEARN OF WASHINGTON'S
+  MANY INGENIOUS MODES OF GAINING AND RETAINING KNOWLEDGE, AND HIS
+  HABITS OF PUTTING IT TO PRACTICAL USES; AND WILL FIND HIS RULES
+  OF BEHAVIOR IN COMPANY AND IN CONVERSATION, WRITTEN AT THE AGE
+  OF THIRTEEN, WHICH UNCLE JUVINELL WOULD EARNESTLY RECOMMEND HIM,
+  AND, IN FACT, ALL HIS READERS, BE THEY BOYS OR GIRLS, MEN OR
+  WOMEN, TO STORE AWAY IN THEIR MEMORIES, IF THEY BE DESIROUS OF
+  GROWING IN VIRTUE. AND OF DEPORTING THEMSELVES IN SUCH A MANNER
+  AS TO GAIN THE GOOD-WILL AND ESTEEM, AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE
+  HAPPINESS, OF ALL AROUND THEM.
+
+
+  V.
+
+  _In the Wilderness_                                               70
+
+  IN WHICH WILL BE SEEN HOW GEORGE BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH OLD LORD
+  FAIRFAX, AND WAS EMPLOYED BY THIS GREAT NOBLEMAN TO ACT AS
+  SURVEYOR OF ALL HIS WILD LANDS; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE HE
+  LED IN THE WILDERNESS, AND A SOMEWHAT HIGHLY COLORED PICTURE OF
+  A WAR-DANCE PERFORMED BY A PARTY OF INDIANS FOR THE
+  ENTERTAINMENT OF HIM AND HIS FRIENDS.
+
+
+  VI.
+
+  _The Young Surveyor_                                              78
+
+  REVEALING STILL FURTHER GLIMPSES OF WASHINGTON AS A YOUNG
+  SURVEYOR,--IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE HOW THAT GREAT MAN
+  BROUGHT HIS LABORS IN THE WILDERNESS TO AN END; WITH SOME
+  REMARKS RESPECTING THE LOWLAND BEAUTY, AND HOW LITTLE IS KNOWN
+  OF HER.
+
+
+  VII.
+
+  _First Military Appointment_                                      89
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER WILL LEARN HOW WASHINGTON, AT THE
+  EARLY AGE OF NINETEEN, BECAME ONE OF THE ADJUTANT-GENERALS OF
+  THE PROVINCE OF VIRGINIA; AND HOW HE WENT ON A VOYAGE TO THE
+  WEST INDIES IN COMPANY WITH HIS BROTHER LAWRENCE, WHO, BEING IN
+  QUEST OF HEALTH, AND FAILING TO FIND IT THERE, RETURNED HOME TO
+  DIE.
+
+
+  VIII.
+
+  _Important Explanations_                                          96
+
+  WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS TALK TOGETHER, IN A
+  PLEASING AND FAMILIAR STYLE OF CERTAIN MATTERS CONTAINED IN THE
+  FOREGOING PAGES; WHICH, BEING SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT OF
+  COMPREHENSION, NEED TO BE MORE FULLY AND CLEARLY EXPLAINED, THAT
+  THEY MAY THE BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT IS TO COME HEREAFTER IN THIS
+  INTERESTING HISTORY.
+
+
+  IX.
+
+  _Indian Troubles_                                                165
+
+  WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL GOES ON WITH HIS STORY, AND TELLS THE
+  LITTLE FOLKS ALL THAT IS NEEDFUL FOR THEM TO KNOW CONCERNING THE
+  CAUSES THAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE OLD FRENCH WAR; TO WHICH THE YOUNG
+  READER WILL DO WELL TO PAY VERY PARTICULAR ATTENTION.
+
+
+  X.
+
+  "_Big Talk" with "White Thunder_"                                115
+
+  EXPLAINING HOW MAJOR WASHINGTON CAME TO BE SENT BY GOVERNOR
+  DINWIDDIE ON A MISSION TO THE FRENCH, NEAR LAKE ERIE.--HOW HE
+  SET OUT.--WHAT BEFELL HIM BY THE WAY.--HOW HE STOPPED AT
+  LOGSTOWN TO HAVE A BIG TALK WITH THE HALF-KING, WHITE THUNDER,
+  AND OTHER INDIAN WORTHIES.--HOW HE AT LAST REACHED THE FRENCH
+  FORT, AND WHAT HE DID AFTER HE GOT THERE.
+
+
+  XI.
+
+  _Christmas in the Wilderness_                                    126
+
+  ENABLING THE YOUNG READER TO FOLLOW MAJOR WASHINGTON TO HIS
+  JOURNEY'S END, AND SEE HOW HE AND HIS PARTY SPENT THEIR
+  CHRISTMAS IN THE WILDERNESS.--HOW HE TWICE CAME NEAR LOSING HIS
+  LIFE, FIRST BY THE TREACHERY OF AN INDIAN GUIDE, AND THEN BY
+  DROWNING; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE INDIAN
+  PRINCESS, ALIQUIPPA.
+
+
+  XII.
+
+  _Washington's First Battle_                                      134
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER, AFTER GETTING A HINT OF THE
+  TREMENDOUS CONSEQUENCES THAT ENSUED FROM THE FRENCH GENERAL'S
+  LETTER, WILL FIND SO MUCH TO ENTERTAIN HIM, THAT HE WILL READILY
+  EXCUSE UNCLE JUVINELL FROM GIVING THE REMAINING HEADS OF THIS
+  CHAPTER; FURTHER THAN TO SAY, THAT IT WINDS UP WITH QUITE A
+  LIVELY AND SPIRITED ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLE.
+
+
+  XIII.
+
+  _Fort Necessity_                                                 146
+
+  WHAT BEFELL COLONEL WASHINGTON IN AND AROUND FORT NECESSITY, AND
+  HOW HE SUSTAINED HIS FIRST SIEGE; WHICH WILL BE FOUND EVEN MORE
+  ENTERTAINING THAN THE ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST BATTLE, NARRATED IN
+  THE LAST CHAPTER.
+
+
+  XIV.
+
+  _General Braddock_                                               158
+
+  IN WHICH THE YOUNG READER AND COLONEL WASHINGTON FORM THE
+  ACQUAINTANCE OF GENERAL BRADDOCK, AND COME TO THE SAME CONCLUSIONS
+  REGARDING HIS CHARACTER; AND IN WHICH THE READER IS HONORED WITH A
+  SLIGHT INTRODUCTION TO THE GREAT DR. FRANKLIN, WHO GIVES SOME GOOD
+  ADVICE, WHICH BRADDOCK, TO HIS FINAL COST, FAILS TO FOLLOW; AND IS
+  ENTERTAINED WITH A FEW GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN CAMP.
+
+
+  XV.
+
+  _Rough Work_                                                     172
+
+  THE READER WILL SEE HOW GENERAL BRADDOCK AT LAST SET OUT ON HIS
+  MARCH TO FORT DUQUESNE.--HOW HE GOT ENTANGLED IN THE WILDERNESS,
+  AND WAS FORCED TO CALL UPON THE YOUNG PROVINCIAL COLONEL FOR
+  ADVICE. WHICH, THOUGH WISELY GIVEN, WAS NOT WISELY FOLLOWED.--HOW
+  CAPTAIN JACK MADE AN OFFER, FOR WHICH HE GOT BUT SORRY THANKS; AND
+  WILL FIND A SPRINKLING OF WAYSIDE ITEMS HERE AND THERE; WHICH
+  SAVES THIS CHAPTER FROM BEING CONSIDERED A DULL ONE.
+
+
+  XVI.
+
+  _Braddock's Defeat_                                              186
+
+  IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE BLOODIEST PAGE IN THE ANNALS OF AMERICA;
+  OR, TO EXPRESS IT OTHERWISE, AN ACCOUNT OF THE FAMOUS BATTLE OF
+  THE MONONGAHELA, COMMONLY CALLED BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT; WHICH, IT WILL
+  BE SEEN AT A GLANCE, MIGHT HAVE TURNED OUT A VICTORY AS WELL, HAD
+  WASHINGTON'S ADVICE BEEN FOLLOWED.
+
+
+  XVII.
+
+  _Explanations_                                                   200
+
+  WHEREIN UNCLE JUVINELL AND THE LITTLE FOLKS DISCOURSE TOGETHER, IN
+  A LIVELY AND ENTERTAINING STYLE, OF DIVERS MATTERS TO BE FOUND,
+  AND NOT TO BE FOUND, IN BOOK THURSDAY; WHICH MAY SEEM OF LITTLE
+  CONSEQUENCE TO THOSE ELDERLY PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO WISE TO BE AMUSED,
+  AND WHO WOULD, ANY TIME, RATHER SEE A FACT BROUGHT OUT STARK NAKED
+  THAN DRESSED HANDSOMELY. SUCH OWLS ARE REQUESTED TO PASS OVER THIS
+  CHAPTER, AND PERCH UPON BOOK FRIDAY, PORTIONS OF WHICH WILL, BE
+  FOUND QUITE AS DRY AS THEY COULD POSSIBLY DESIRE.
+
+
+  XVIII.
+
+  _Work in Earnest_                                                210
+
+  SHOWING HOW BRADDOCK'S ARMY CONTINUED ITS FLIGHT TO
+  PHILADELPHIA.--HOW WASHINGTON RETURNED TO MOUNT VERNON, AND WAS
+  SHORTLY AFTERWARDS MADE COMMANDER OF ALL THE FORCES OF VIRGINIA;
+  AND HOW HE WENT TO BOSTON, AND WHY; WITH OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST.
+
+
+  XIX.
+
+  _Dark Days_                                                      222
+
+  STILL FARTHER ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S TROUBLES WITH THE INDIANS
+  AND WITH HIS OWN MEN, AND NOTICE OF HIS MISUNDERSTANDING WITH
+  GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE; ALL OF WHICH, COMBINED, RENDER THIS THE
+  SADDEST AND THE GLOOMIEST PERIOD OF HIS LIFE.
+
+
+  XX.
+
+  _A New Enterprise_                                               233
+
+  CONTAINING GLIMPSES OUTSIDE OF THE DIRECT LINE OF OUR STORY, WITH
+  A MORE MINUTE AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF HOW WASHINGTON WOOED
+  AND WON A FAIR LADY THAN IS TO BE MET WITH ELSEWHERE; WITH SOME
+  PARTICULARS TOUCHING AN INTENDED EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE.
+
+
+  XXI.
+
+  _More Blundering_                                                244
+
+  SHOWING HOW BRADDOCK'S FOLLY WAS REPEATED BY MAJOR GRANT, AS
+  FOREBODED BY WASHINGTON; AND ALSO WHAT CAME OF THE EXPEDITION
+  AGAINST FORT DUQUESNE.
+
+
+  XXII.
+
+  _Washington at Home_                                             255
+
+  GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON'S MARRIAGE WITH MRS. CUSTIS.--HIS
+  RECEPTION BY THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BURGESSES.--HIS HABITS AS A MAN
+  OF BUSINESS.--HIS RURAL PURSUITS AND AMUSEMENTS.--HIS LOVE OF
+  SOCIAL PLEASURES.--HIS ADVENTURE WITH A POACHER; AND MANY OTHER
+  ITEMS; ALL OF WHICH, COMBINED, MAKE THIS CHAPTER ONE OF THE MOST
+  PLEASING AND ENTERTAINING OF THE WHOLE BOOK.
+
+
+  XXIII.
+
+  _A Family Quarrel_                                               269
+
+  WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL FIND WHAT WILL BE EXPLAINED MORE TO
+  HIS SATISFACTION IN CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+  XXIV.
+
+  _The Cause of the Quarrel_                                       276
+
+  AFFORDING A MORE CLEAR, AND SATISFACTORY ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSES
+  THAT BROUGHT ABOUT OUR REVOLUTIONARY WAR THAN WAS GIVEN IN CHAPTER
+  XXIII; BUT CHAPTER XXV. MUST NEEDS BE READ, BEFORE A FULL AND
+  COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THESE MATTERS CAN BE ARRIVED AT.
+
+
+  XXV.
+
+  _Resistance to Tyranny_                                          288
+
+  ILLUSTRATING WHAT PART WASHINGTON TOOK IN THESE MEASURES OF
+  RESISTANCE TO BRITISH TYRANNY.--HOW HE BECAME A REPRESENTATIVE OF
+  VIRGINIA IN THE GREAT COLONIAL ASSEMBLY, OTHERWISE CALLED THE OLD
+  CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; AND HOW, UPON THE BREAKING-OUT OF
+  HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE COLONIES AND THE MOTHER-COUNTRY, HE WAS
+  MADE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF ALL THE FORCES OF THE UNITED COLONIES;
+  WITH OTHER ITEMS TOUCHING THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONTINENTAL
+  CONGRESS, AND PATRICK HENRY, THE GREAT VIRGINIA ORATOR.
+
+
+  XXVI.
+
+  _Conclusion_                                                     301
+
+  WHEREIN THE YOUNG READER WILL BE ENTERTAINED WITH THE PLEASING AND
+  EDIFYING CONVERSATION WHICH TOOK PLACE BETWEEN UNCLE JUVINELL AND
+  THE LITTLE FOLKS, TOUCHING DIVERS MATTERS IN BOOK FRIDAY; WHICH
+  DEMAND FURTHER CONSIDERATION FOR A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF
+  OUR HISTORY, PAST AND TO COME.
+
+
+
+
+THE FARMER BOY.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Somewhere in green Kentucky, not a great many years ago, the ruddy
+light of a Christmas sunset, streaming in at the windows of an
+old-fashioned brick house, that stood on a gentle hillside, half
+hidden by evergreens, shone full and broad on a group of merry little
+youngsters there met together to spend the holiday with their Uncle
+Juvinell, a charming old bachelor of threescore and ten.
+
+What with "blind man's buff," "leap-frog," "hide-and-seek," "poor
+pussy wants a corner," Mother Goose, dominos, sky-rockets and squibs,
+and what with the roasting of big red apples and the munching of
+gingerbread elephants, the reading of beautiful story-books,--received
+that morning as Christmas presents from their Uncle Juvinell and other
+loving relatives,--these little folks had found this day the most
+delightful of their lives.
+
+Tired at last of play, and stuffed with Christmas knick-knacks till
+their jackets and breeches could hold no more, they had now betaken
+themselves to the library to await the return of their Uncle Juvinell,
+who had gone out to take his usual evening walk; and were now quietly
+seated round a blazing winter fire, that winked and blinked at them
+with its great bright eye, and went roaring right merrily up the wide
+chimney. Just as the last beam of the setting sun went out at the
+window, Uncle Juvinell, as if to fill its place, came in at the door,
+all brisk and ruddy from his tramp over the snow in the sharp bracing
+air, and was hailed with a joyous shout by the little folks, who,
+hastening to wheel his great arm-chair for him round to the fire,
+pushed and pulled him into it, and called upon him to tell one of his
+most charming stories, even before the tingling frost was out of his
+nose.
+
+As this worthy old gentleman has done much for the entertainment and
+instruction of the rising generations of the land, it is but due him
+that some mention, touching his many amiable traits of character and
+his accomplishments of mind and person, should be made in this place
+for the more complete satisfaction of those who may hereafter feel
+themselves indebted to him for some of the most pleasant moments of
+their lives.
+
+In person, Uncle Juvinell is stout and well-rounded. His legs are fat,
+and rather short; his body is fat, and rather long; his belly is snug
+and plump; his hands are plump and white; his hair is white and soft;
+his eyes are soft and blue; his coat is blue and sleek; and over his
+sleek and dimpled face, from his dimpled chin to the very crown of his
+head,--which, being bald, shines like sweet oil in a warm
+fire-light,--there beams one unbroken smile of fun, good-humor, and
+love, that fills one's heart with sunshine to behold. Indeed, to look
+at him, and be with him a while, you could hardly help half believing
+that he must be a twin-brother of Santa Claus, so closely does he
+resemble that far-famed personage, not only in appearance, but in
+character also; and more than once, having been met in his little
+sleigh by some belated school-boy, whistling homeward through the
+twilight of a Christmas or New Year's Eve, he has been mistaken for
+the jolly old saint himself. In short, his whole appearance is in the
+highest degree respectable; and there is even about him an air of
+old-fashioned elegance, which of course is owing chiefly to the
+natural sweetness and politeness of his manners, and yet perhaps a
+little heightened withal by the gold-bowed spectacles that he wears on
+his nose, the heavy gold bar that pins his snowy linen, the gold
+buttons that shine on his coat, his massive gold watch-chain (at the
+end of which hangs a great red seal as big as a baby's fist), and by
+his gold-headed ebony cane, that he always carries on his shoulder
+like a musket when he walks, as much as to say, "Threescore and ten,
+and no need of a staff yet, my Christian friend." No man is more
+beloved and esteemed by all who know him, old and young, than he; for
+like Father Grimes, whose nephew he is by the mother's side.--
+
+    "He modest merit seeks to find,
+      And give it its desert;
+    He has no malice in his mind,
+      No ruffles on his shirt.
+
+    His neighbors he does not abuse;
+      Is sociable and gay:
+    He wears large buckles in his shoes,
+      And changes them, each day."
+
+If there is one thing about Uncle Juvinell that we might venture to
+pronounce more charming than another, it is the smile of mingled fun,
+good-humor, and love, with which his countenance never ceases to
+shine, save when he hears the voice of pain and his breast with pity
+burns. Touching this same trait of his, a lady once said in our
+hearing, that she verily believed a cherub, fresh from the rosy
+chambers of the morning, came at the opening of each day to Uncle
+Juvinell's chamber, just on purpose to dash a handful of sunbeams on
+his head; and, as there were always more than enough to keep his face
+bathed with smiles for the next twenty-four hours, they were not
+wasted, but, falling and lodging on his gold spectacles, his gold
+breast-pin, his gold buttons, his gold watch-chain, and the gold head
+of his ebony cane, washed them with lustre ever new, as if his face,
+bright and broad as it was, were not enough to reflect the love and
+sunshine ever dwelling in his heart. We will not undertake to vouch
+for the truth of this, however. As the young lady was a marriageable
+young lady, and had been for a number of years, it would not be
+gallant or generous for us to mention it; but of this we are certain,
+that, when this good old gentleman enters a room, there is a warmth
+and brightness in his very presence, that causes you to look round,
+half expecting to see the tables and chairs throwing their shadows
+along the floor, as if, by the power of magic, a window had suddenly
+been opened in the wall to let in the morning sunshine.
+
+If the affections of Uncle Juvinell's heart are childlike in their
+freshness, the powers of his intellect are gigantic in their
+dimensions. He is a man of prodigious learning: for proof of which,
+you have but to enter his library, and take note of the books upon
+books that crowd the shelves from the floor to the ceiling; the maps
+that line the walls; the two great globes, one of the earth and the
+other of the heavens, that stand on either side of his reading-desk;
+and the reading-desk itself, whereon there always lies some book of
+monstrous size, wide open, which no one has ever had the courage to
+read from beginning to end, or could comprehend if he did.
+
+In the languages he is very expert; speaking French with such
+clearness and distinctness, that any native-born Frenchman, with a
+fair knowledge of the English, can with but little difficulty
+understand more than half he says; and in German he is scarcely less
+fluent and ready; while his Latin is the envy of all who know only
+their mother-tongue. In mathematics, his skill is such, that you might
+give him a sum, the working-out of which would cover three or four
+large slates; and he would never fail to arrive at the answer, let him
+but take his time.
+
+In astronomy, he is perfectly at home among the fixed stars; can
+distinguish them at a single glance, and that, too, without the help
+of his spectacles, from the wandering planets; and is as familiar with
+the motion and changes of the moon, as if he had been in the habit for
+the last forty years of spending the hot summer months at some of the
+fashionable watering-places of that amiable and interesting orb. But
+it is in the history of the nations and great men of the earth that
+Uncle Juvinell most excels, as shall be proved to your entire
+satisfaction before reaching the end of this volume.
+
+And yet, notwithstanding the vastness of his learning and the gigantic
+powers of his mind, he can, when it so pleases him, disburden himself
+of these great matters, and descend from his lofty height to the
+comprehension of the little folks, with as much ease as a huge
+balloon, soaring amidst the clouds, can let off its gas, and sink down
+to the level of the kites, air-balls, and sky-rockets wherewith they
+are wont to amuse themselves.
+
+Being an old bachelor, as before noticed, he, of course, has no
+children of his own; but, like the philosopher that he is, he always
+consoles himself for this misfortune with the reflection, that, had he
+been so favored, much of his love and affection must needs have been
+wasted on his own six, eight, or ten, as the case might have been,
+instead of being divided without measure among the hundreds and
+thousands of little ones that gladden the wedded life, and fill with
+their music the homes of others more blessed.
+
+Living, as all his brothers do, in easy circumstances, he has abundant
+time and leisure to devote himself to the particular interest and
+enjoyment of these little ones; and is always casting in his mind what
+he may be doing to amuse them, or make them wiser, better, and
+happier.
+
+Such is the ease, heartiness, and familiarity with which he demeans
+himself when among them, and enters into all their little pastimes and
+concerns, that they stand no more in awe of him than if he were one of
+their own number; and make him the butt of a thousand impish pranks,
+at which he laughs as heartily as the merriest rogue among them. And
+yet it is for that very reason, perhaps, that they love him so
+devotedly, and would give up their dog-knives or wax dolls any day,
+sooner than show themselves unmindful of his slightest wishes, or do
+aught that could bring upon them even his softest rebuke. They make
+nothing of taking off his gold spectacles, and putting them on their
+own little pugs to look wise; or running their chubby fists into the
+tight, warm pockets of his breeches, in quest of his gold pencil or
+pearl-handled knife; or dashing like mad over the yard, with his
+gold-headed cane for a steed; or stealing up behind him, as he stands
+with his back to the fire, and slyly pulling out his big red bandanna
+handkerchief, wherewith to yoke the dog and cat together as they lie
+sociably side by side on the hearth-rug. In short, he will suffer them
+to tease him and tousle him and tumble him to their hearts' content,
+and set no limits to their liberties, so long as they are careful not
+to touch his snowy linen with their smutched fingers; for, if Uncle
+Juvinell has one fault in the world, it is his unreasonable partiality
+for snowy linen. But, were we to go on with our praises and
+commendations of this best of men, we should fill a large volume full
+to overflowing, and still leave the better half unsaid: so we must
+exercise a little self-denial, and forego such pleasing thoughts for
+the present, as it now behooves us to bring our minds to bear upon
+matters we have more nearly in view.
+
+Seeing how earnestly the little folks were bent upon drawing out of
+him one of his longest stories, Uncle Juvinell now bade them sit down
+and be quiet till he should have time to conjure up something more
+charming than any Arabian tale they had ever heard; and throwing
+himself back in his great arm-chair, and fixing his eyes on the
+glowing coals, that seemed to present to his fancy an ever-shifting
+panorama, was soon lost in profound meditation. And the longer he
+thought, the harder he looked at the fire, which knowingly answered
+his look with a winking and blinking of its great bright eye, that
+seemed to say, "Well, Uncle Juvinell, what shall we do for the
+entertainment or instruction of these little people to-night? Shall we
+tell them of that crew of antic goblins we wot of, who are wont to
+meet by moonlight, to play at football with the hanged man's head,
+among the tombstones of an old graveyard? Or may be that dreadful
+ogre, with the one fiery eye in the middle of his forehead, who was in
+the habit of roasting fat men on a spit for his Christmas dinners,
+would be more to their taste. Or, if you prefer it, let it be that
+beautiful fairy, who, mounted on a milk-white pony, and dressed in
+green and gold, made her home in an echoing wood, for no other purpose
+than to lead little children therefrom, who might by some ill chance
+be separated from their friends, and lose their way in its tangled
+wilds. Or perhaps you are thinking it would be more instructive to
+them were we to conjure up some story of early times in green
+Kentucky, when our great-grandfathers were wont to take their rifles
+to bed with them, and sleep with them in their arms, ready to spring
+up at the slightest rustling of the dry leaves in the woods, and
+defend themselves against the dreaded Indian, as with panther-like
+tread he skulked around their lonely dwellings."
+
+To each and all of these, Uncle Juvinell shook his head; none of them
+being just exactly the thing he wanted. At length, finding that the
+fire hindered rather than helped him to make a choice, he rose from
+his seat, turned his back upon it, and looked from one bright face to
+another of the circle before him, till his eye rested on Daniel, who
+was among the oldest of the children, and was, by the way, the young
+historian of the family, and, in his own opinion, a youth of rather
+uncommon parts. He had that morning received from his uncle, as a
+Christmas present, that most delightful of story-books, "Robinson
+Crusoe;" but having seen the unlucky sailor high, but not dry, on his
+desert island, and having run his eye over all the pictures, he had
+laid it aside, and was now standing at the reading-desk, looking as
+wise as a young owl in a fog over a very large book indeed, in which
+he pretended to be too deeply interested to finish a slab of
+gingerbread that lay half munched at his side.
+
+Seeing his little nephew thus engaged, Uncle Juvinell smiled a quiet
+smile all to himself, and, after watching him a few moments, said,
+"Dannie, my boy, what book is that you are reading with so much
+interest that you have forgotten your gingerbread?"
+
+"Irving's Life of Washington, sir," replied Daniel with an air.
+
+"A good book, a very good indeed; but too hard for you, I fear," said
+Uncle Juvinell, shaking his head. "Tell me, though, how far you have
+read."
+
+"To Braddock's defeat, sir," replied Daniel.
+
+"You have been getting over the ground rather fast, I am thinking; but
+tell me how you like it," said Uncle Juvinell, by way of drawing his
+little nephew out.
+
+"Here and there, I come to a chapter that I like very much," replied
+Daniel: "but there are parts that I don't understand very well; and I
+was just thinking that I would point them out to you some time, and
+get you to explain them to me; as you will, I am certain; for you know
+every thing, and are so obliging to us little folks!"
+
+At this, Uncle Juvinell's face lighted up as with a brilliant thought;
+but, without seeming to notice his little nephew's request just then,
+he reseated himself, and again began looking hard at the fire. The
+fire opened its great bright eye more widely than before, and looked
+as if it were putting the question, "Well, sir, and what is it now?
+Out with it, and I will throw what light I can on the matter." After a
+few moments, there appeared to be a perfect understanding between
+them; for the fire with a sly wink seemed to say, "A happy thought,
+Uncle Juvinell,--a very happy thought indeed: I was just on the point
+of proposing the very same thing myself. Come, let us go about it at
+once, and make these holidays the brightest and happiest these little
+folks have ever known, or ever could or would or should know, in all
+their lives." And the fire fell to winking and blinking at such an
+extravagant rate, that the shadows of those who were seated round it
+began bobbing up and down the wall, looking like misshapen goblins
+amusing themselves by jumping imaginary ropes, the gigantic one of
+Uncle Juvinell leaping so high as to butt the ceiling.
+
+After several minutes of deep thought, the old gentleman rose, and
+stood on his short fat legs with the air of a man who had made up his
+mind, and with a smile on his face, as if sure he was just on the
+point of giving them all a pleasant surprise. "Laura, my dear," said
+he, "take down that picture from the wall you see hanging to the right
+of the bookcase; and you, Ella, my darling, take that bunch of
+feathers, and brush off the dust from it. Now hand it to me. This, my
+cherubs," he went on, "is the portrait of the good and great George
+Washington, who is called the Father of our country. It is to him,
+more than to any other man, that we owe the blessings of freedom,
+peace, and prosperity, we now enjoy in larger measure than any other
+people of the wide earth; and it was for these same blessings that he
+fought and struggled through all the weary years of our Revolutionary
+War, amidst difficulties, dangers, and discouragements such as never
+before tried the strength of man. And when, in the happy end, he, by
+his courage, skill, and fortitude, and abiding trust in the protection
+of an all-wise Providence, had come out victorious over all, and
+driven our cruel enemies from the land, so that our homes were once
+more gladdened with the smiles of peace and plenty,--then it was that
+a grateful people with one voice hailed him chosen of the Lord for the
+salvation of our beloved country. Blessed be the name of George
+Washington,--blessed for evermore!" And a big tear of love and
+thankfulness started from each of Uncle Juvinell's mild blue eyes,
+trickled slowly over his ruddy cheek, and, dropping thence, went
+hopping and sparkling down his large blue waistcoat.
+
+At this the little folks looked very grave, and thought to themselves,
+"What a good man Washington must have been, and how much he must have
+done and suffered for the welfare of his fellow-beings, thus to have
+brought the tears to our dear old uncle's eyes!" After looking at the
+picture for some moments in silence, they began talking about it, each
+in his or her own fashion; while Uncle Juvinell listened with much
+interest, curious to see what different impressions it would produce
+on their minds.
+
+"That scroll he holds in his left hand must be his farewell address to
+his army," said Daniel, the young historian, looking very wise.
+
+"What a fine long sword he carries at his side!" said Bryce, a
+war-like youngster who had just climbed to the summit of his ninth
+year, and had, as you must know, a wooden sword of his own, with which
+he went about dealing death and destruction to whole regiments of
+cornstalks and squadrons of horse-weeds, calling them British and
+Tories.
+
+"How tall and grand and handsome he looks!" said Laura, a prim and
+demure little miss of thirteen: "in his presence, I am sure I could
+never speak above a whisper."
+
+"That, yonder, among the trees and evergreens on the hill, must be the
+house where he lived," said Ella, a modest, sweet-mannered little lady
+of twelve. "What a beautiful place it is! and what a happy home it
+must have been when he lived in it!"
+
+"And see how the hill slopes down to the river, so grassy and smooth!
+and such a nice place for little boys to roll over and over down to
+the bottom!" said Ned, a rough-and-tumble youngster of ten, who spent
+one-half of the sunshine with his back to the ground and his heels in
+the air.
+
+"And see the beautiful river so broad and so smooth, and the great
+ships afar off going down to the sea!" said Johnnie, a little poet of
+eight, who passed much of his time dreaming with his eyes open.
+
+"And such a pretty play-house as I see there among the bushes on the
+hillside!" said Fannie, a stout little matron of five, the mother of a
+large and still increasing family of dolls.
+
+"That is not a play-house, Fannie, but the tomb where Washington lies
+buried," said Dannie with an air of superior wisdom.
+
+"What a splendid white horse that black man is holding for him! How he
+bows his neck, and champs his bit, and paws the ground!" said Willie,
+a harum-scarum, neck-or-nothing young blade of fourteen, who would
+have given his best leg to have been the owner of a galloping,
+high-headed, short-tailed pony.
+
+"What is he doing so far away from home without his hat, I wonder?"
+said Master Charlie, a knowing young gentleman of eight, who was much
+in the habit of doubting everybody's eyes and ears but his own.
+
+"How kind and good he looks out of his eyes, just like father!" said
+Mary, an affectionate and timid little creature of seven.
+
+Just then, Addison, a plump little fellow of four, in all the glory of
+his first new jacket and his first new breeches, who was standing on
+the top round of Uncle Juvinell's chair, suddenly cried out in a very
+strong voice for his age, "Oh! he looks just like Uncle Juvinell: now
+don't he, Cousin Mary?"
+
+For a man of his appearance to be thus compared with so stately and
+dignified a man as Washington was a thing so ludicrous, that Uncle
+Juvinell was surprised into the heartiest fit of laughter that he had
+enjoyed that day. When it was over, he bade Laura hang up the picture
+again in its accustomed place, and began where he had left off some
+time before: "Now, my dear children, it came into my mind, while I was
+talking with your Cousin Dannie a little bit ago, that I could not
+tell you any thing more entertaining and instructive than the story of
+Washington's life. It will, I am quite sure, interest you much: for
+although he was such a great man,--the greatest, no doubt, that ever
+lived,--and so awful to look upon, yet, for all that, his heart was
+full to overflowing with the most tender and kindly affections, and,
+if you can believe it, quite as fond of little children as your Uncle
+Juvinell; often joining in their innocent sports for a whole hour at a
+time. Let me see. This is Wednesday; and we have seven, eight, long
+holidays before us to be as happy as skylarks in. Now, I am thinking,
+that, if we would have next New Year's Day find us better and wiser,
+we could not hit upon a more proper plan for beginning so desirable an
+end than by spending a part of each day in making ourselves acquainted
+with the life and character of this good and great man, and, at the
+close of each evening's lesson, talking over what we have learned, to
+our more complete understanding of the same. And now, my merry ones,
+speak out, and tell me what you think of it."
+
+"It will be just exactly the very thing," said wise Daniel.
+
+"Glorious!" said rollicking Willie.
+
+"Charming!" said prim and demure Miss Laura.
+
+"'Twill be delightful, I am sure," said modest Ella.
+
+"Nothing could please me better, if we have a good big battle now and
+then," said war-like Bryce.
+
+"I wonder if it will be as interesting as 'Robinson Crusoe'?" put in
+doubting Charlie.
+
+"Or 'Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp'?" chimed in dreaming Johnnie.
+
+"And we'll all listen, and be so good!" said timid, loving little
+Mary.
+
+"Wait a moment for me, uncle, till I run down to the cabin, just to
+see how Black Daddy's getting along making my sled," said hair-brained
+Ned.
+
+"And wait a little bit for me too, uncle, till I go and put my dolly
+babe to bed; for she might take the measles if I keep her up too
+long," said motherly Fannie.
+
+"And let me sit on your knee, uncle; Cousin Mary wants my chair," said
+Addison, the youngest one of them all, at the same time climbing up,
+and getting astride of Uncle Juvinell's left fat leg.
+
+"Then settle yourselves at once, you noisy chatterboxes," said Uncle
+Juvinell with a shining face; "and mind you be as quiet and mute as
+mice at a cat's wedding while I am telling my story, or I'll"--His
+threat was drowned in the joyous shouts of the children as they
+scrambled into their chairs. When they had all put on a listening
+look, he poured out a little yellow, squat, Dutch mug brimful of rich
+brown cider from a big blue pitcher that Black Daddy had just placed
+on a table close at hand, and, having wet his whistle therewith, began
+his story. And now and then, as the story went on, the fire, keeping
+its bright, watchful eye upon the old gentleman, would wink at him in
+a sly manner, that seemed to say, "Well done, Uncle Juvinell,--very
+well done indeed. You see, sir, I was quite right in what I told you.
+We have hit upon the very thing. The little folks are enchanted: they
+are drawing in wisdom with every breath. A merry Christmas to us all!"
+Pop, pop! hurrah! pop!
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+GEORGE AT SCHOOL.
+
+
+A hundred years ago or more, there stood on the green slopes of the
+Potomac, in the county of Westmoreland, Va., an old red farmhouse,
+with a huge stone chimney at each end, and high gray roof, the eaves
+of which projected in such a manner as to cover a porch in front and
+two or three small shed-rooms in the rear. Now, although this house
+was built of wooden beams and painted boards, and was far from being
+what could be called, even for those times, a fine one,--looking as it
+did more like a barn than a dwelling for man,--yet, for all that, it
+had the honor of being the birthplace of the good and great George
+Washington, who is said, by many very wise persons who ought to know,
+to have been the greatest man that ever came into this pleasant and
+glorious world of ours.
+
+His father, Augustine Washington, was married early in life to Jane
+Butler, who died after having borne him two sons, Lawrence and
+Augustine. In a year or two after this loss, feeling the want of some
+one to gladden his lonely heart and home, he married Mary Ball, the
+belle of Horseneck, and said to have been the most beautiful young
+lady in all that part of the country. By this union he was blessed
+with six children, of whom our George, the eldest, was born on the
+twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand
+seven hundred and thirty-two.
+
+It has often appeared strange to me that nothing should be known of
+this great man's life up to the completion of his fifth year: and I am
+sorry for your sakes, my little ones, that such is the case; for it
+would be such a nice beginning to our story, could we say with
+certainty that he distinguished himself by walking alone at the age of
+five months; that he could pronounce "Mother" and "Good" with perfect
+distinctness when but one year old; that his mother taught him at the
+age of two to kneel by her side, and lisp, before going to his evening
+rest, that beautiful prayer, beginning with, "Now I lay me down to
+sleep;" that he rode like mad, at the age of three, round and round
+the yard, on his father's buckhorn-headed cane; and that he rode on a
+real horse at the age of four, and went galloping like a young Tartar
+round and round the meadow in front of the house, to the delight of
+his young mother, who watched him from the window. Of all this, and a
+great deal more of the same sort, you would, I doubt not, like much to
+hear, and I would like much to tell you; but we must keep within the
+bounds of true history, and content ourselves with the knowledge of
+that which really did happen. With this safe rule for our guidance, we
+will therefore proceed at once to take up the thread of our story at
+that period of George's boyhood, concerning which some certain record
+has come down to our time.
+
+At the age of five, when he was old enough to walk all alone for a
+mile or two through the woods and fields, his parents started him to
+school one bright spring morning, with his little basket on his arm,
+containing his dinner and a bran-new spelling-book, to take his first
+tiny steps in the flowery path of knowledge.
+
+His first teacher was a Mr. Hobby, an old man, who lived on a distant
+part of his father's plantation, and is said to have been besides the
+sexton or grave-digger of the neighborhood; and was, I have my private
+reasons for thinking, a broken-down old soldier, with a big cocked hat
+that shaded a kindly and weather-beaten face, and a wooden leg,--an
+ornament for which he was indebted to a cannon-ball, and took more
+pride in than if it had been a sound one of flesh and bone. As it is
+rarely ever the case that men with wooden legs are called upon to
+fight the battles of their country, this worthy old man, who well knew
+how to read and write, and cipher too, must needs earn his livelihood
+by teaching school, and sowing his knowledge broadcast among the
+little children of the neighborhood.
+
+Accordingly, it was to old Mr. Hobby, as everybody called him, that
+George was indebted for his first insight into the mysteries of
+book-learning; and although he was in due time to become the greatest
+man of this or any other age or country, yet he began his education
+by first learning his A B C, just as did other boys of that day,
+just as they are now doing, and just as they will continue to do
+for all time to come. After he had taken his A B C into his memory,
+and set them there in a straight row each in its proper place, he was
+not long, depend upon it, in reaching the middle of his spelling-book;
+and as soon as he could, without anybody's help, climb over tall and
+difficult words of five or six syllables, such as "immortality" or
+"responsibility," his master put him in the English Reader, where
+he soon overtook and went clean ahead of boys a great deal older
+than himself. From reading, he in a short time rose to writing;
+and it was said by those who knew him best, that he learned to write
+a neat round hand without ever once blotting his copy-book; and
+furthermore, that such a thing as a dirty, thumb-worn, dog-eared
+book was never seen in his hand. His next step in the path of
+knowledge was arithmetic; and, in less time than you can well
+believe, he had got the multiplication-table so thoroughly by heart,
+that he could run over it as fast backwards, from twelve times twelve
+to twice one, as common boys straightforward, even with the open book
+before their eyes. So well did he study, that, in less than four
+years' time after his first starting to school, the single rule of
+three was no more to him than long division to most boys; and he
+could repeat the tables of weights and measures as glibly as you,
+Master Johnnie, can rattle off the charming story of "Old Mother
+Hubbard and her Wonderful Dog."
+
+Now, the rapid progress George made in his studies was owing not so
+much to his uncommon aptitude at learning as to the diligence and
+industry with which he applied himself to them. For example: when
+other boys would be staring out at the window, watching the birds and
+squirrels sporting among the tree-tops; or sitting idly with their
+hands in their pockets, opening and shutting their jack-knives, or
+counting their marbles, or munching apples and corn-dodgers in a
+sneaking and unbecoming manner behind their books; or, more naughty
+still, shooting paper bullets at old Hobby's wooden leg as he eat
+dozing behind his high desk of a drowsy summer afternoon,--our George,
+with his hands to his ears to keep out the schoolroom buzz, would be
+studying with all his might; nor would he once raise his eyes from his
+book till every word of his lesson was ready to drop from his tongue's
+end of its own accord. So well did he apply himself, and so attentive
+was he to every thing taught him, that, by the time he was ten years
+old, he had learned all that the poor old grave-digger knew himself;
+and it was this worthy man's boast in after-years, that he had laid
+the foundation of Washington's future greatness. But what old Wooden
+Leg--for so they always called him when his back was turned--could not
+teach him at school, little George learned at home of his father and
+mother, who were well educated for those days; and many a long winter
+evening did these good parents spend in telling their children
+interesting and instructive stories of olden times, far-off countries,
+and strange people, which George would write down in his copy-book in
+his neatest, roundest hand, and remember ever afterward.
+
+A more prudent and careful father, and a more discreet and
+affectionate mother, than Mr. Washington and his wife Mary, perhaps
+never lived. So earnest and watchful were they to bring up their
+children in the fear of the Lord, and in the practice of every noble
+virtue, that their dutiful behavior and sweet manners were the talk
+and praise of the good people for miles and miles around. They taught
+them to be neat and orderly in their dress, as well as civil and
+polite in their manners; to be respectful to their elders; to be kind
+to one another, and to every thing God hath made, both great and
+small, whether man or bird or beast: but chiefly were they concerned
+to teach them the love of truth, and to tell it at all times when it
+should be their duty to speak out, let the consequences be what they
+might. To show you that such wise and careful training was not lost
+on the tender mind of George, I will tell you the story of his little
+hatchet, as it may serve you good stead in the day when you may be
+tempted to wander astray from the path of truth and virtue.
+
+One Christmas Eve, when the sharp, frosty air made the blood brisk and
+lively in the veins, little George, who was then about six years old,
+hung up his stocking on the mantel of the huge chimney, saying to
+himself as he did so, "Good Santa Claus, be kind to me while I am
+sleeping peacefully." Next morning, bright and early, just as a great
+Christmas log had begun to blaze and crackle on the hearth, he jumped
+spryly from his bed, and, without stopping to put on his clothes, ran
+to his stockings to see what good old Santa Claus had brought him
+while he slept. I leave you to picture to your minds his delight upon
+finding therein a little Indian tomahawk, with a bright keen edge and
+long red handle. It would have done all your hearts good to have seen
+how he skipped and danced around the room, and flourished his hatchet
+high over his head; how he went showing it to every one about the
+house, white and black; praising good old Santa Claus to the very
+skies, and never once feeling the want of his breeches. But, between
+you and me, I am rather inclined to suspect, that, if we had any means
+of arriving at the facts of the case, it would be found that Santa
+Claus had no more concern in this matter than your Uncle Juvinell
+himself. To my mind, there is more reason in the supposition, that his
+father, seeing the jolly old saint pass by at a late hour of the night
+in an empty sleigh, and that the children were not likely to have
+their stockings filled for that once, got up early in the morning, and
+put the hatchet in there himself, rather than that his little son
+should be disappointed.
+
+Be this as it may, it was all the same to George; and he was as happy
+as happy could be. At the breakfast-table, he could hardly eat his
+bread and milk for looking at his shining axe, which he had laid
+beside him on the table; and, before it was fairly broad daylight, he
+was out at the wood-yard, ankle-deep in snow, cutting and chopping
+away at the hard-seasoned beech and maple logs, as if it lay with him,
+for that day at least, to keep the whole family, white and black, from
+freezing. By and by, however, he found this more work than play, and
+began to cast his earnest young eyes about him for something green and
+soft whereon to try the edge and temper of his hatchet. Presently, as
+ill-luck would have it, a fine young English cherry-tree, just over
+the fence hard by, caught his attention, which, without further ado,
+he fell to hacking might and main; and the way he made the little
+chips fly was a thing surprising to see.
+
+Next morning, his father, passing by that way, saw the mischief that
+had been done, and was sorely displeased: for he had planted and
+reared this selfsame tree with the tenderest care; and, of all the
+trees in his orchard, there was not one other he prized so highly.
+Being quite sure that it was the work of some of the black children,
+he went straightway down to the negro quarter, bent on finding out,
+and bringing the unlucky culprit to a severe account.
+
+"Dick," said he to the first one he met, "did you cut that
+cherry-tree?"
+
+"No, mauster; don't know nothin' 'bout it," said Dick, showing the
+whites of _his_ eyes.
+
+"Did you, Sam?" said Mr. Washington, putting the same question to
+another little woolly-head.
+
+"No, mauster; don't know nothin' 'bout it," said Sam, likewise showing
+the whites of his eyes.
+
+The same question was put to Harry, who gave Dick and Sam's answer
+word for word, and, to add force to his denial, showed the whites of
+his eyes in like manner; and so on, till more than a dozen had been
+questioned with the same result; when it came to Jerry's turn to make
+denial, and show the whites of his eyes.
+
+Now, you must know there was not a more audacious, mischief-making,
+neck-or-nothing black brat than this same Jerry to be found on the
+banks of the Rappahannock, which is a very long river indeed. As a
+fish lives in water, or a salamander in fire, so did Jerry live and
+breathe, and have his being, in mischief; or, in other words, mischief
+was the element in which Jerry found his chief delight. If any mishap
+befell anybody or any thing, at any hour of the day or night, on any
+part of the plantation, on foot or on horseback, at rest or in motion,
+it was sure to be brought and laid at Jerry's door. Being aware of all
+this, Mr. Washington was now quite sure, that, as none of the rest had
+cut the cherry-tree, Jerry himself must be the offender; and so he put
+the question to him; to which Jerry, showing the whites of his eyes,
+made answer, "No, mauster; I didn't cut the cherry-tree: indeed,
+indeed, and double deed, I didn't cut the cherry-tree."
+
+"Ah! Jerry," said his master, "if you always told the truth, I should
+know when to believe you; but, as you do not, you must take the
+consequences of your evil ways, and blame nobody but yourself."
+
+Upon hearing this, Jerry began dancing and hopping around the room in
+a very brisk and lively manner, even before his master was within ten
+feet of him, as if he already felt the switch about his legs.
+
+Just then, in the very nick of time, George came walking leisurely by,
+hatchet in hand; who, upon seeing how matters stood, without a
+moment's hesitation, ran up to his father, and, dropping his hatchet,
+caught him round the leg, just as the first stroke of the switch was
+about to descend on the calves of the unlucky Jerry.
+
+"O papa, papa!" cried he, "don't whip poor Jerry: if somebody must be
+whipped, let it be me; for it was I, and not Jerry, that cut the
+cherry-tree. I didn't know how much harm I was doing; I didn't
+indeed." And the child began crying piteously.
+
+With a look of glad surprise, his father, dropping the switch, caught
+his brave little boy in his arms, and folded him tenderly, lovingly,
+to his bosom. "Now, thanks be to God," cried he, "thanks be to God,
+that I have a son whose love of truth is greater than his fear of
+punishment! Look on him, my black children, look on him, and be as
+near like him as you can, if you would have the love of your master
+and the good-will of all around you."
+
+Seeing the unlooked-for turn the affair had taken, and not having the
+words to express the feelings of joy and thankfulness that swelled
+almost to bursting in his little black breast, Jerry darted through
+the door, out into the yard, kicked up his heels, yelped like a young
+dog, threw a somerset in the snow, and went rolling over and over down
+to the bottom of the hill, and ever after loved his noble little
+master to distraction.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+THE FIRST SORROW.
+
+
+When George had learned all that poor old Hobby could teach him, his
+father, to reward him for his diligence and good behavior at school,
+indulged him in two or three weeks' holidays, which he went to spend
+at a distance from home, among some friends and relatives. Here, as
+usual, he was made much of; for, being a great favorite with all who
+knew him, he met with a cordial reception wherever he went; and what
+with hunting and fishing, riding and visiting, the time spent here was
+the most delightful he had ever known. But hardly had half the happy
+days flown by, when word came that his father was sick, even unto
+death; and that, of all things, he most desired to look upon his noble
+boy once more before he died. With a sadness and heaviness of heart he
+had never before experienced, George set out on his return home, where
+he arrived just in time to receive his dying father's blessing. Long
+and deeply did he mourn his loss; for his father was most tenderly
+beloved by his children, and greatly esteemed by his friends and
+neighbors as a useful member of society, and a man of many sterling
+traits of character.
+
+Mrs. Washington was thus left a young widow with a large family of
+young children, whom it now became her duty to provide for and educate
+in a manner becoming a Christian mother; and how well and faithfully
+and lovingly she discharged this sacred trust, is most beautifully set
+forth in the life and character of her great son. She was a woman of
+uncommon strength and clearness of understanding, and her heart was
+the home of every pure and noble virtue. She was mild, but firm;
+generous, but just; candid whenever she deemed it her duty to speak
+her mind, but never losing sight of the respect and consideration due
+to the feelings and opinions of others. She was gentle and loving with
+her children, yet exacting from them in return the strictest obedience
+to her will and wishes. But of all virtues most sacred in her eyes was
+that of the love of truth, which she ever sought to implant in their
+minds; assuring them, that, without it, all other virtues were but as
+unprofitable weeds, barren of fruits and flowers. She was simple and
+dignified in her manners, and had a hearty dislike for every thing
+savoring of parade and idle show. She always received her friends and
+visitors with a cordial smile of welcome, spreading before them with
+an unsparing hand the best her house afforded: but, when they rose to
+depart, she would invite them once, and once only, to stay longer;
+and, if after this they still seemed bent on going, she would do all
+in her power to speed them on their journey. With so many traits
+betokening strength of mind and character, she had but one weakness;
+and this was her excessive dread of thunder, caused in early
+maidenhood by seeing a young lady struck dead at her side by
+lightning.
+
+And such was Mary, the mother of Washington; and seldom indeed has her
+like been seen. As her husband, by industry and prudent management,
+had gathered together enough of the riches of this world to leave each
+of his children a fine plantation, she was not hindered by straitened
+circumstances, or anxiety as to their means of future support, from
+giving her chief attention to such bodily and mental training as
+should have a lasting tendency to make them, in more mature years,
+healthy, virtuous, and wise.
+
+It has been often remarked, that those men who have most distinguished
+themselves in the world's history for noble thoughts and heroic deeds,
+have, as a general thing, inherited those qualities of mind and heart
+which made them great, from their mothers, rather than from their
+fathers; and also that their efforts to improve and elevate the
+condition of their fellow-beings have been owing in a larger measure
+to the lessons of truth, piety, and industry, taught them by their
+mothers in childhood and early youth. If this be the case, then how
+much are we indebted for the freedom, prosperity, and happiness we
+now enjoy above other nations of the earth, to Mary, the mother of
+Washington! Perhaps, to give you a still more forcible idea of the
+characters of both mother and son, and of the wholesome effects on him
+of her judicious training, I ought to relate in this place the story
+of his attempt at taming the sorrel horse.
+
+A fine horse was an object that afforded Mrs. Washington, as it did
+the other substantial Virginia ladies of that day, quite as much, if
+not more, real pleasure than their more delicate grand-daughters of
+the present now find in their handsome carriages, lap-dogs, and
+canary-birds. So great was her fondness for this noble animal, that
+she usually suffered two or three of her finest to run in a meadow in
+front of the house, where she might look at them from time to time as
+she sat sewing at her dining-room window. One of these was a young
+sorrel horse, of great beauty of form, and fleetness of foot, but of
+so wild and vicious a nature, that, for fear of accident, she had
+forbidden any one to mount him, although he had already reached his
+full height and size.
+
+Now, you must know that a bolder and more skilful rider than George
+was not to be found in all the Old Dominion, as Virginia is sometimes
+called; and it was this early practice that afterwards won for him the
+name of being the finest horseman of his day. Often, as we may very
+naturally suppose to have been the case, would he reason thus with
+himself, as, sitting on the topmost rail of a worm fence, he watched
+the spirited young animal frisking and bounding about the field in all
+the freedom of his untamed nature: "If I were but once upon his back,
+with a strong bit in his mouth, believe me, I would soon make him a
+thing of use as well as ornament; and it would, I am sure, be such a
+pleasant surprise to mother to look from her window some fine morning,
+and see me mounted on his back, and managing him with ease, and to
+know that it was I who had subdued his proud spirit."
+
+Accordingly, full of these thoughts, he arose early one bright summer
+morning, and invited two or three friends of his own age, then on a
+visit at his mother's house, to go with him to the fields, to share
+with him the sport, or lend their aid in carrying out his design,
+should it be found too difficult and hazardous for himself alone. They
+needed no second bidding, these young madcaps, to whom nothing could
+be more to their liking than such wild sport. So at it they went; and
+after a deal of chasing and racing, heading and doubling, falling down
+and picking themselves up again, and more shouting and laughing than
+they had breath to spare for, they at last succeeded in driving the
+panting and affrighted young animal into a corner. Here, by some means
+or other (it was difficult to tell precisely how), they managed to
+bridle him, although at no small risk of a broken head or two from
+his heels, that he seemed to fling about him in a dozen different
+directions at once. Having thus made him their captive, they led him
+out to the more open parts of the field, where George requested his
+friends to hold him till he could get on his back. But the wild and
+unruly spirit the young beast had shown that morning had so dismayed
+them, that they flatly refused to comply; begging him not to think of
+attempting it, as it would be at the risk of life or limb. But George
+was not to be daunted by such trifles; and seeing that his blood was
+up, and knowing that, when this was the case with him, he was not to
+be turned aside from his purpose, they at length yielded unwilling
+consent to his entreaties; and, giving him the required aid, he was
+soon mounted.
+
+This was an insult the proud-spirited animal could not brook; and he
+began plunging and rearing in a manner so frightful to behold, that
+they who watched the struggle for mastery expected every moment to see
+the daring young rider hurled headlong to the ground. But he kept his
+seat unmoved and firm as an iron statue on an iron horse. At length,
+however, the horse, clinching the bit between his teeth, became for a
+time unmanageable, and sped away over the field on the wings of the
+wind; till, making a false step, he staggered and plunged, rallied
+again, staggered, and, with the red life-stream gushing from his
+nostrils, dropped down dead.
+
+George sprang from the ground unharmed: but, when he saw the noble
+young animal stretched out smoking and bloody and lifeless before him,
+tears of pity filled his eyes; and still faster did they flow when he
+thought of the grief it would occasion his mother, when she should
+hear how her beautiful favorite had come to his end. His companions
+now rejoining him, they all, with sad misgiving in their hearts,
+returned to the house, where Mrs. Washington met them with a cheerful
+good-morning, and, when they had taken their seats at the
+breakfast-table, began talking with them in her usual lively and
+entertaining manner, until the dreaded question came: "Well, young
+gentlemen," said she, "have you seen any thing of my sorrel horse in
+your walks this morning?"
+
+The boys looked at one another for some moments in silence, scarce
+knowing what answer to make. At last, George, to put an end to the
+painful suspense, said in a subdued voice, "Mother, the sorrel horse
+is dead." He then, in a few brief words, told her how it had all
+happened, and ended by entreating her forgiveness if he had offended;
+at the same time assuring her, that, in so doing, he had only thought
+of giving her a pleasant surprise.
+
+When he first began his account of the mishap, a flush of anger rose
+to his mother's cheek; of which, however, there was not a trace to be
+seen by the time he had finished; and she answered, with something
+like an approving smile, "My son, as you have had the courage to come
+and tell me the truth at once, I freely forgive you: had you skulked
+away, I would have despised you, and been ashamed to own you as my
+son."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+PLAYING SOLDIER.
+
+
+After the death of her husband, Mrs. Washington left the care and
+education of her son George, in no small measure, to the judgment and
+discretion of her step-son Lawrence, a young man of twenty-five, and
+lately married to Miss Fairfax. The love that had always existed
+between these two brothers was something beautiful indeed to
+behold,--the more so when we take into consideration the difference of
+fourteen years in their ages; and, now that their dear father was no
+more, this love grew all the more tender and strong, and George soon
+learned to look up to his eldest brother as to a second father.
+
+Mr. Lawrence Washington, besides being a fine scholar and one of the
+most polished gentlemen of his day, was also a brave and able soldier;
+having served during the late Spanish war as a lieutenant under the
+great Admiral Vernon, in honor of whom he had named his fine estate on
+the Potomac, Mount Vernon.
+
+At Mount Vernon, then, we find George spending by far the greater
+portion of his holidays; and here he often fell in with young
+officers, fellow-soldiers of his brother, to whom with eager ears he
+was wont to listen as they recounted their adventures, and told of
+hard-fought battles by land and sea with the roving pirates, or
+sea-robbers, and proud and vengeful Spaniards. These stories so fired
+his ardent young spirit, that he longed of all things to become a
+great soldier, that he might go forth to fight the enemies of his
+country, wherever they were to be found, and drive them from the face
+of the wide earth. To give these feelings some relief, he would muster
+his little school-fellows at play-time, and take them through the
+lessons of a military drill; showing them how to fire and fall back,
+how to advance and retreat, how to form in line of march, how to pitch
+their tents for a night's encampment, how to lay an Indian ambuscade,
+how to scale a wall, how to storm a battery; and, in short, forty
+other evolutions not to be found in any work on military tactics ever
+written, and at which old Wooden Leg, had he been there, would have
+shaken his cocked hat with a dubious look. Then dividing them into two
+opposing armies, with himself at the head of one, and the tallest boy
+of the school leading on the other, he would incite them to fight sham
+battles with wooden swords, wooden guns, snow-balls, and such other
+munitions of war as came most readily to hand; in which George, no
+matter what might be the odds against him, or what superior advantages
+the enemy might have in weapons or ground, was always sure to come off
+victorious.
+
+He was a handsome boy, uncommonly tall, strong, and active for his
+age; could out-run, out-jump, out-ride any boy three years older than
+himself; and, in wrestling, there was not one in a hundred who could
+bring his back to the ground. Many stories are told of his wonderful
+strength; and the spot is still shown, where, when a boy, he stood on
+the banks of the Rappahannock River, and, at its widest part, threw a
+stone to the opposite side,--a feat that no one has been found able to
+perform since that day. It was said, that, a few years later, he stood
+under the Natural Bridge, and threw a silver dollar upon the top of
+it,--a height of two hundred and twenty feet; not less than that of
+Bunker-hill Monument, and more than double that of the tallest hickory
+that ever hailed down its ripened nuts upon your heads. Although there
+were none more studious than he in the schoolroom, yet he always took
+the keenest delight in every kind of active and manly sport, and was
+the acknowledged leader of the playground. But he had qualities of
+mind and heart far more desirable and meritorious than those of mere
+bodily activity and strength. Such was his love of truth, his strong
+sense of justice, and his clearness of judgment, that, when any
+dispute arose between his playmates, they always appealed to him to
+decide the difference between them, as willing to abide by his
+decision, and make it their law. Although he had the courage of a
+young lion, and was even more than a match in strength for many an
+older boy, he was never known to have a fight at school, nor elsewhere
+indeed, that I have ever heard; for such was the respect he ever
+showed to the feelings and wishes of others, that he never gave an
+insult, and, depend upon it, never received one.
+
+The high ground of Mount Vernon commands a splendid view of the
+Potomac up and down for miles, where it makes a noble bend, and winds
+its shining course amidst verdant meadow-slopes and richly wooded
+hills. Now and then, in the course of the year, some noble ship, with
+all its sails outspread and gay banners fluttering to the breeze,
+might be seen moving down the majestic stream, hastening in its pride
+and strength to stem the billows of the mighty ocean. With the keenest
+of delight none but the young and daring mind can ever know, George,
+as he stood on the piazza in front of his brother's mansion, would
+watch them with wishful eyes, until a bend of the river hid their
+lofty masts behind the green tops of the yet more lofty hills between.
+Then would there awaken in his heart an earnest longing to become a
+sailor; to go forth in some gallant ship upon the face of the great
+deep; to visit those far-off countries, where he might behold with his
+own eyes those wonders he had read so much of in books. At such
+times, it may be, there would arise in his mind enchanting visions of
+some desert island, upon whose lonely rocky shores he might some day
+have the rare good fortune of being thrown by the angry billows, there
+to dwell, like another Robinson Crusoe, many, many years, with no
+other company than talking birds, skipping goats, and dancing cats,
+and, if so lucky, a good man Friday, to be rescued by his daring from
+the bloody clutches of the terrible cannibals.
+
+Lawrence Washington was not long in discovering the thoughts that were
+uppermost in the mind of the adventurous boy; and, like the generous
+brother that he was, resolved that, should an opportunity offer, a
+wish so natural should be gratified. In a short time after, George
+being then about fourteen years of age, a British man-of-war moved up
+the Potomac, and cast anchor in full view of Mount Vernon. On board of
+this vessel his brother Lawrence procured him a midshipman's warrant,
+after having by much persuasion gained the consent of his mother;
+which, however, she yielded with much reluctance, and many misgivings
+with respect to the profession her son was about to choose. Not
+knowing how much pain all this was giving his mother, George was as
+near wild with delight as could well be with a boy of a nature so even
+and steady. Now, what had all along been but a waking dream was about
+to become a wide-awake reality. His preparations were soon made:
+already was his trunk packed, and carried on board the ship that was
+to bear him so far away from his native land; and nothing now remained
+but to bid farewell to the loved ones at home. But when he came and
+stood before his mother, dressed in his gay midshipman's uniform, so
+tall and robust in figure, so handsome in face, and so noble in look
+and gesture, the thought took possession of her mind, that, if she
+suffered him to leave her then, she might never see him more; and,
+losing her usual firmness and self-control, she burst into tears.
+
+"Deeply do I regret, my dear son," said she, "to disappoint you in a
+wish you have so near at heart: but I find I cannot bring myself to
+give you up yet; for, young as you are, your aid and counsel have
+already become to me of the greatest service and comfort; and these
+little fatherless ones, now weeping around you, have learned to look
+up to you as their protector and guide. You know too little of the
+ways of the world, and are too young and inexperienced, to go forth to
+endure its hardships, and battle with its temptations, that lie in
+wait on every side to entrap the unwary, and lead them down to
+destruction. Without you, our home would be lonely indeed: then, for
+your mother's sake, and for the sake of these little ones, give up
+your darling scheme, for the present at least, that we may all be
+happy at home once more together."
+
+Thus entreated, what could he do but yield consent to the wishes of a
+loving and prudent mother, and remain at home? where, in a few days,
+his noble self-denial was rewarded with a sweet contentment of mind
+that he could never have known had he left the dear ones in sorrow
+behind him, and gone forth to spend months and years upon the billows
+of the lonely seas. Surely a kind Heaven so ordered that the welfare
+and happiness of us Americans, and, it may be, that of the whole
+world, should be made to depend upon the promptings of a mother's
+love; for had the boy Washington realized this early dream, and gone
+forth in that gallant ship, he might have perished in the stormy deep,
+and we had never known the name we now love so much to praise and
+venerate. Or, by his distinguished abilities, he might have risen to
+become in time the Lord High Admiral of the British Navy; and, instead
+of being set apart to the salvation of his native land, might have
+been made an instrument to its destruction, impossible as such an
+event may now appear to us, with our knowledge of the glorious work he
+did perform when in the fulness of his strength and years, and
+accustomed as we are to behold in him our model of all that is great
+and virtuous in mankind.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+"RULES OF BEHAVIOR."
+
+
+For the five years following his father's death, George made his home
+at the house of his half-brother, Augustine Washington, at a
+considerable distance from his mother's, where he might have the
+benefit of a better school which that neighborhood afforded. His new
+schoolmaster was a Mr. Williams, a very worthy man; who, however,
+although he knew a vast deal more than Mr. Hobby, the poor old
+grave-digger, was far from being what we might call a first-rate
+scholar. But what his teacher lacked in learning, George made up in
+diligence, and the most judicious use of every means of
+self-improvement within his reach. And here, my dear children, let me
+remind you of a thing worthy of your remembrance through life, that
+success in the pursuit of knowledge depends far less upon the ability
+and skill of the teacher, than upon the industry, perseverance, and
+willing application of the learner.
+
+Under the instruction of this, his second and last teacher, George got
+a little insight into English grammar, read some history, became well
+acquainted with geography, completely mastered arithmetic, and made
+handsome progress in geometry and trigonometry; which, as you must
+know, are higher branches of mathematics than arithmetic, and far more
+difficult to comprehend. In connection with the two latter, he studied
+surveying; by which is taught, as you must continue to bear in mind
+hereafter, the measurement of land.
+
+When he had advanced so far in this study as to give him some idea of
+the proper use and handling of the chain and compass, the two
+principal instruments employed in this art, he began to put his
+knowledge into practice by taking surveys of the farms lying in the
+immediate neighborhood of his schoolhouse, and also of the lands
+belonging to the estate of Mount Vernon.
+
+Assisted by his schoolmates, he would follow up, and measure off with
+the help of his long steel chain, the boundary lines between the
+farms, such as fences, roads, and watercourses; then those dividing
+the different parts of the same farm; determining at the same time,
+with the help of his compass, their various courses, their crooks and
+windings, and the angles formed at their points of meeting or
+intersection. This would enable him to get at the shape and size not
+only of each farm, but of every meadow, field, and wood composing it.
+This done, he would make a map or drawing on paper of the land
+surveyed, whereon would be clearly traced the lines dividing the
+different parts, with the name and number of acres of each attached;
+while, on the opposite page, he would write down the long and
+difficult tables of figures by which these results had been reached.
+All this he would execute with as much neatness and accuracy as if it
+had been left with him to decide thereby some gravely disputed
+land-claim.
+
+To qualify himself for the management of business affairs upon
+reaching the age of manhood, he would copy off into a blank-book every
+form or instrument of writing he would meet with; such as deeds,
+wills, notes of hand, bills of exchange, receipts, bonds,
+land-warrants, &c., &c. And, what was still more remarkable in a boy
+of thirteen, he wrote down, under the head of what he called "Rules of
+Behavior in Company and Conversation," such wise maxims, and lines of
+wholesome advice, as he would pick up from time to time in the course
+of his reading or observation, to aid him in forming habits of
+industry, politeness, and morality. Some of these rules, your Uncle
+Juvinell, with an eye mainly to your well-being, will repeat to you;
+for, when but a boy, he got them by heart, well knowing, that, without
+some such aid, he would find it hard, if not impossible, to so order
+his walks through life as to win and deserve the esteem and confidence
+of his fellow-men, as well as the blessing and approbation of his
+Maker. And now that he has reached the evening of his days, and is
+well assured that the daily observance of these rules has made him a
+wiser, a better, and a happier man, he would most earnestly advise all
+his friends, great or small, but especially small, be they boys or
+girls, to pursue the like course, if they would be favored of Heaven
+in the like manner. Here they are:--
+
+     "1. Every action in company ought to be with some sign of
+     respect to those present.
+
+     "2. In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a
+     humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet.
+
+     "3. Speak not when others speak, sit not when others stand,
+     speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not when others
+     stop.
+
+     "4. Turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jog
+     not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean
+     not on any one.
+
+     "5. Be not a flatterer; neither play with any one that delights
+     not to be played with.
+
+     "6. Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though
+     he were your enemy.
+
+     "7. It is good manners to prefer them to whom we speak before
+     ourselves, especially if they be above us; with whom in no sort
+     ought we to begin.
+
+     "8. Strive not with your superiors in an argument, but always
+     submit your judgment to others with modesty.
+
+     "9. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself
+     professes; for it is immodest and presumptuous.
+
+     "10. When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well,
+     blame not him that did it.
+
+     "11. Before you advise or find fault with any one, consider
+     whether it ought to be in public or in private, presently or
+     at some other time, in what terms to do it; and, in reproving,
+     show no signs of anger, but do it with sweetness and mildness.
+
+     "12. Take all advice thankfully, in what time or place soever
+     given; but afterwards, not being blamable, take a time or place
+     convenient to let him know it that gave it.
+
+     "13. Mock not in jest at any thing of importance: if you
+     deliver any thing witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing
+     thereat yourself.
+
+     "14. Wherein you reprove another, be unblamable yourself; for
+     example is better than precept.
+
+     "15. Use no reproachful language against any one; neither curse
+     nor revile.
+
+     "16. Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the injury of
+     any.
+
+     "17. In your apparel, be modest, and endeavor to accommodate
+     yourself to nature, rather than to procure admiration; keep to
+     the fashion of your equals, such as are civil and orderly, with
+     respect to time and places.
+
+     "18. Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you to see
+     if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your
+     pantaloons sit neatly, and clothes handsomely.
+
+     "19. Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem
+     your reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad
+     company.
+
+     "20. Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is
+     a sign of a kindly and commendable nature; and, in all causes
+     of passion, admit reason to govern.
+
+     "21. Be not immodest in urging a friend to make known a secret.
+
+     "22. Utter not base and frivolous things amongst grave and
+     learned men, nor very difficult questions or subjects among the
+     ignorant, nor things hard to believe.
+
+     "23. Speak not of doleful things in time of mirth, nor at the
+     table; speak not of melancholy things, as death and wounds;
+     and, if others mention them, change, if you can, the discourse.
+     Tell not your dreams but to your intimate friend.
+
+     "24. Break not a jest, when none take pleasure in mirth; laugh
+     not loud, nor at all, without occasion; deride no man's
+     misfortune, though there seem to be some cause.
+
+     "25. Speak not injurious words, neither in jest nor earnest;
+     scoff at none, although they give occasion.
+
+     "26. Seek not to lessen the merits of others; neither give more
+     than due praise.
+
+     "27. Go not thither where you know not whether you shall be
+     welcome. Give not advice without being asked; and, when
+     desired, do it briefly.
+
+     "28. Reprove not the imperfections of others; for that belongs
+     to parents, masters, and superiors.
+
+     "29. Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of others, and ask not
+     how they came. What you may speak in secret to your friend,
+     deliver not before others.
+
+     "30. Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly, nor
+     bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.
+
+     "31. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb
+     not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not
+     nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not nor
+     answer him until his speech be ended.
+
+     "32. Treat with men at right times about business, and whimper
+     not in the company of others.
+
+     "33. Be not in haste to relate news, if you know not the truth
+     thereof.
+
+     "34. Be not curious to know the affairs of others; neither
+     approach those that speak in private.
+
+     "35. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to
+     keep your promise.
+
+     "36. When your masters or superiors talk to anybody, hearken
+     not, nor speak or laugh.
+
+     "37. Speak not evil of the absent; for it is unjust.
+
+     "38. Make no show of taking delight in your victuals; feed not
+     with greediness; cut your food with a knife, and lean not on
+     the table; neither find fault with what you eat.
+
+     "39. Be not angry at the table, whatever happens; and, if you
+     have reason to be so, show it not, but put on a cheerful face,
+     especially if there be strangers; for good humor makes of one
+     dish a feast.
+
+     "40. If you speak of God or his attributes, let it be
+     seriously, in reverence; and honor and obey your parents.
+
+     "41. Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.
+
+     "42. Labor to keep in your breast that little spark of
+     celestial fire called conscience."
+
+Now, does it not strike you, my dear children, as being most truly
+wonderful that it should have ever entered the mind of a boy of
+thirteen to lay down for his own guidance and self-improvement such
+rules and principles as these I have just repeated? It certainly must.
+And yet when I tell you that he strictly adhered to them through life,
+and squared his conduct by them daily, you will, no doubt, think it
+quite unreasonable that he could have been other than the good and
+great man he was.
+
+These writings I have mentioned filled several quires of paper; and
+together with his business papers, letters, journals, and
+account-books, written later in life, and with the same neatness and
+precision, are still preserved at Mount Vernon with pious care; and
+are even now to be seen by those who go on pilgrimages to that sacred
+spot, although, since many of them were penned, more than a hundred
+years have come and gone.
+
+And thus, my children, you have seen young Washington, at an age when
+most boys are wasting their precious hours in idle sports, seeking to
+acquire those habits of industry, punctuality, and method, which
+afterwards enabled him so to economize time and labor as to do with
+ease and expedition what others did with difficulty and tardiness. You
+have seen him making the best use of the slender means within his
+reach for storing his mind with those treasures of knowledge, and
+schooling his heart in the daily practice of those exalted virtues,
+which, after a life well spent and work well done, make good his title
+to the name he bears,--the greatest and the wisest of human kind.
+
+At last, the day came when George was to leave school for ever; and a
+day of sorrow it was to his school-fellows, who parted from him with
+many an affectionate wish, and, as we are told, even with tears; so
+greatly had he endeared himself to them by his noble disposition,
+gentle manners, and earnest desire to do as he would be done by, which
+appeared in all his words and actions. In these regrets, Mr. Williams,
+his worthy schoolmaster, also shared; and it gave him in after-life,
+when his little George had become the great Washington, the most
+heartfelt pleasure to say, that it had never been his privilege to
+teach another pupil who could at all compare with him for diligence in
+application, aptitude in learning, docility of disposition, manly
+generosity, courage, and truth.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+
+Extending from the Rappahannock to the Potomac, and stretching away
+beyond the Blue Ridge far into the Alleghany Mountains, there lay at
+this time an immense tract of forest land, broken only here and there
+by a little clearing, in the midst of which stood the rude log-cabin
+of some hardy backwoodsman. This large body of land--the largest,
+indeed, ever owned by any one man in Virginia--was the property of a
+great English nobleman named Lord Fairfax, an old bachelor of
+eccentric habits and strange opinions, but of a highly cultivated
+understanding, and, when it so pleased him, of polite and elegant
+address. His stature was lofty,--far above that of the common run of
+men. He was a keen sportsman, had a fund of whimsical humor, and, in
+his odd way, showed himself possessed of a kindly and generous heart;
+sometimes making a tenant or poor friend the present of a large farm,
+without requiring any thing in return but a haunch of venison or a fat
+wild turkey for his next Christmas dinner.
+
+Having heard that settlements were being made in the most fertile
+valleys of his wild domain, he had lately come over from the
+mother-country to inquire into the matter, and make suitable provision
+against any future encroachments of the kind upon his rights. He now
+beheld his forest possessions for the first time; and so charmed was
+he with the wild beauty of the scenery, and so won over by enticing
+visions of fishing and hunting, conjured up by the sight of the waving
+woods and running streams, that he resolved to leave his native land
+for ever, and take up his abiding-place for the rest of his days amid
+those leafy solitudes. Accordingly, he betook himself, with all his
+negro servants (numbering one hundred and fifty), and a few white
+dependants, to the beautiful Valley of the Shenandoah, lying between
+the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains; where he soon cleared a
+large plantation, and built thereon a house, to which he gave the name
+of Greenway Court.
+
+From that time forward, this became his fixed abode; but, as he had
+more land than a thousand men could put to any good use, he was quite
+willing to dispose of all, except what lay for a few miles immediately
+around Greenway Court, at reasonable rates, to such honest persons as
+were willing to buy it and make it their future home. But, in order
+that no misunderstanding might arise hereafter between the parties
+concerned with respect to the boundary-line and number of acres
+bought and sold, it was necessary, in the first place, to have the
+land surveyed, and divided into lots of convenient sizes for farms.
+
+Now, you must know that, old Lord Fairfax was a distant relative of
+Mrs. Lawrence Washington, and had, as a natural consequence, often met
+our George at Mount Vernon; and so struck was he with the manly
+bearing, high character, good sense, and mathematical skill, of the
+fair-haired, blue-eyed youth, that he offered him, young as he was,
+the place of surveyor of all his vast lands. Being the son of a
+widowed mother, and earnestly desirous of aiding her all in his power,
+and earning for himself an honest independence, George was but too
+happy to accept of the offer; and the necessary arrangements were soon
+made. Having provided himself with all things needful for the new
+enterprise,--such as a horse, a rifle, a blanket, and a steel chain
+and compass,--he set out, at the head of a small party of hunters and
+backwoodsmen, upon this his first considerable field of labor, early
+in the spring of 1748, just one month from the completion of his
+sixteenth year.
+
+They were soon, in the depths of the wilderness, miles beyond the most
+distant frontier settlements. The snows of winter that still lingered
+on the mountains, warmed by the softer airs of early spring, had
+melted so rapidly of late as to swell the forest streams to a degree
+that rendered their fording often difficult, and even sometimes
+dangerous. Now and then, coming to a stream which had overflowed its
+banks, the little party would be obliged to construct a raft of logs,
+roughly lashed together with grape-vines, upon which they could push
+to the opposite side, without getting their baggage wet, and, at the
+same time, compel their horses to swim along behind. Their way was
+often obstructed by the trunks and branches of fallen trees, thickets
+tangled and dense and thorny, huge and rugged rocks, and treacherous
+swamps, covered with long, green grass, into which the horses,
+stepping unawares, would suddenly plunge up to the saddle-girths in
+water and mire.
+
+For some time, they lodged in wigwams or huts, rudely framed of poles,
+and covered with the bark of trees; which served the purpose well
+enough when the weather was dry and still, but were often beaten down
+and overturned by the winds and rains when their shelter was most
+needed. After two or three of these rickety shanties had been tumbled
+about their heads, to the no small risk of life or limb, they wisely
+concluded to abandon them, and sleep in the open air, with the
+twinkling stars above them, the gray old trees around them, and the
+damp, cold ground beneath them, with nothing between but their good
+blankets, and the dead, dry leaves of autumn heaped together; and
+lucky was he who got the place nearest the fire, or could put the
+mossy trunk of a fallen tree between him and the biting blast, or,
+better still, could boast a bearskin for his bed. A little before
+sunset, they would halt for the night in some sheltered spot,
+convenient to a running stream; where, turning their horses loose to
+graze till morning, they would build a cheerful fire of the dry
+brushwood close at hand, and prepare their evening meal, which they
+would eat with a keenness of appetite known only to the tired and
+hungry hunter. Each man was his own cook; their food consisting
+chiefly of venison and wild turkey their rifles procured them, and
+fish drawn from the neighboring brook, which they would broil on the
+glowing coals, fastened to a forked stick instead of a spit, and then
+eat it from a maple chip, instead of a dish. If the season permitted
+them to add to this a hatful of berries that grew on the sunny side of
+the hill, or acorns from the mountain-oak, or nuts from the
+hickory-tree, or, more delicious still, plums, persimmons, and
+pawpaws, that grew in the more open parts of the woods, they made of
+it a dainty feast indeed.
+
+Now and then, in the course of this rambling life in the wilderness,
+they met with roving bands of skin-clad Indians, either as warriors
+out upon the war-path against some distant tribe, or as hunters
+roaming the forest in quest of game. One evening, late, as our little
+party of surveyors were about to encamp for the night, they spied
+through the trees the glimmering light of a large fire on the top of a
+far-off hill. Curious to know who, besides themselves, could be in
+that lonely place, they determined to go thither before stopping; and,
+guided by the light, reached ere long the spot, where they found a
+small squad of Indian hunters, resting themselves after the fatigues
+of the day's chase. They seemed to be in high good humor, as if the
+hunt had gone well with them that day; and, being in this mood,
+extended a true Indian welcome to the new-comers; setting before them,
+with open-handed hospitality, heaps of parched corn, and their
+choicest bits of venison, wild turkey, bear's meat, and fish. Supper
+ended, the pipe of peace and good-will passed from mouth to mouth, as
+a pledge that all should go on well between them; after which the
+Indians, for the further entertainment of their white guests, and as a
+more marked manner of showing their respect, set about preparing
+themselves for a war-dance.
+
+In the first place, they cleared the ground around the fire of chunks
+and brushwood, and other obstructions that might hinder the free play
+of their feet and legs in the performance. Then the two musicians
+began to put in order and tune their instruments: that is to say, one
+of them filled a camp-kettle half full of water, over which he tightly
+stretched a raw-hide, and, tapping it twice or thrice with a stick,
+drew forth a hollow, smothered sound therefrom, by way of giving to
+those not in the secret a hint that this was to be their drum; while
+the other made a rattle by putting a few bullets or pebbles into a
+hard, dry gourd of monstrous size, to the handle of which he fastened
+a horse's tail, not so much to improve its tone perhaps, as to give it
+a more finished appearance.
+
+These simple preparations soon completed, a tall warrior, grimly
+painted as if for battle, advanced a few paces into the circle, and,
+squatting upon his haunches, fixed his eyes for several moments with a
+hard, stony look upon nothing whatever, till the first tap of the drum
+and the first jerk of the rattle, when he suddenly leaped up, with a
+deafening yell that made the old woods ring again, and began capering
+about in the most astonishing manner, causing such a commotion among
+the dry leaves and dead twigs as made it appear that a little
+whirlwind had all at once been let loose among them. Another soon
+followed, and got up a similar sensation among the dry leaves and dead
+twigs on his own private account; while a third, springing into the
+circle, did the same; and so on, until at last the whole party were
+hot in the dance. Some brandished their scalping-knives, some
+flourished their tomahawks, some waved aloft the scalps of their
+enemies taken in battle; all yelling the while, and all making
+horrible faces. And warmer and warmer they waxed in the dance, and
+round and round they went; now up in the air, now down on the ground;
+jumping and kicking, yelping and barking, spinning and whirling,
+yelling and howling, like a pack of hobgoblins and imps on a spree.
+The hollow woods gave back the barbarous din in a thousand
+obstreperous echoes; and afar off, from the depths of the lonely
+forest glens, might have been heard, had not the attention of the
+spectators been otherwise engaged, the answering howl of the hungry
+wolves.
+
+After some time spent in this outlandish amusement, without any
+previous notice whatever, plump down they sat, and, in a minute, were
+smoking their pipes with as much gravity and composure as if they had
+just come in from a gentle promenade with their wives and children
+along the banks of a smooth and tranquil river. It was a sight, once
+seen, never to be forgotten. At first, George and his friends had
+looked on with open-eyed amazement; but, before the dance was ended,
+the whole scene appeared to them so comical, that they had need of all
+their self-control to keep a sober countenance, so as not to give
+offence to their savage entertainers.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+THE YOUNG SURVEYOR.
+
+
+It was a glorious region of stately woods, fertile valleys, clear
+running streams, and lofty mountains, where our young surveyor, with
+the exception of the winter months, spent the next three years of his
+life. At first, not being accustomed to such severe privations and
+exposure, it had gone rather hard with him: but he soon became inured
+to them; and it was, no doubt, to this rough experience in the
+wilderness, that he owed, in large measure, his uncommon vigor and
+activity of body, and that firm reliance on the resources of his own
+mind, which enabled him to endure and overcome those hardships,
+trials, and difficulties which beset him throughout the greater
+portion of his after-life. This severe training was also of another
+advantage to him, in making him perfectly familiar with all that
+region, in whose dark retreats and rugged wilds he learned, a few
+years later, his first hard lessons in the art of war.
+
+With all its privations, it was a life he loved to lead; for it
+afforded him the means of an independent support: and a happy boy was
+he, when first he wrote his mother that he was earning from fifteen
+to twenty dollars for every day he worked. Besides this, the beauty
+and grandeur of Nature's works, everywhere visible around him,
+awakened in him feelings of the truest delight; and he would sometimes
+spend the better part of a summer's day in admiring the tall and
+stately trees, whose spreading branches were his only shelter from the
+dews of heaven, and heat of noonday. At night, after supper, when his
+companions would be talking over the adventures of the day just past,
+or laughing boisterously at some broad joke repeated for the hundredth
+time, or would be joining their voices in the chorus of some rude
+woodland song, our young surveyor would be sitting a little apart on
+the trunk of a fallen tree, pencil and paper before him, calculating
+with a grave countenance, and by the ruddy light of a blazing
+pine-knot, the results of the day's labor. With no other companionship
+than that of the wild Indians he fell in with from time to time, and
+the rude, unlettered hunters around him, he must needs turn for
+society to the thoughts that stirred within his own mind. Often would
+he withdraw himself from the noisy mirth of his companions, and,
+climbing to some lofty mountain-top, spend hours and hours rapt in the
+contemplation of the wild and varied region, smiling in life and
+beauty far, far beneath him. At such times, we can imagine his
+countenance lit up with a sacred joy, and his soul rising in praise
+and thanksgiving to the great Father, who, in love and wisdom, made
+this glorious world for the good and happiness of all that dwell
+therein.
+
+Now and then, for the sake of a refreshing change, he would leave the
+wilderness behind him, with all its toils and dangers, and betake him
+to Greenway Court, the woodland home of old Lord Fairfax, with whom he
+had become a great favorite, and was ever a welcome guest. Here he
+would spend a few weeks in the most agreeable manner you can well
+imagine; for the old lord, being a man of some learning and extensive
+reading, had collected, in the course of a long life, a large library
+of the best and rarest books, from which, during these three years,
+George derived great pleasure and much valuable information. Besides
+this, a keener fox-hunter than this odd old bachelor was not to be
+found in all the Old Dominion; and, for the full enjoyment of this
+sport, he always kept a pack of hounds of the purest English blood. At
+the first peep of dawn, the cheerful notes of the hunter's horn, and
+the deep-mouthed baying of the fox-hounds, filling the neighboring
+woods with their lively din, would call our young surveyor from his
+slumbers to come and join in the sports of the morning. Waiting for no
+second summons, he would be up and out in a trice, and mounted by the
+side of the merry old lord; when, at a signal wound on the bugle, the
+whole party would dash away, pell-mell, helter-skelter, over the hills
+and through the woods, up the hills and down them again, across the
+brooks and along the winding river; hunters and horses hard on the
+heels of the hounds, hounds hard on the heels of poor Renard, and poor
+Renard cutting, cutting away for dear life.
+
+During the three years thus employed, George made his home at Mount
+Vernon, it being nearer and more convenient to his field of labor;
+but, as often as his business would permit, he would go on a visit to
+his mother at the old homestead on the Rappahannock, whither, as I
+should have told you before now, his father had removed when he was
+but three or four years old. These were precious opportunities, ever
+improved by him, of extending to her that aid in the management of her
+family affairs, which to receive from him was her greatest pleasure,
+as well as his truest delight to give.
+
+About this time, he formed a habit of writing down in a diary or
+day-book such facts and observations as seemed to him worthy of note,
+by which means he would be enabled to fix firmly in his mind whatever
+might prove of use to him at a future day. This is a most excellent
+habit; and I would earnestly advise all young persons, desirous of
+increasing their stock of knowledge, to form it as soon as they begin
+the study of grammar and can write a good round hand. The following is
+a specimen of this diary, written by him at the age of sixteen, as you
+will see by the date therein given:--
+
+     "March 13th, 1748.--Rode to his lordship's (Lord Fairfax's)
+     quarter. About four miles higher up the Shenandoah, we went
+     through most beautiful groves of sugar-trees, and spent the
+     better part of the day in admiring the trees and richness of
+     the land.
+
+     "14th.--We sent our baggage to Capt. Hite's, near Fredericktown;
+     and went ourselves down the river about sixteen miles (the
+     land exceedingly rich all the way, producing abundance of
+     grain, hemp, and tobacco), in order to lay off some land on
+     Cole's Marsh and Long Marsh.
+
+     "15th.--Worked hard till night, and then returned. After
+     supper, we were lighted into a room; and I, not being so good a
+     woodsman as the rest, stripped myself very orderly, and went
+     into the bed, as they called it; when, to my surprise, I found
+     it to be nothing but a little straw matted together, without
+     sheet or any thing else, but only one threadbare blanket, with
+     double its weight of vermin, I was glad to get up and put on my
+     clothes, and lie as my companions did. Had we not been very
+     tired, I am sure we should not have slept much that night. I
+     made a promise to sleep so no more; choosing rather to sleep in
+     the open air, before a fire.
+
+     "18th.--We travelled to Thomas Berwick's on the Potomac, where
+     we found the river exceedingly high, by reason of the great
+     rains that had fallen among the Alleghanies. They told us it
+     would not be fordable for several days; it being now six feet
+     higher than usual, and rising. We agreed to stay till Monday.
+     We this day called to see the famed Warm Springs. We camped out
+     in the field this night.
+
+     "20th.--Finding the river not much abated, we in the evening
+     swam our horses over to the Maryland side.
+
+     "21st.--We went over in a canoe, and travelled up the Maryland
+     side all day, in a continued rain, to Col. Cresap's, over
+     against the mouth of the South Branch, about forty miles from
+     the place of starting in the morning, and over the worst road,
+     I believe, that ever was trod by man or beast."
+
+In this diary, he also entered such items as these,--the number of
+acres of each lot of land surveyed, the quality of the soil, the
+growth of plants and trees, the height of the hills, the extent of the
+valleys, and the length, breadth, and course of the streams. From the
+items thus collected, he would draw the materials for the reports it
+was his duty to submit, from time to time, for examination, to his
+patron or employer; and such was the clearness, brevity, and exactness
+displayed therein, and such the industry, skill, and fidelity with
+which he performed his toilsome and difficult task, that the generous
+old lord not only rewarded him handsomely for his services, but
+continued to cherish for him through life a truly fatherly affection.
+
+In after-years, Washington was wont to turn with peculiar fondness to
+this period of his life, as perhaps affording the only leisure he had
+ever known for sentimental musings, and the indulgence of what fancy
+he may have had in those bright visions of future happiness, fame, or
+enterprise; to which all men are more or less given during the
+immature years of youth. This, to my mind, is to be easily enough
+accounted for, if we but ascribe it to a certain little circumstance;
+concerning which, as it exercised no small influence on his mind at
+the time, I will now tell you all that is known, and, it may be, more
+than ever can be known with possible certainty.
+
+From a letter written by him at the age of fifteen, and also from some
+sad and plaintive verses of his own composition found in his
+copy-book, we learn that the boy, who should grow to become the
+greatest man that ever made this glorious world of ours more glorious
+with his wise precepts and virtuous example, was at this time a victim
+of the tender passion called _love_, of which most of you little folks
+as yet know nothing but the four letters that spell the word.
+
+The object of this early attachment was a damsel, of whom nothing
+certain is known, as her name, from the fact of its never being
+repeated above a whisper, has not come down to our day, but who was
+called by him in his confidential correspondence the Lowland Beauty.
+As he had none of that self-assurance which lads of his age are apt to
+mistake for pluck or spirit, he never ventured to make known the
+secret of this passion to the object thereof; and it is probable, that
+we, even at the big end of a hundred years, are wiser as to this
+tender passage of his life than was ever the young lady herself. Not
+having the courage to declare the sentiments that warmed his breast,
+he wisely resolved to banish them from his mind altogether; and this,
+I will venture to say, was one reason why he so readily accepted of
+old Lord Fairfax's offer, and was willing for so long a time to make
+his abiding-place in the wilderness. But it was months, and even
+years, before he could get the better of his weakness, if such it
+could be justly called; for a wilderness, let me tell you (and I hope
+the hint will not be lost on my little friends), is the last place in
+the world, that a man, or a boy either, should take to, as the
+readiest means of ridding himself of such troublesome feelings. No
+wonder, then, that our young surveyor was grave and thoughtful beyond
+his years; and that the lonely forest, with its ever-changing beauties
+and wild seclusion, viewed through the bewitched eyes of love, should
+have had greater charms for him than the noisy, bustling haunts of
+men. That you may have a more distinct idea of the appearance of
+Washington at the time of which we are speaking, your Uncle Juvinell
+will conjure up, from the lingering lights and shadows of his dull old
+fancy, a little picture, to be gilded anew by your bright young
+fancies, and hung up in that loftiest chamber of your memory which you
+are wont to adorn with your portraits of the good and great men and
+women who have blessed the earth, and of whom we love so much to read
+and hear.
+
+It is a summer morning, and the eastern mountains fling their shadows
+long and huge across the lonesome valleys. Our little party of
+surveyors, having spent the night on the summits of one of the less
+lofty peaks of the Blue Ridge, are slowly descending its shrubby skies
+to the more densely wooded parts of the wilderness below, of whose
+waste fertility many a broad tract have they yet to explore, and many
+a mile of boundary-line have chain and compass yet to measure and
+determine. Still lingering on the summit far above, as loath to quit
+the contemplation of the splendid prospect seen from thence, stands a
+tall youth of eighteen, with his right arm thrown across his horse's
+neck, and his left hand grasping his compass-staff. He is clad in a
+buckskin hunting-shirt, with leggins and moccasons of the same
+material,--the simple garb of a backwoodsman, and one that well
+becomes him now, as in perfect keeping with the wildness of the
+surrounding scenery; while in his broad leathern belt are stuck his
+long hunting-knife and Indian tomahawk. In stature he is much above
+most youths of the same age: he is of a handsome and robust form, with
+high and strong but smooth features, light-brown hair, large blue
+eyes,--not brilliant, but beaming with a clear and steady light, as if
+a soul looked through them that knew no taint of vice or
+meanness,--and a countenance all glorious with a truth and courage,
+modest gentleness, and manly self-reliance; and as he thus lingers on
+that lonely mountain-height, glorified as it were with the fresh pure
+light of the newly risen sun, with head uncovered and looks reverent,
+he seems in holy communion with his Maker, to whom, in the tender,
+guileless years of childhood, a pious mother taught him to kneel,
+morning and evening, in prayer, thanksgiving, and adoration.
+
+Anon, his morning devotions ended, he turns to take, ere following his
+companions down the mountain, another view of the varied panorama
+spread out far beneath him, the chief feature of which is a valley,
+surpassing in beauty and fertility any that that summer's sun will
+shine on ere reaching his golden gateway in the west. Through this
+valley, glimmering, half seen, half hid among the waving woods, runs a
+river, with many a graceful bend, so beautiful, that, in the far-away
+years of the past, some long-forgotten tribe of Indians called it
+Shenandoah, or Shining Daughter of the Stars; a name that still
+lingers like a sweet echo among the mountains. And as the eyes of the
+young surveyor slowly range the wide prospect from point to point, and
+take in miles and miles of beauty at a single stretch of view, there
+is a look in them as if he would recall some pleasing dream of the
+night, which he would now fain bring forth, though but a dream, to
+refine and elevate the thoughts wherewith his mind must needs be
+occupied throughout the day. He is familiar with every feature of the
+landscape before him: he knows each shady dell and sunny hill, and
+every grassy slope and winding stream; for there he has made his home
+this many a day. He has seen it all a thousand times, and each time
+with renewed delight. But now it has a glory not all its own, nor
+borrowed from the morning sun, but from the first warm light of
+youthful love that burns in his heart for his Lowland Beauty.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+FIRST MILITARY APPOINTMENT.
+
+
+About this time, the Indians inhabiting that vast region extending
+from the Ohio River to the great lakes of the north, secretly
+encouraged and aided by the French, began to show signs of hostility,
+and threatened the western borders of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New
+York, with all the dismal horrors of their bloody and wasting warfare.
+The alarm spread rapidly from the frontier even to the Atlantic coast,
+till the whole country was awakened to the sense of the impending
+danger.
+
+To put the Province of Virginia in a better posture of defence, the
+governor thereof, Robert Dinwiddie, besides other measures, divided it
+into four grand military districts. Over each of these he placed what
+is called an adjutant-general, whose duty it was to organize and train
+the militia, instruct the officers in matters touching the art and
+science of war, to review the different companies when on parade, and
+to inspect their arms and accoutrements, and see that they were kept
+ready for use at a moment's warning.
+
+The energy, fidelity, and soundness of judgment, that young Washington
+had lately shown while acting as surveyor, had won for him a name in
+the colony; and, becoming known to Governor Dinwiddie, he was
+appointed by that gentleman adjutant-general of the Northern district;
+receiving along with his commission the rank of major, which entitled
+him to the salary of seven hundred and fifty dollars a year. You have
+already seen what great delight he took in martial exercises when a
+school-boy; and, now that he was to become a soldier in the true sense
+of the term, you will not be surprised to learn that this appointment
+was altogether agreeable to his present taste and inclinations. To
+show his deep sense of the honor done him, and the trust and
+confidence reposed in him, he determined to perform his work well and
+faithfully as far as in him lay.
+
+The better to qualify himself for the duties of his office, he placed
+himself under the instruction of his brother Lawrence, and other
+officers living in that part of the province, who had served under
+Admiral Vernon during the late Spanish war. These gentlemen, besides
+giving him the benefit of their experience and observation, placed in
+his hands the best works on military science then in use; from which
+he learned the various modes of training militia, the different
+manoeuvres of an army on the field of battle, and their management
+while on the line of march, together with the most approved plans of
+building forts, throwing up intrenchments and redoubts, and the
+construction of other works of defence, whether of wood or earth or
+stone. At the same time, he also made himself acquainted with the
+handling and design of many weapons and engines of war; and under the
+instruction of Capt. Van Braam, a Dutch fencing-master, he became very
+skilful in the use of the sword. Thus Mount Vernon, from being the
+quiet mansion of a country gentleman, was now, in a manner, converted
+into a military school; and the youth, who but a few years before, as
+he strolled among its verdant retreats, had, in honor of his Lowland
+Beauty, made his first and only attempt of putting his thoughts and
+feelings in verse, was, at the early age of nineteen, called upon to
+discharge those stern duties which men of age and experience alone are
+generally thought able to perform. The district allotted to Major
+Washington (for so we must now call him) consisted of several large
+counties, each of which the duties of his office obliged him to visit
+from time to time; and such was the energy and spirit he carried into
+his work, and such ability did he display, and such was the manliness
+and dignified courtesy with which he deported himself on all
+occasions, that he soon completely won the confidence and affections
+of both officers and men, who were inspired by his example to still
+greater zeal and patriotism in the service of their country.
+
+But these labors, so agreeable to one of his age and ardent spirit,
+were now interrupted for several months. His brother Lawrence, who
+had always been of a delicate constitution, was now thought to be in
+the last stages of consumption, and was advised by his physicians to
+betake himself to the West Indies, where he might yet, perhaps, find
+some relief in the warmer suns and milder airs of those beautiful
+islands. As he would have need of cheerful company and gentle and
+careful nursing, he took with him his favorite brother George; and,
+embarking from Alexandria, was soon out upon the shining billows of
+the deep-blue sea, in quest of that health he was never again to find.
+Their place of destination was the charming little Island of
+Barbadoes, where, after a somewhat stormy voyage, they arrived in
+safety.
+
+While here, Major Washington had an attack of small-pox, which handled
+him rather severely; and for some time he was thought to be in a
+dangerous condition. But in a few weeks, by dint of careful nursing,
+joined to the natural vigor of his constitution, he got the better of
+this frightful malady; and, when he was completely restored, not a
+disfiguring trace of it remained.
+
+During his sojourn here, he still continued his habit of writing down
+in a journal whatever of importance or interest came under his
+observation; in which, among other items, we find such as the
+following,--the speed of the ship in which they sailed; the direction
+of the winds; some account of a storm that overtook them on their
+voyage; the cities, ships, forts, and military strength of the Island
+of Barbadoes; its products; manners and customs of the people, and the
+laws and government under which they lived. By this means,
+contributing as it did to habits of close and accurate observation, he
+impressed the more strongly upon his memory such facts as might prove
+of use to him at a future day.
+
+Our two Virginians, during the three or four months of their stay on
+the island, were treated with much courtesy and hospitality by the
+inhabitants. But neither the genial climate of the region, nor the
+kindly hospitality of the people, was enough to restore that health
+and strength to the invalid for which he had come so far and hoped so
+long.
+
+Feeling that his end was drawing nigh, Lawrence Washington resolved to
+hasten home, that he might have the melancholy satisfaction of
+spending his last moments in the midst of his family and friends. He
+had scarcely returned to Mount Vernon, and bid a fond farewell to the
+loved ones there, when the angel of death summoned him to take another
+and a longer voyage, in quest of immortality, to be found in the
+islands of the blest, that smile in never-fading beauty on the bosom
+of the eternal sea.
+
+Thus, at the early age of thirty-four, died Lawrence Washington, one
+of the most amiable and accomplished gentlemen of his day. He left
+behind him an affectionate wife, a sweet little daughter, a devoted
+brother, and many a loving friend, to mourn his loss. In his will, he
+bequeathed his fine estate of Mount Vernon and all else that he
+possessed to his brother George; on condition, however, that his wife
+should have the use of it during her lifetime, and that his daughter
+should die without children to inherit it. The daughter did not reach
+the years of maidenhood; and, the mother surviving but a few years,
+George was left in the undivided possession of a large and handsome
+property; and, in a worldly point of view, his fortune was really
+already made. But, for all that, he long and deeply mourned the death
+of this much loved and valued brother, who had been to him father and
+friend ever since that first great sorrow of his childhood, when he
+became a widow's son and a widow's blessing.
+
+And thus, my little children, I have told you the story of this great
+and good man's life from his years of infancy up to those of early
+manhood. I have dwelt at greater length upon this period of his life
+than perhaps any other historian, and have told you some things that
+you might look for elsewhere in vain. In my treatment of this part of
+the subject, it has been my chief aim and earnest desire to impress
+upon your opening minds this one great truth,--that, if you would be
+good and wise in your manhood, you must begin, now in early youth, to
+put forth all your powers, and use all the means within your reach, to
+store your mind with useful knowledge, and direct your thoughts and
+actions in the ways of truth and virtue, industry and sobriety. The
+boy Washington did all this; and, ere we have done, you shall see the
+glorious results of such a good beginning. Be like him in your
+youth,--patient and diligent, loving and dutiful, truthful and
+prayerful; that you may be like him in the fulness of years,--esteemed
+and beloved, happy and good, useful and wise.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+IMPORTANT EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+When Uncle Juvinell had finished this part of his story, he paused,
+and with a beaming face looked round upon his little circle of
+listeners. Two or three of the youngest had long since fallen asleep;
+and Master Ned, having heard the story of the little hatchet, had
+stolen quietly away to the cabin, just to see how "black daddy" was
+getting along with his sled. Having waited till it was finished, he
+had, for his own private amusement, taken it to a nice hillside, and
+was now coasting on it all alone by the light of a good-humored,
+dish-faced moon. The other children had listened with great interest
+and attention to the story, and were still sitting with their eyes
+bent earnestly on the fire, whose great bright eye had by this time
+grown a little red, and was winking in a slow and sleepy way, as if it
+were saying, "Well done, Uncle Juvinell,--very well done indeed. I
+have been listening very attentively, and quite approve of all you
+have said, especially all that about the wooden-legged schoolmaster,
+the little hatchet, the sorrel horse, the Indian war-dance, and the
+Lowland Beauty, not to mention those wise maxims and wholesome moral
+precepts you brought in so aptly. All of it is very fine and very
+good, and just to my liking. But I am thinking it is high bed-time for
+these little folks."
+
+Uncle Juvinell was much gratified to see how deeply interested the
+children were in what he had been telling them; and in a little while
+he called upon them to let him know how they all liked it. Laura said
+that it was very nice; Ella, that it was charming; Daniel, that it was
+quite as interesting as Plutarch's Lives; Willie, that it was even
+more so than "Robinson Crusoe;" and Bryce, that it was very good, but
+he would have liked it better had Uncle Juvinell told them more about
+the Indians. Just then, Master Charlie awoke from a comfortable nap of
+an hour or two, having dropped asleep shortly after the sorrel horse
+dropped dead; and, to make believe that he had been as wide awake as a
+weasel from the very start, began asking such a string of questions as
+seemed likely to have no end. After a droll jumbling of Washington
+with Jack the Giant-killer, old Lord Fairfax with Bluebeard, poor old
+Hobby, the wooden-legged schoolmaster, with the Roving Red Robber, he
+at last so far got the better of his sleepy senses as to know what he
+would be driving at; when he said, "Uncle Juvinell, did his father let
+him keep his little hatchet after he had cut the cherry-tree?"
+
+"History, my little nephew," replied his uncle with a sober
+countenance, "does not inform us whether he did or not; but you may be
+quite sure that he did, well knowing that a little boy who would
+choose rather to take a whipping than tell a lie, or suffer another to
+be punished for an offence he had himself committed, would never be
+guilty the second time of doing that wherein he had once been
+forbidden."
+
+"What became of black Jerry after he turned a somerset in the snow,
+and went rolling over and over down the hill?" Charlie went on.
+
+"Jerry, I am happy to say," replied his uncle, "was so won over by the
+kindness and noble self-devotion of his brave little master, that he
+made up his mind to mend his ways from that very moment; and in a
+short time, from having been the worst, became the best behaved
+negroling to be found on either side of the Rappahannock, for more
+than a hundred miles up and down."
+
+"What is a negroling?" inquired Master Charlie, as if bent on sifting
+this matter to the very bottom.
+
+"A negroling," replied Uncle Juvinell with a smile, "is to a
+full-grown negro what a gosling is to a full-grown goose. Now, can you
+tell me what it is?"
+
+"A gosling negro, I suppose," was Charlie's answer; and then he asked,
+"Did old Hobby go on teaching school after little George left him?"
+
+"Of course he did," answered his uncle; "but, you may depend upon it,
+he never took another scholar as far as the single rule of three."
+Then, winking slyly at two or three of the older children, he
+continued: "This worthy schoolmaster lived to the good old age of
+ninety-nine; when, feeling that his earthly pilgrimage was drawing to
+a close, he for the last time hung up his big cocked hat on the
+accustomed peg, and for the last time unscrewed his wooden, leg, and
+set it in its accustomed corner; then, like a good Christian, laid him
+down to die in peace, giving thanks to Heaven with his last breath
+that it had fallen to his lot to teach the great George Washington his
+A B C's and the multiplication-table."
+
+This made Master Charlie look very grave and thoughtful, so that he
+asked no more questions for the rest of the night.
+
+Then Daniel, the young historian, who, having his mind occupied with
+more weighty matters, had been listening with some impatience while
+the above confab was going on, begged that his uncle would tell him
+what was meant by a midshipman's warrant.
+
+"In the first place, Dannie," said Uncle Juvinell, "for the benefit of
+the rest of the children, who are not so well informed upon such
+matters as yourself, we must see what a midshipman is. The lowest
+officer in the navy, but still several degrees removed from a common
+sailor, is a midshipman, who enters a man-of-war as a kind of pupil
+to study the art of navigation, and to acquaint himself with other
+matters connected with the seafaring life. A man-of-war, you must
+know, is the largest vessel, or ship of war, belonging to a nation;
+while all the ships fitted out at the public expense, together with
+the officers and seamen concerned in their keeping and management,
+make up what is called a navy. By navigation, we are to understand the
+art by which sailors are taught to conduct ships from one point to
+another. Now, a warrant is a writing that gives some one the right to
+do a thing or to enjoy it. Thus you see a midshipman's warrant would
+have given young Washington the right to go on board a man-of-war,
+where, as a kind of pupil, he would have learned the art of
+navigation, the management of ships, and many other things necessary
+to make a good sailor. The knowledge thus acquired, and the training
+to which he must needs have been subjected, would have fitted him in
+time to become an officer of the navy, such as a lieutenant or a
+captain, and, it may be, even an admiral."
+
+"And what is an admiral?" inquired Willie.
+
+"An admiral," replied Uncle Juvinell, "is the highest officer of the
+navy; he is to the armies of the sea what a general is to the armies
+of the land, and commands a squadron, or fleet, which, you must know,
+is a large number of armed ships, moving and acting in concert
+together."
+
+"Does he fight with a sword?" inquired Bryce, who, it must be borne in
+mind, was the military young gentleman, who carried a wooden sword of
+his own.
+
+"It is unusual," replied his uncle, "for either an admiral or a
+general to fight in person; it being their duty to put their armies in
+order of battle, and afterwards, during the fight, to control the
+movements of the different regiments or divisions by orders carried by
+aides to the officers under their command."
+
+"You told us, uncle," said Willie, "that Washington received, along
+with the commission of adjutant-general, the rank of major. Now, what
+are we to understand by this?"
+
+"A commission," replied his uncle, "is a writing, giving some one the
+right or authority to perform the duties of some office, and receive
+the pay and honors arising from the same. The duties of an
+adjutant-general you have already seen; and the commission received by
+young Washington to perform those duties made him equal in rank, not
+to a general, but to a major."
+
+"I know you told us, uncle," said Ella, "what is meant by surveying;
+but I don't think that I clearly understand it yet."
+
+"I will refer you to your brother Dannie," said Uncle Juvinell; "for
+he is looking very wise, as if somebody knew a thing or two, and
+could, were he but called upon, greatly enlighten somebody else. Out
+with it, Dannie, and let us have it."
+
+"Surveying teaches the measurement of land," Dannie made haste to
+answer; "and a surveyor is one who measures land with the help of a
+long chain and compass and other instruments. Now, George Washington,
+for example"--
+
+"That will do, Daniel," said his uncle, interrupting him: "you have
+made it as clear as daylight already; and I dare say your sister
+understands you perfectly, without the help of any example."
+
+"Oh, I like to have forgotten one thing!" cried Willie. "Tell us what
+is meant by line of march, manoeuvres on the battle-field, throwing
+up intrenchments, and the like."
+
+To these points, Uncle Juvinell made answer: "An army, my nephew, is
+said to be on the line of march when it is moving from one place to
+another. A manoeuvre is an evolution or a movement of an army,
+designed to mislead or deceive an enemy, or in some way to gain the
+advantage of him. An intrenchment is a breastwork or wall, with a
+trench or ditch running along the outside. The breastwork, being
+formed of the earth thrown up from the trench, serves as a protection
+against the shots of an enemy. The trench being quite as deep as the
+breastwork is high, renders it very difficult and dangerous for the
+works to be taken by storm; for the enemy must first descend into the
+ditch before he can reach and scale the wall,--an attempt always
+attended with the greatest peril to those who make it; for they who
+defend the works, fighting on top of the walls, have greatly the
+advantage of those beneath. Sometimes intrenchments run in straight or
+crooked lines, and sometimes enclose an irregular square or circle;
+and any piece of ground, or body of men, thus enclosed or fortified,
+is said to be intrenched."
+
+"What a pity it is we can never know the name of the Lowland Beauty!"
+remarked Miss Laura regretfully; for she was getting to be quite old
+enough to be somewhat interested in matters of this kind.
+
+"The name the young surveyor gave her," said Uncle Juvinell, "lends an
+interest to this part of his life, which a knowledge of her true name
+might never have awakened. Besides this, my dear niece, if you but be
+attentive to what I shall relate hereafter, you will learn many things
+touching the life and character of his mother Mary and his wife Martha
+far more worthy of your remembrance."
+
+The clock struck ten; the fire burned low, and a heavy lid of ashes
+hid its great red eye. And now Uncle Juvinell bethought him that it
+must indeed be high bed-time for the little folks; and in conclusion
+he said, "Now, my dear children, I want you to bear well in mind what
+I have told you to-night, that you may be the better prepared for what
+I shall tell you to-morrow evening. And hereafter I would have you
+write down on your slates, while I go on with my story, whatever you
+may find difficult and shall wish to have more fully explained at the
+end of each evening's lesson. And now let us sing our evening hymn,
+and part for the night."
+
+With that they joined their voices, as was their wont, in a sweet hymn
+of praise and thanks to the great Father of us all,--the little folks
+carrying the treble, while Uncle Juvinell managed the bass. This duly
+done, they came one by one, and kissed their dear old uncle a loving
+good-night; then crept to their happy beds to dream till morning of
+wooden-legged schoolmasters, little hatchets, wild rides on fiery
+untamed horses that were always sorrel, of life in the lonely
+wilderness, rambles without end up and down the mountains, and of
+skin-clad Indiana leaping and whirling in the war-dance.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+INDIAN TROUBLES.
+
+
+And now, said Uncle Juvinell, I see you are all agog, slate and pencil
+in hand, ready to jot down any question that may chance to pop into
+your busy young brains, to be asked and answered, for our further
+enlightenment, at the end of our evening lesson. So, without more ado,
+we will begin.
+
+But, before trudging on further in our delightful journey, we must
+pause a moment, and turning square round, with our faces towards the
+long-ago years of the past, take a bird's-eye view of the early
+history of our country, that we may know exactly where we are when we
+come to find ourselves in the outskirts of that long and bloody
+struggle between the two great nations of England and France, commonly
+called the Seven Years' War, and sometimes the Old French War. Now,
+although this would not be as entertaining to your lively fancies as
+an Arabian tale or an Indian legend, yet you will by and by see very
+plainly that we could not have skipped it, without losing the sense of
+a great deal that follows; for it was during this war that our
+Washington first experienced the trials and hardships of a soldier's
+life, and displayed that courage, prudence, and ability, which in the
+end proved the salvation and glory of his native country.
+
+In the first place, you must know, my dear children, that this
+beautiful land of ours, where now dwell the freest and happiest people
+the blessed sun ever shone upon, was, only a few hundred years ago,
+all a vast unbroken wilderness; a place where no one but savage
+Indians found a home, whose chief amusement was to fight and kill and
+scalp each other; and whose chief occupation was to hunt wild beasts
+and birds, upon whose flesh they fed, and with whose hairy skins and
+horns and claws and feathers they clothed and decked themselves. Where
+in the leafy summer-time may now be heard the merry plough-boy
+whistling "Yankee Doodle" over the waving corn, the wild Indian once
+wrestled with the surly bear, or met his ancient enemy in deadly
+fight. Nibbling sheep and grazing cattle now range the grassy hills
+and valleys where he was wont to give chase to the timid deer, or lie
+in wait for the monstrous buffalo. Huge steamers ply up and down our
+mighty rivers where he once paddled his little canoe. Splendid cities
+have risen, as if at the rubbing of Aladdin's enchanted lamp, where in
+the depths of the forest he once kindled the great council-fire, and
+met the neighboring tribes in the Big Talk. The very schoolhouse,
+where you little folks are now tripping so lightly along the flowery
+path of knowledge, may perhaps stand on the selfsame shady slope,
+where, of a long summer evening, he would sit at the door of his
+bark-built wigwam, smoking his long pipe, and watching his naked red
+children with a more fatherly smile than you can well imagine in one
+so fierce, as with many a hoop and yelp they played at "hide-and-seek"
+among the gray old trees and pawpaw thickets. On yonder hill-top,
+where we at this moment can see the windows of the house of God
+shining and glancing in the moonlight, he may have stood, with his
+face to the rising or setting sun, in mute worship before the Great
+Spirit.
+
+But the stronger and wiser white man came; and, at his terrible
+approach, the red man, with all his wild remembrances, passed away,
+like an echo in the woods, or the shadow of an April cloud over the
+hills and valleys; and the place that once knew him shall know him no
+more for ever.
+
+And yet it might have been far otherwise with him and with us, had not
+a certain Christopher Columbus chanced to light upon this Western
+World of ours, as he came hap-hazard across the wide Atlantic, where
+ship had never sailed before, in quest of a shorter passage to Asia.
+
+By this great discovery, it was proved to the entire satisfaction of
+all who are in the least interested in the matter, that this earth
+upon which we live, instead of being long and flat, with sides and
+ends and corners like a great rough slab, was round, and hollow
+inside, like an India-rubber ball, and went rolling through empty
+space, round and round the sun, year after year, continually.
+
+Of this bold and skilful sailor, the most renowned that ever lived, I
+should like to tell you many things; but, as we set out to give our
+chief attention to the story of Washington, we must deny ourselves
+this pleasure until the holidays of some merry Christmas yet to come,
+when your Uncle Juvinell, if he still keeps his memory fresh and
+green, will relate to you many wonderful things in the life of this
+great voyager, Columbus.
+
+Up to this time, all the nations of Christendom had for ages upon ages
+been sunk in a lazy doze of ignorance and superstition. But, when
+tidings of the great discovery reached their drowsy ears, they were
+roused in a marvellous manner; and many of the richest and most
+powerful forthwith determined to secure, each to itself, a portion of
+the new-found region, by planting colonies; or, in other words, by
+making settlements therein.
+
+For this purpose, they sent out fleets of ships across the Atlantic to
+these distant shores, laden with multitudes of men, who brought with
+them all manner of tools and implements wherewith to clear away the
+forests, till the soil, and build forts and cities, and arms to defend
+themselves against the attacks of the war-like savages. Thus, for
+example, Spain colonized Mexico; France, Canada; and England, that
+strip of the North-American continent, lying between the Alleghany
+Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, now known as the eastern coast of
+the United States.
+
+At first, the new-comers were received and treated with much kindness
+and hospitality by the natives: but it was not long before they
+discovered that they were likely to be robbed of their homes and
+hunting-grounds; when rage and jealousy took possession of their
+hearts, and from that time forward they never let slip an opportunity
+of doing all the mischief in their power to the hated intruders. Then
+began that long train of bloody wars between the two races, which have
+never ceased except with defeat or ruin of the weaker red man, and
+bringing him nearer and nearer to the day when he must either forsake
+his savage life, or cease to have an existence altogether.
+
+Now, this may appear very unjust and wrong to my little friends; and,
+to some extent, it really was: but, in those days, might made right;
+or, in other words, the strong ruled the weak. And yet we are bound to
+believe that all this, in the long-run, has worked, and is still
+working, to the greatest good of the greatest number: for, had it been
+otherwise, all this beautiful land, now the home of a Christian and
+happy people, would have remained the dismal wilderness we have
+described it; answering no good end, as far as concerns the spread of
+truth and knowledge, and the cultivation of those useful arts which
+make a nation prosperous in peace, and strong in war.
+
+Notwithstanding their troubles with the Indians, the hardships and
+privations to which the first settlers of a wild country are always
+exposed, and the shameful neglect with which they were treated by the
+mother-countries, the French and English colonies went on growing and
+thriving in a way that was wonderful to behold. At the end of a
+hundred and fifty years, or thereabouts, they had so grown in strength
+and increased in numbers, and had so widened their boundaries, that at
+last the continent, vast as it is, seemed too narrow to hold them
+both; and they began throwing up their elbows for more room, in a
+manner that would have been thought quite uncivil in a private
+individual at a dinner table or in a stage-coach.
+
+Whereupon there arose a hot dispute between the kings of France and
+England as to whom belonged all that immense region stretching from
+the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, in the one direction; and, in the
+other, from the Ohio to the Great Lakes of the North.
+
+The French claimed it by the right of discovery: by which they meant,
+that a certain Father Marquette had, nearly a hundred years before,
+discovered the Mississippi during his wanderings as a missionary
+among the Indians of the Far West. They pretended, that, as this pious
+man had paddled a little canoe up and down this splendid river a few
+hundred miles, his royal master, the King of France, was thereby
+entitled to all the lands watered by it, and the ten thousand streams
+that empty into it.
+
+The English, on the other hand, claimed it by the right of purchase;
+having, as they said, bought it at a fair price of the Six Nations, a
+powerful league or union of several Indian tribes inhabiting the
+region round about the great lake's Erie and Ontario. What right the
+Six Nations had to it, is impossible to say. They claimed it, however,
+by the doubtful right of conquest; there being a tradition among them,
+that their ancestors, many generations before, had overrun the
+country, and subdued its inhabitants.
+
+Now, the poor Indians who occupied the land in question were very
+indignant indeed when they heard that they and theirs had been sold to
+the white strangers by their red enemies, the Six Nations, whom they
+regarded as a flock of meddlesome crows, that were always dipping
+their ravenous bills into matters that did not in the least concern
+them; and their simple heads were sorely perplexed and puzzled, that
+two great kings, dwelling in far-distant countries, thousands of miles
+away beyond the mighty ocean, should, in the midst of uncounted
+riches, fall to wrangling with each other over a bit of wilderness
+land that neither of them had ever set eyes or foot on, and to which
+they had no more right than the Grand Caliph of Bagdad, or that
+terrible Tartar, Kublah Khan.
+
+"Of all this land," said they, "there is not the black of a man's
+thumb-nail that the Six Nations can call their own. It is ours. More
+than a thousand moons before the pale-face came over the Big Water in
+his white-winged canoes, the Great Spirit gave it to our forefathers;
+and they handed it down, to be our inheritance as long as the old
+hills tell of their green graves. In its streams have we fished, in
+its woods have we hunted, in its sunny places have we built our
+wigwams, and in its dark and secret places have we fought and scalped
+and burnt our sworn enemies, without let or hinderance, time out of
+mind. Now, if the English claim all on this side of the Ohio, and the
+French claim all on this side of the Big Lakes, then what they claim
+is one and the same country,--the country whereon we dwell. Surely our
+white brothers must be dreaming. It is our hearts' desire, that our
+brothers, the English, keep on their side of the Ohio, and till the
+ground, and grow rich in corn; also that our brothers, the French,
+keep on their side of the lakes, and hunt in the woods, and grow rich
+in skins and furs. But you must both quit pressing upon us, lest our
+ribs be squeezed in and our breath be squeezed out, and we cease to
+have a place among men. We hold you both at arm's-length; and whoever
+pays good heed to the words we have spoken, by him will we stand, and
+with him make common cause against the other."
+
+But to these just complaints of the poor Indian the French and English
+gave no more heed than if they who uttered them were so many
+whip-poor-wills crying in the woods. So they fell to wrangling in a
+more unreasonable manner than ever. Finally, to mend the matter (that
+is to say, make things worse), the French, coming up the Mississippi
+from the South, and down from the Great Lakes of the North, began
+erecting a chain of forts upon the disputed territory, to overawe the
+inhabitants thereof, and force the English to keep within the
+Alleghanies and the Atlantic. As a matter of course, the English
+regarded this as an insult to their dignity, and resolved to chastise
+the French for their impudence. And this it was that brought about
+that long and bloody struggle, the Old French War.
+
+Thus, my dear children, do great and wise nations, professing to
+follow the humane teachings of the man-loving, God-fearing Jesus,
+often show no more truth and justice and honesty in their dealings
+with one another than if they were as ignorant of the Ten Commandments
+as the most benighted heathens, to whom even the name of Moses was
+never spoken. Yet, from your looks, I see that you are wondering
+within yourselves what all this rigmarole about England, France, the
+Six Nations, and disputed territories, can have to do with George
+Washington. Had you held a tight rein on your impatience a little
+while longer, you would have found out all about it, without the
+inconvenience of wondering; and hereafter, my little folks, rest
+assured that your Uncle Juvinell never ventures upon any thing without
+having all his eyes and wits about him, and that what he may tell you
+shall always prove instructive, although it may now and then--with no
+fault of his, however--seem to you somewhat dry and tedious.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+"BIG TALK" WITH "WHITE THUNDER."
+
+
+But we are a little fast. In order to bring ourselves square again
+with our story, we must take one step backward, and begin afresh.
+
+When tidings of these trespasses of the French reached the ears of
+Robert Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia, all his Scotch blood
+boiled within him, and he began forthwith casting in his mind what
+might be done to check or chastise such audacious proceedings.
+
+Cooling down a little, however, he thought it would be better, before
+throwing his stones, to try what virtue might be found in grass. By
+which you are to understand, that he determined to write a letter to
+the French general, then stationed in a little fort near Lake Erie,
+inquiring by what authority these encroachments were made on the
+dominions of his royal master, the King of England; and demanding that
+they, the French, should abandon their forts, and withdraw their
+troops from the disputed territory, without delay, or else abide the
+consequences. He was well aware, that, to insure any thing like
+success in a mission so difficult and perilous, the person intrusted
+with it must needs be robust of body, stout of heart, clear of head;
+one inured to the hardships of a backwoods life, well acquainted with
+the habits and customs of the Indians, and withal a man of
+intelligence, polite address, and the strictest integrity of
+character. But one such man was to be found among ten thousand; and
+this was George Washington, who answered to the description in every
+particular, and was therefore chosen to perform this perilous
+undertaking, although he had not yet completed his twenty-second year.
+
+Accordingly, having received from Governor Dinwiddie written
+instructions how to act when come into the enemy's country, Major
+Washington set out the next morning from Williamsburg, then the
+capital of Virginia, and made his way at once to Winchester, at that
+time a frontier settlement of the province, lying on the very edge of
+the wilderness. Here he spent several days in procuring supplies for
+the expedition, and raising a small party of hunters and pioneers to
+guard and bear him company. After some delay, he succeeded in
+procuring the services of seven men. Four of these were hardy
+backwoodsmen of experience, whose business it was to take care of the
+baggage and keep the party supplied with game. Mr. Davidson was to go
+along as Indian interpreter, and Mr. Gist as guide. A bolder and more
+enterprising pioneer than this Gist, by the by, was not to be found
+in all the Western wilds; and he is supposed by some historians to
+have been the first white man that ever brought down an elk or a
+buffalo in that paradise of hunters, green Kentucky. In addition to
+these, Washington took with him as French interpreter his old Dutch
+fencing-master, Capt. Van Braam. The worthy captain, however, seems to
+have been a far more expert master of sword-play than of the
+languages; for the jargon he was pleased to call an interpretation was
+often such a medley of half-learned English, half-remembered French,
+and half-forgotten Dutch, that they who listened would be nearly as
+much perplexed to see what he would be driving at, as if he were
+sputtering Cherokee into their ears.
+
+All things being at last in readiness, the gallant little party,
+headed by our young Virginian, turned their faces towards the great
+North-west; and, plunging into the wilderness, were soon beyond all
+traces of civilized man. The autumn was far advanced. The travelling
+was rendered toilsome, and even dangerous, by the heavy rains of this
+season, and early snows that had already fallen on the mountains,
+which had changed the little rills into rushing torrents, and the low
+bottom-lands into deep and miry swamps. Much delayed by these and the
+like hinderances, Washington, upon reaching the banks of the
+Monongahela, deemed it best to send two of the backwoodsmen with the
+baggage in canoes down this river to its mouth, where, uniting its
+waters with those of the Allegheny, it helped to form the great Ohio.
+Promising to meet them at this point, he and the rest of the party
+pushed thitherward by land on horseback. Reaching the Forks of the
+Ohio two days before the canoe-men, he spent the time in exploring the
+woods and hills and streams around, and was much struck with the
+advantages the place held out as a site for a military post. This,
+together with other items meriting attention that happened to him or
+occurred to his mind during the expedition, he carefully noted down in
+a journal which he kept, to be laid, in the form of a report, before
+Gov. Dinwiddie, upon his return. The following year, as a convincing
+proof to his countrymen how entirely they might rely on his foresight
+and judgment in such matters, French officers of skill and experience
+chose this very spot to be the site of Fort Duquesne, afterwards so
+famous in the border history of our country. Near the close of the
+war, this post fell into the hands of the English, who changed its
+name to that of Fort Pitt; which in time gave rise to the busy,
+thriving, noisy, dingy, fine young town of Pittsburg, a smoky-looking
+picture of which you may see any time you choose to consult your
+geography.
+
+Instead of pushing on directly to the Lakes, Major Washington turned a
+little aside from his course, and went down the Ohio about twenty
+miles, to an Indian village called Logstown. Here, as had been
+previously arranged, he met a few sachems or chiefs of some of the
+Western tribes, to kindle a council-fire and have a Big Talk. He was
+received with much hospitality and courtesy by a stately old chief,
+whose Indian name you would not care to hear, as it would give Master
+Charlie's nut-crackers the jaw-ache to pronounce it. Among the
+English, however, as he was the head of a league or union of several
+tribes, he usually went by the name of the Half King. After the pipe
+had passed with all due gravity from mouth to mouth, and every
+warrior, chief, and white man present had taken a whiff or two, in
+sign that all was good-will and peace between them, Washington arose,
+and addressed the Half King in a short speech, somewhat after the
+following manner:--
+
+"Your brother, the Governor of Virginia, has sent me with a letter to
+the big French captain, near Lake Erie. What is written therein deeply
+concerns you and your people as well as us. It was his desire,
+therefore, that you share with us the toils and dangers of this
+expedition, by sending some of your young men along with us, to guide
+us through the wilderness where there is no path, and be our safeguard
+against the wiles of cunning and evil-minded men we may chance to meet
+by the way. This he will look upon as a still further proof of the
+love and friendship you bear your brothers, the English. As a pledge
+of his faith in all this, and as a token of his love for his red
+brother, he sends this belt of wampum."
+
+Mr. Davidson having interpreted this speech, the Half King for some
+moments after sat smoking in profound silence, as if turning over in
+his mind what he had just heard, or as if waiting, according to Indian
+notions of etiquette on such occasions, to assure himself that the
+speaker had made an end of his say. He then arose, and spoke to the
+following effect:--
+
+"I have heard the words of my young white brother, and they are true.
+I have heard the request of my brother the Governor of Virginia, and
+it is reasonable. At present, however, my young men are abroad in the
+forest, hunting game to provide against the wants of the coming
+winter, that our wives and children starve not when we are out upon
+the war-path. At the third setting of the sun from this time, they
+will be coming in; when I will not only send some of them with my
+young white brother, but will myself bear him company. For he must
+know that we have ceased to look upon the French as our friends. They
+have trespassed upon our soil; they have spoken words of insult and
+mockery to our oldest sachems. For this cause have my people resolved
+to return them the speech-belt they gave us at the Big Talk we had
+last winter at Montreal. It is that I may defy the big French captain
+to his teeth, and fling his speech-belt in his face, that I now go
+with my young brother, the Long Knife."
+
+On the third day, as had been promised, the young men came in from
+hunting; from among whom the Half King chose eight or ten to serve as
+an additional escort to Major Washington during the expedition. Among
+these was a warrior of great distinction, who went by the tremendous
+name of White Thunder, and was keeper of the speech-belt. Now, you
+must know, that in Indian politics, when two tribes exchange
+speech-belts, it is understood to be an expression of peace and
+good-will between them; while to return or throw them away is the same
+as a declaration of war, or at least to be taken as a hint that all
+friendly intercourse between them is at an end. The "keeper of the
+speech-belt" was, therefore, a kind of "secretary of state" among
+these simple people.
+
+Thus re-enforced by his red allies, Washington, who had grown somewhat
+impatient under this delay, gladly turned his face once more towards
+the Great Lakes. All this time, the rain had continued to fall with
+scarcely an hour's intermission. The streams and low meadow-lands were
+so flooded in consequence, that they were often obliged to wander many
+a weary mile over rugged highlands and through tangled forests,
+without finding themselves any nearer their journey's end. Now and
+then, coming to some muddy, swollen stream, in order to gain the
+opposite side without getting their baggage wet, they must needs cross
+over on rafts rudely constructed of logs and grape-vines, and make
+their horses swim along behind them. It was near the middle of
+December, before the little party, jaded and travel-stained, reached
+their destination.
+
+Major Washington was received with true soldierly courtesy by the
+French general, to whom he at once delivered Gov. Dinwiddie's letter.
+A few days being requested for a due consideration of its contents, as
+well as the answer to be returned, he spent the time, as he had been
+instructed, in gaining all the information he could, without exciting
+suspicion, touching the designs of the French in the North-west,--to
+what extent they had won over the several Indian tribes to their
+interest; the number of troops they had brought into the territory;
+and the number, strength, and situation of the forts they had built.
+The fort where the French general then had his headquarters stood on
+the banks of a little river called French Creek, in which Washington
+observed lying, and bade his men count, a large number of canoes, to
+be used early in the following spring for transporting men and
+military stores down the Ohio. All the hints and items thus gathered
+he carefully noted down in his journal, to be laid, as I have told you
+already, in the form of a report, before Gov. Dinwiddie, upon his
+return.
+
+Being wary and watchful, he was not long in discovering that the
+French were tampering with his Indian allies; tempting them, by the
+gayest of presents, the fairest of promises, and the hottest of
+firewater, to break faith with the English, and join their cause.
+These underhand dealings gave Washington much uneasiness of mind; and
+he complained to the French general, yet in a firm and dignified
+manner, of the unfair advantage thus taken of the besetting weakness
+of these poor people.
+
+Of course, the wily old Frenchman denied all knowledge of the matter;
+although we are bound to believe, that, as these tricks and intrigues
+were going on under his very nose, he must certainly have winked at,
+if he did not openly encourage them.
+
+It is true that the Indians were by no means too nice to enrich
+themselves with French presents, and get drunk on French whiskey; yet,
+for all that, they turned a deaf ear to French promises, and, keeping
+their faith unbroken, remained as true as hickory to their friends the
+English. Even the Half King, stately and commanding as he was in
+council, yielded to the pleasing temptation along with the rest; and,
+for the greater part of the time, lay beastly drunk about the fort.
+When at last he came to his sober senses, he was not a little
+chopfallen upon being somewhat sternly reminded by Major Washington of
+the business that had brought him thither, the recollection of which
+he had seemingly drowned in his enemy's whiskey. Whereupon, as if to
+show that all his threats and promises had been made in good faith, he
+went forthwith to the French general, and delivered the grave oration
+he had composed for the occasion; at the same time returning the
+speech-belt White Thunder had brought, as a sign that all friendly
+relations between the French and his people were at an end.
+
+At last, having received the answer to Gov. Dinwiddie's letter, and
+looked into matters and things about him as far as he could with
+prudence, Major Washington was now anxious to be away from the place
+where he had already been detained too long. During his stay, however,
+he had been treated with the greatest respect and courtesy by the
+accomplished Frenchman, who presented him, upon his departure, with a
+large canoe laden with a liberal supply of liquors and provisions,
+that lasted him and his men until they reached the Ohio.
+
+To spare the horses as much as possible, Washington had sent them,
+with two or three of the men, by land to Venango, a fort about fifteen
+miles below; whither he now set out to follow them by water. The
+navigation of this little river, owing to its shallows and the masses
+of floating ice that here and there blocked up its channel, was
+difficult and toilsome in the extreme. Oftentimes, to prevent their
+frail canoes from being dashed to pieces against the rocks, would they
+be compelled to get out into the cold water for half an hour at a
+time, and guide them with their hands down the whirling and rapid
+current, and now and then even to carry them and their loads by land
+around some foaming cataract to the smoother water below. After an
+irksome little voyage, they reached Venango, fully satisfied that to
+go further by water was quite out of the question.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+CHRISTMAS IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+
+Here, at Venango, Major Washington, much to his regret, was compelled
+to part company with the Half King and his other red allies. White
+Thunder, keeper of the speech-belt, had been so seriously injured in
+their passage down, as to be, for the present, quite unable to travel;
+and the rest would not think of leaving him, but needs must tarry
+there until their friend should be well enough to be brought in a
+canoe down the Alleghany.
+
+Remounting their horses, our little party once more took their weary
+way through the wilderness. It was now the 22d of December. The
+weather was bitter cold; the snow fell thick and fast, and froze as it
+fell; and the bleak winds moaned drearily among the naked trees. The
+forest streams were frozen from bank to bank, yet often too thin to
+bear the weight of the horses; which rendered their crossing painful
+and hazardous indeed. To add to the discomfort of our travellers, the
+horses, from poor and scanty fare, had become too weak to be able
+longer to carry their allotted burdens. Moved with compassion at their
+pitiable plight, Washington dismounted from his fine saddle-horse, and
+loaded his with a part of the baggage; choosing rather to toil along
+on foot, than to take his ease at the expense of pain even to these
+poor brutes. His humane example was promptly followed by the rest of
+the party; and only the two men kept the saddle to whom was intrusted
+the care of the baggage.
+
+You can well imagine, that a Christmas spent in this wild waste of
+leafless woods and snowy hills was any thing but a merry one to these
+poor fellows, so far away from their homes, which, at that moment,
+they knew to be so bright and cheerful with the mirth and laughter of
+"old men and babes, and loving friends, and youths, and maidens gay."
+And yet I dare say, that, even there, they greeted each other on that
+blessed morning with a brighter smile than usual, and called to their
+remembrance, that on that morn a babe was born, who, in the fulness of
+years, has grown to be the light and love and glory of the earth.
+
+Seeing that the half-famished beasts were growing weaker and weaker
+day by day, and that he would be too long in reaching his journey's
+end if he governed his speed by theirs, Washington left Capt. Van
+Braam in command of the party, and pushed forward with no other
+company than Mr. Gist. Armed with their trusty rifles, and clad in
+the light dress of the Indians, with no extra covering for the night
+but their watch-coats, and with no other baggage but a small
+portmanteau containing their food and Major Washington's important
+papers, they now made rapid headway, and soon left their friends far
+behind. The next day, they came upon an Indian village called
+Murdering Town; a name of evil omen, given it, perhaps, from its
+having been the scene of some bloody Indian massacre. What befell them
+here, I will tell you, as nearly as I can remember, in Mr. Gist's own
+words:--
+
+     "We rose early in the morning, and set out at seven o'clock,
+     and got to Murdering Town, on the south-east fork of Beaver
+     Creek. Here we met with an Indian whom I thought I had seen at
+     Joncaire's, at Venango, when on our journey up to the French
+     fort. This fellow called me by my Indian name, and pretended to
+     be glad to see me. He asked us several questions; as, how we
+     came to travel on foot, when we left Venango, where we parted
+     with our horses, and when they would be there. Major Washington
+     insisted on travelling by the nearest way to the forks of the
+     Alleghany. We asked the Indian if he could go with us, and show
+     us the nearest way. The Indian seemed very glad and ready to go
+     with us; upon which we set out, and the Indian took the Major's
+     pack. We travelled very brisk for eight or ten miles; when the
+     Major's feet grew sore, and he very weary, and the Indian
+     steered too much north-eastwardly. The Major desired to encamp;
+     upon which the Indian asked to carry his gun, but he refused;
+     and then the Indian grew churlish, and pressed us to keep on,
+     telling us there were Ottawa Indians in those woods, and they
+     would scalp us if we lay out; but go to his cabin, and we would
+     be safe.
+
+     "I thought very ill of the fellow, but did not care to let the
+     Major know I mistrusted him. But he soon mistrusted him as much
+     as I did. The Indian said he could hear a gun from his cabin,
+     and steered us northwardly. We grew uneasy, and then he said
+     two whoops might be heard from his cabin. We went two miles
+     further. Then the Major said he would stay at the next water,
+     and we desired the Indian to stop at the next water; but,
+     before we came to the water, we came to a clear meadow. It was
+     very light, and snow was on the ground. The Indian made a stop,
+     and turned about. The Major saw him point his gun towards us,
+     and he fired. Said the Major,--
+
+     "'Are you shot?'
+
+     "'No,' said I.
+
+     "Upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing white oak,
+     and began loading his gun; but we were soon with him. I would
+     have killed him; but the Major would not suffer me. We let him
+     charge his gun. We found he put in a ball: then we took care of
+     him. Either the Major or I always stood by the guns. We made
+     him make a fire for us by a little run, as if we intended to
+     sleep there. I said to the Major,--
+
+     "'As you will not have him killed, we must get him away, and
+     then we must travel all night.'
+
+     "Upon which I said to the Indian,--
+
+     "'I suppose you were lost, and fired your gun?'
+
+     "He said he knew the way to his cabin: it was but a little
+     distance.
+
+     "'Well,' said I, 'do you go home, and, as we are tired, we will
+     follow your track in the morning; and here is a cake of bread
+     for you, and you must give us meat in the morning.'
+
+     "He was glad to get away. I followed him, and listened until he
+     was fairly out of the way; and then we went about half a mile,
+     when we made a fire, set our compass, fixed our course, and
+     travelled all night. In the morning, we were on the head of
+     Piny Creek."
+
+Thus you see, my dear children, from this adventure, upon what slight
+accidents sometimes hang the destinies, not only of individuals, but
+even of great nations; for had not this treacherous Indian missed his
+aim, and that too, in all likelihood, for the first time in a
+twelvemonth, it had never been our blessed privilege to know and love
+and reverence such a man as Washington; and that, instead of being the
+free-born, independent people that he made us, we might have been at
+this very moment throwing up our hats and wasting our precious breath
+in shouts of "Long life to Queen Victoria!"
+
+All that day they walked on, weary and foot-sore, through the deep
+snow, without a trace of living man to enliven their solitary way. The
+cold gray of a winter's evening was deepening the shadows of the
+forest when they came to the banks of the Alleghany; and here a new
+disappointment awaited them. They had all along cheered themselves
+with the prospect of crossing this river on the ice: but they found
+it frozen for about fifty yards only from either bank; while the rest
+of the ice, broken into huge cakes, went floating swiftly down the
+main channel, crushing and grinding together, and filling the hollow
+woods around with doleful noises.
+
+With heavy hearts they kindled their camp-fire, and cooked and ate
+their frugal supper; then, making themselves as comfortable as the
+piercing winds would allow, they lay down on their snowy beds to
+sleep, hopeful that the morrow would bring them better luck. Morning
+dawned, and yet brought with it no brighter prospect. Would you know
+what they did in this grievous state? Listen while I read Major
+Washington's own account of it, as we find it written in his
+journal:--
+
+     "There was no way for getting over but on a raft; which we set
+     about, with but one poor hatchet, and finished just after
+     sun-setting. This was a whole day's work. We next got it
+     launched; then went on board of it, and set off. But, before we
+     were half way over, we were jammed in the ice, in such a manner
+     that we expected every moment our raft to sink, and ourselves
+     to perish. I put out my setting-pole to try and stop the raft,
+     that the ice might pass by; when the rapidity of the stream
+     threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it jerked
+     me out into ten feet of water: but I fortunately saved myself
+     by catching hold of one of the raft-logs. Notwithstanding all
+     our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were
+     obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft, and make
+     to it. The cold was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all
+     his fingers, and some of his toes, frozen; and the water was
+     shut up so hard, that we found no difficulty in getting off the
+     island, on the ice, in the morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's."
+
+Here, for a space, they stopped to rest and refresh themselves after
+the fatigue and exposure they had just undergone; and here, among
+other items of interest, they heard that Queen Aliquippa, an Indian
+princess, had been deeply offended that the young Long Knife had
+passed by her royal shanty, the month before, without calling to pay
+his compliments. Major Washington, well knowing that to humor their
+peculiar whims and fancies was the best mode of securing the good-will
+and friendship of these people, hastened at once to present himself
+before her copper majesty, and make what amends he could for his
+breach of etiquette. The present of a bottle of rum (over which, queen
+that she was, she smacked her lips), and of his old watch-coat, that
+would so handsomely set off her buckskin leggins, softened her ire
+completely, and made her, from that time forward, the stanch friend
+and ally of the English.
+
+Travelling on a few miles further, they came to Mr. Gist's house, on
+the banks of the Monongahela, where Washington bought a horse to bear
+him to his journey's end, and parted with his trusty guide. He was now
+entirely alone; and a wide stretch of woods and mountains, swamps and
+frozen streams, still lay between him and the cheerful homes to whose
+comforts he had been so long a stranger. Now and then, the loneliness
+of the way would be for a moment enlivened by the sight of some sturdy
+backwoodsman, axe or rifle on shoulder, pushing westward, with his
+wife and children and dogs and household trumpery, to find a home in
+some still more distant part of the wilderness. It was midwinter,
+when, after having been absent eleven weeks on his perilous mission,
+our young Virginian, looking more like a wild Indian than the civil
+and Christian gentleman that he really was, rode into the town of
+Williamsburg, nor halted until he had alighted and hitched his horse
+in front of the governor's house.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+WASHINGTON'S FIRST BATTLE.
+
+
+Upon his arrival, Major Washington hastened at once to lay before Gov.
+Dinwiddie, and the Virginia Legislature then in session, the French
+general's letter, and the journal he had kept during the expedition.
+
+In his letter, the French general spoke in high and flattering terms
+of the character and talents of young Washington; but, in language
+most decided and unmistakable, refused to withdraw his troops from the
+disputed territory, or cease building forts therein, as had been
+demanded of him, unless so ordered by his royal master, the King of
+France, to whose wishes only he owed respect and obedience. From the
+tenor of this letter, it was plainly enough to be seen (what might, in
+fact, have been seen before), that the French were not in the least
+inclined to give up, at the mere asking, all that they had been at so
+much pains and expense at gaining. It therefore followed, that as the
+title to this bit of forest land could not be written with the pen, on
+fair paper, in letters of Christian ink, it must needs be written with
+the sword, on the fair earth, in letters of Christian blood. By this,
+the little folks are to understand their Uncle Juvinell to mean that
+war alone could settle the question between them. And this
+unreasonable behavior, on the part of two great nations, has already,
+I doubt not, brought to your minds the story of two huge giants, who,
+chancing to meet one night, fell into a long and stormy dispute with
+each other about the possession of a fair bit of meadow-land they had
+happened to spy out at the same moment, where it lay in the lower horn
+of the moon; and who finally, like the silly monsters that they were,
+began belaboring each other with their heavy malls, as if the last
+hope of beating a little reason in were to beat a few brains out.
+
+To drive and keep back the French and their Indian allies, Gov.
+Dinwiddie made a call on the Virginia militia, and wrote to the
+governors of some of the neighboring provinces, urging them, for their
+common defence, to do the same. To strengthen their borders, and give
+security to their frontier settlers, a small party of pioneers and
+carpenters were sent to build a fort at the Forks of the Ohio, as
+Washington had recommended in his journal. This journal, by the way,
+throwing, as it did, so much new light on the designs of the French in
+America, was thought worthy of publication, not only throughout the
+Colonies, but also in the mother-country. The good sense, skill,
+address, and courage shown by the young Virginian throughout the late
+expedition, had drawn upon him the eyes of his countrymen; and, from
+that time forward, he became the hope and promise of his native land.
+As a proof of this high regard, he was offered the command of the
+regiment to be raised: which, however, he refused to accept; for his
+modesty told him that he was too young and inexperienced to be
+intrusted with a matter of such moment to his country. To Col. Fry, an
+officer of some note in the province, the command of the regiment was
+therefore given; under whom he was quite willing to accept the post of
+lieutenant-colonel.
+
+Notwithstanding the pressing danger that threatened all alike, the
+people were shamefully slow in answering the summons to arms.
+Washington had felt confident, that, at the very first tap of the
+drum, squads upon squads of active, sturdy, well-fed, well-clothed
+young farmers, moved by the same spirit with himself, would come
+flocking to his standard with their trusty rifles, powder-horns, and
+hunting-pouches, ready and eager to do their country service. Instead
+of this, however, there gathered, about him a rabble of ragamuffins
+and worthless fellows, who had spent their lives in tramping up and
+down the country, without settled homes or occupations.
+
+Some were without hats and shoes; some had coats, and no shirts; some
+had shirts, and no coats; and all were without arms, or any keen
+desire to use them if they had them. All this disgusted and
+disheartened our youthful colonel not a little; for he was young, and
+had yet to learn that it is of just such stuff that the beginnings of
+armies are always made. The slender pay of a soldier was not enough to
+tempt the thriving yeomanry to leave their rich acres and snug
+firesides to undergo the hardships and dangers of a camp life; as if,
+by failing to answer their country's call, and fighting in its
+defence, they were not running a still greater risk of losing all they
+had.
+
+To encourage the young men of the province to come forward, Gov.
+Dinwiddie caused it to be proclaimed, that two hundred thousand acres
+of the very best land on the head-waters of the Ohio should be divided
+between those that should enlist and serve during the war. This
+splendid offer had, in some small measure, the effect desired; so
+that, in a short time, something like an army was cobbled together,
+with which, poor and scantily provided as it was, they at last
+resolved to take the field.
+
+Col. Washington, in command of the main body, was ordered to go on in
+advance, and cut a military road through the wilderness, in the
+direction of the new fort at the Forks of the Ohio, by way of the
+Monongahela; while Col. Fry was to remain behind with the rest of the
+troops, to bring up the cannon and heavy stores when the road should
+be opened. When the pioneers had cut their way about twenty miles
+beyond the frontier town of Winchester, there came a rumor, that the
+men who had been sent to build the fort at the Forks of the Ohio had
+all been surprised and captured by the French. In a few days, all
+doubts as to the truth of this report were set at rest by the men
+themselves, who came walking leisurely into camp, with their spades
+and axes on their shoulders, to every appearance quite well and
+comfortable.
+
+For several days, they said, they had been working away on the fort
+quite merrily; when, early one morning, they were much surprised to
+see one thousand Frenchmen, in sixty bateaux, or boats, and three
+hundred canoes, with six pieces of cannon, dropping quietly down the
+Alleghany. The leader of this gallant little force summoned the fort
+to surrender in the short space of an hour, or else they would find
+their unfinished timber-work tumbling about their heads in a way that
+would not be altogether agreeable. No one with even half his wits
+about him would have for a moment thought of defending an unfinished
+fort with axes, spades, and augers, against a force of twenty times
+their number, backed by cannon and grape-shot. These men had all their
+wits about them, and, to prove it, gave up the fort without further
+parley; when the French captain marched in, and took formal possession
+of the wooden pen in the name of his most Christian majesty, the King
+of France; after which, with that gayety and good-humor so often to
+be observed among the French people, he invited the young ensign--who,
+in the absence of the captain, had been left in the command of the
+fort for that day--to dine and drink a glass of wine with him. He then
+suffered them all to depart in peace with his good wishes, and with
+their spades, carpenter's tools, and axes on their shoulders.
+
+Col. Washington was deeply mortified at this intelligence; but, like
+the manly man that he was, he put a bright face on the matter, and, to
+keep up the spirits of his men, resolved to push on with the road with
+more vigor than ever. And a tremendous undertaking this was, I assure
+you. The tallest of trees were to be felled, the hugest of rocks to be
+split and removed, the deepest of swamps to be filled, and the
+swiftest of mountain torrents bridged over. With such hinderances, you
+will not wonder that they made but four miles a day. Now and then, the
+soldiers would be obliged to put their shoulders to the wheel, and
+help the poor half-famished horses with their heavy wagons up some
+rough and rocky steep. Thus over the gloomy mountains, and down the
+rugged defiles, and through a dark and lonely valley since called the
+Shades of Death, they forced their toilsome way. At last, after many
+weary days, they reached the banks of the Youghiogeny,--a romantic
+little river that went tumbling down the green hills in many a foaming
+waterfall; then, like a frolicsome school-boy nearing school, put on
+a demure and sober face, and quietly emptied itself into the more
+tranquil Monongahela. Here, to give his worn-out men and horses some
+repose after their severe and unceasing labors, Washington ordered a
+halt.
+
+Being told by some friendly Indians that the baggage could be carried
+down this stream by water, he set out early one morning in a canoe,
+with four or five white men, and an Indian for a guide, to see for
+himself what truth there might be in this report. When they had rowed
+about ten miles, their Indian guide, after sulking for a little while,
+laid his oar across the canoe, and refused to go further. At first,
+this behavior appeared to them a little queer; but they were not long
+in discovering that it was only a way the cunning red rascal had of
+higgling to get more pay for his services. After some pretty sharp
+bargaining, Col. Washington promised to give him his old watch-coat
+and a ruffled shirt if he would go on; upon which, without more ado,
+he picked up his oar, and for the rest of the trip steered away
+blithely enough. You can well imagine what an uncommon swell this
+savage dandy, with his bare red legs, must have cut, a few days after,
+in his civilized finery, among the copper-cheeked belles of the woods.
+By the time they had rowed twenty miles further, Washington was
+satisfied, that, owing to the rocks and rapids, a passage down this
+river in the shallow canoes of the Indians was next to impossible.
+
+Returning to camp, he soon afterwards received word from his old
+friend and ally, the Half King, that a party of French had been seen
+coming from the direction of Fort Duquesne, who were in all
+likelihood, by that time, somewhere in his close neighborhood. Upon
+hearing this, Washington deemed it prudent to fall back a few miles to
+the Great Meadows, a beautiful little plain, situated in the midst of
+woods and hills, and divided by a rivulet. Here he threw up strong
+intrenchments, cleared away the undergrowth, and prepared what he
+called "a charming field for an encounter." Shortly after, Mr. Gist,
+whom you well remember, came into camp, from his home on the
+Monongahela, with the tidings, that a party of French had been at his
+house on the day before, whom, from their appearance, he believed to
+be spies. Washington sent out some of his men on wagon-horses to beat
+the woods; who came in about dusk, without having, however, discovered
+any traces of the enemy. About nine o'clock that same night, an Indian
+runner came from the Half King with word, that some of his hunters had
+late that evening seen the tracks of two Frenchmen not five miles
+distant; and that, if Col. Washington would join him with some of his
+men, they would set out early in the morning in quest of the lurking
+foe.
+
+Taking with him about forty men, and leaving the rest to guard the
+intrenchments, Washington set out forthwith for the Indian camp. Their
+way led them through tall and thick woods, that were then in the full
+leaf of early summer. As if to deepen their gloom, the sky was
+overcast with the blackest of clouds, from which the rain poured down
+in torrents; and the night, of course, was as dark as dark could be.
+No wonder, then, that they were continually losing their path, which
+was but a deer-track, and none of the plainest, even in broad
+daylight. When any one discovered that he had lost himself, he would
+shout, and set himself right again by the answering shouts of his
+comrades who might be so lucky as to be in the path at that moment.
+After blundering about all night through marshy thickets, slipping
+upon slimy rocks, and scrambling over the oozy trunks of fallen trees,
+they reached the Indian camp at daybreak in a somewhat moist and
+bedabbled plight, as you may well imagine. The Half King seemed
+overjoyed at seeing his young white brother once more; and, with true
+Indian hospitality, set before him and his men the best his camp
+afforded. After breakfasting heartily on bear's meat, venison, and
+parched corn, they all set out together, much refreshed, to seek what
+game might be in the wind. The Half King led the way to the spot where
+the two tracks had been seen the evening before; and, having found
+them, told two of his sharp-eyed hunters to follow the trail until
+they could bring some tidings of the feet that had made them. Like
+hounds on the scent of a fox, they started off at a long trot; only
+pausing now and then to look more closely at the leaves, to make sure
+they were right, and not on a cold scent. In a short time, they came
+back with word that they had spied twenty-five or thirty French and
+Canadians encamped in a low, narrow bottom, between high and steep
+hills, who looked as if they were desirous of concealment. Whereupon
+Washington proposed that the two parties should divide, and, stealing
+upon the enemy from opposite directions, surprise and capture him, if
+possible, without the shedding of blood. To this the Half King agreed;
+and, parting, they moved off in profound silence, each on their
+separate way.
+
+A sudden turn of the hollow, down which they had been making their way
+for several minutes, brought Washington and his party, ere they were
+well aware, in full view of the enemy. Some were cooking their
+morning's meal, some were preparing their arms for the day's
+excursion, some were lounging, and all were merry. But, seeing as soon
+as seen, they ran with all speed to their guns, that were leaned
+against the trees hard by, and, without more ado, began firing in so
+brisk and earnest a manner, that left the Virginians no choice but to
+return it, which they did with spirit. About the same time, the Half
+King and his warriors came down to the bottom of the hill on the
+opposite side of the hollow, and, screening themselves behind a bit of
+rising ground, joined the music of their rifles with the rest. For
+about fifteen minutes, the skirmish was kept up with great spirit on
+both sides; when the French, having lost ten of their number (among
+whom was their leader, Capt. de Jumonville), surrendered, and yielded
+up their arms. Washington had one man shot dead at his side, and three
+men wounded; but his Indian allies, protected as they were by the
+rising ground, came off without the loss of a single feather or
+porcupine-quill. Unluckily, in the heat of the encounter, a
+swift-footed Canadian, better, no doubt, at dodging than shooting,
+managed to make his escape, and carried the news to Fort Duquesne.
+
+The Half King and his warriors, I am sorry to tell you, would have
+butchered the prisoners in cold blood, had not Washington sternly
+forbidden them. They therefore consoled themselves as best they might
+for this disappointment by scalping the dead; which, however, yielded
+them but sorry comfort, as there were but ten scalps to be divided
+among forty warriors.
+
+The Half King was much offended by this humane interference, on the
+part of his young white brother, in behalf of the prisoners; for he
+seemed to think, that as they were spies, and French spies at that,
+they richly deserved to be scalped alive. Such milk-and-water,
+half-way measures might do for pale-faces, but were not the sort of
+entertainment to be relished by a genuine Indian brave of the first
+water, or, to speak more to the point, of the first blood.
+
+Without, however, in the least heeding these muttered grumblings of
+the worthy old chief, who had his failings along with the rest of
+mankind, Col. Washington took the prisoners to his camp, where he
+treated them with even more kindness and courtesy than they as spies
+deserved. From thence he sent them under a strong guard to
+Williamsburg, and wrote to Gov. Dinwiddie, begging him to treat them
+with all the humanity due to prisoners of war, but to keep a strict
+watch over them, as there were among them two or three very cunning
+and dangerous men.
+
+This encounter, commonly called the Jumonville affair, caused a great
+sensation, not only throughout the Colonies, but also in France and
+England; for it was there, as you must know, in that remote and
+obscure little valley, that flowed the first blood of this long and
+eventful war. It was Washington's first battle; and, being a
+successful one, much inspirited him. In a letter written at this time
+to his brother Augustine, after touching upon the particulars of this
+skirmish, he says, "I heard the bullets whistle; and, believe me,
+there is something charming in the sound."
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+FORT NECESSITY.
+
+
+About this time, Col. Fry died at Wills's Creek, where he had lain ill
+of a fever for several weeks; and Washington, as the next in rank, was
+obliged to take command of the regiment. Although this change brought
+with it an increase of pay and honors, yet it caused him the sincerest
+regret; for even then, young as he was, he had the good of his country
+more earnestly at heart than his own private advantage. He said, and
+with unfeigned modesty, that he feared he was scarcely equal to the
+discharge of such high and responsible duties, without the aid and
+counsel of some older and more experienced officer.
+
+Capt. de Villiers was now commander of the French at Fort Duquesne.
+When tidings of the late encounter reached this officer through the
+swift-footed Canadian, he swore a deep oath that he would chastise the
+audacious young Virginian for what he chose to call this barbarous
+outrage, and avenge the death of De Jumonville, whose brother-in-law,
+as ill luck would have it, he chanced to be. Foreseeing his danger,
+and to defend himself against the superior force he knew would be
+brought against him, Col. Washington set about forthwith to strengthen
+his works. He dug the ditches deeper, raised the breastworks higher,
+and surrounded the whole with a row of palisades, firmly planted in
+the ground, and set so close together as scarcely to allow of a
+gun-barrel passing between them.
+
+Owing to the shameful neglect of those whose duty it was to send up
+supplies, he and his men suffered much from the want of food,--many
+days at a stretch sometimes passing by without their tasting bread. To
+aggravate this new distress, the Half King and many of his warriors,
+with their wives and children, now sought refuge in the fort from the
+vengeance of the French and their savage allies; which added nothing
+to their strength, and only increased the number of hungry mouths to
+be fed. To this place, then, where gaunt famine pinched them from
+within and watchful enemies beset them from without, Washington gave
+the fitting name of Fort Necessity. Luckily for them, while in this
+pitiable plight, days and days passed by, and still no avenging De
+Villiers showed himself, though alarms were frequent.
+
+Col. Washington now ordered Major Muse to bring up the rest of the
+troops that had been waiting all this while at Wills's Creek, with the
+heavy stores and cannon. To reward the friendly Indians for their
+services and fidelity, Major Muse brought with him presents of
+hatchets and knives, guns, powder and lead, tin cups, needles and
+pins, beads, and dry-goods of every gaudy hue, and it may be, although
+we can only guess it, a ruffled shirt or two. In addition to these,
+there came a number of silver medals for the chief sachems, sent by
+Gov. Dinwiddie at the suggestion of Col. Washington, who well knew how
+much these simple people prize little compliments of this kind. Major
+Muse handed out the presents, while Washington hung the medals about
+the necks of the sachems, which yielded them far more delight, you
+will be sorry to hear, than their good old missionary's catechism.
+This was done with all that show and parade so dear to an Indian's
+heart; and, to give a still finer edge to the present occasion, they
+christened each other all over again: that is to say, the red men gave
+the white men Indian names, and the white men gave the red men English
+names. Thus, for example, Washington gave the Half King the name of
+Dinwiddie, which pleased him greatly; while he, in his turn, bestowed
+on his young white brother a long, high-sounding Indian name, that you
+could pronounce as readily spelt backwards as forwards. Fairfax was
+the name given a young sachem, the son of Queen Aliquippa, whose
+eternal friendship to the English, it must be borne in mind, had been
+secured by Washington, the previous winter, by the present of an old
+coat and a bottle of rum.
+
+By the advice of his old and much-esteemed friend, Col. William
+Fairfax, Washington had divine worship in the fort daily, in which he
+led; and, thanks to the early teachings of his pious mother, he could
+do this, and sin not. Solemn indeed, my dear children, and beautiful
+to behold, must have been that picture,--that little fort, so far away
+in the heart of the lonely wilderness, with its motley throng of
+painted Indians and leather-clad backwoodsmen gathered round their
+young commander, as, morning and evening, he kneeled in prayer before
+the Giver of all good, beseeching aid and protection, and giving
+thanks.
+
+As if to put his manhood and patience to a still severer test, there
+came to the fort about this time an independent company of one hundred
+North Carolinians, headed by one Capt. Mackay, who refused to serve
+under him as his superior officer. As his reason for this conduct,
+Mackay argued that he held a royal commission (that is to say, had
+been made a captain by the King of England), which made him equal in
+rank, if not superior, to Washington, who held only a provincial
+commission, or had been made a colonel by the Governor of Virginia.
+This, in part, was but too true; and it had been a source of
+dissatisfaction to Washington, that the rank and services of colonial
+officers should be held at a cheaper rate than the same were valued at
+in the royal army. It wounded his honest, manly pride, and offended
+his high sense of justice; and he had already resolved in his own mind
+to quit such inglorious service, as soon as he could do so without
+injury to the present campaign, or loss of honor to himself. To most
+men, the lofty airs and pretensions of Capt. Mackay and his
+Independents would have been unbearable; but he kept his temper
+unruffled, and, with a prudence beyond his years, forbore to do or say
+any thing that would lead to an angry outbreak between them; and as
+they chose to encamp outside the fort, and have separate guards, he
+deemed it wisest not to trouble himself about them, only so far as
+might concern their common safety.
+
+Days, and even weeks, had now passed away, and still no enemy had come
+to offer him battle. His men were becoming restless from inaction; and
+the example of the troublesome Independents had already begun to stir
+up discontent among them, which threatened, if not checked in season,
+to end in downright insubordination. As the surest remedy for these
+evils, Washington resolved to push forward with the road in the
+direction of Fort Duquesne, and carry the war into the enemy's own
+country. Requesting Capt. Mackay to guard the fort during his absence,
+he set out with his entire force of three hundred men, and again began
+the toilsome work of cutting a road through the wilderness. The
+difficulties they had now to overcome were even greater than those
+which beset them at the outset of their pioneering. The mountains
+were higher, the swamps deeper, the rocks more massive, the trees
+taller and more numerous, the torrents more rapid, the days more hot
+and sultry, and the men and horses more enfeebled by poor and scanty
+food. You will not wonder, then, that they were nearly two weeks in
+reaching Mr. Gist's plantation on the Monongahela, a distance of but
+fifteen miles.
+
+But hardly had they pitched their tents, and thrown themselves on the
+grass to snatch a little rest, when there came the disheartening
+intelligence, brought in by their Indian spies, that Capt. de Villiers
+had been seen to sally from Fort Duquesne but a few hours before, at
+the head of a force of five hundred French and four hundred Indians,
+and must by that time be within a few miles of the Virginia camp. For
+three hundred weary and hungry men to wait and give battle to a force
+three times their number, fresh and well fed, was a thing too absurd
+to be thought of for a single moment. Washington, therefore, as their
+only chance of safety, ordered a hasty retreat, hoping that they might
+be able to reach the settlements on Wills's Creek before the enemy
+could overtake him. The retreat, however, was any thing but a hasty
+one; for the poor half-famished horses were at last no longer able to
+drag the heavy cannon and carry the heavy baggage. Moved with pity for
+the lean and tottering beasts, Washington dismounted from his fine
+charger, and gave him for a pack-horse; which humane example was
+promptly followed by his officers. Yet even this was not enough: so,
+while some of the jaded men loaded their backs with the baggage, the
+rest, as jaded, dragged the artillery along the stony roads with
+ropes, rather than that it should be left behind to fall into the
+hands of the enemy. For this good service, rendered so willingly in
+that hour of sore distress, they went not unrewarded by their generous
+young commander.
+
+Capt. Mackay and his company of Independents had, at Washington's
+request, come up a little while before, and now joined in the retreat.
+But they joined in nothing else; for, pluming themselves upon their
+greater respectability as soldiers of his Britannic majesty, they lent
+not a helping hand in this hour of pressing need, although the danger
+that lurked behind threatened all alike. They marched along, these
+coxcombs, daintily picking their way over the smoothest roads, and too
+genteel to be burdened with any thing but their clean muskets and tidy
+knapsacks. This ill-timed and insolent behavior served only to
+aggravate the trials of the other poor fellows all the more; and when,
+at last, they had managed to drag the cannon and the wagons and
+themselves to Fort Necessity, they were so overcome with fatigue and
+hunger, and so moved with indignation at the conduct of the
+Independents, that they threw down their ropes and packs, and flatly
+refused to be marched further. Seeing their pitiful plight, and that
+it would be impossible to reach the settlements, Col. Washington, as
+their last chance of safety, turned aside, and once more took shelter
+in his little fort.
+
+As Capt. Mackay and his company of gentlemen fighters had done nothing
+towards strengthening the works during his absence, Washington ordered
+a few trees to be felled in the woods hard by, as a still further
+barrier to the approach of the enemy. Just as the last tree went
+crashing down, the French and their Indian allies, nine hundred
+strong, came in sight, and opened a scattering fire upon the fort, but
+from so great a distance as made it little more than an idle waste of
+powder and lead. Suspecting this to be but a feint of the crafty foe
+to decoy them into an ambuscade, Washington ordered his men to keep
+within the shelter of the fort, there to lie close, and only to shoot
+when they could plainly see where their bullets were to be sent.
+
+A light skirmishing was kept up all day, and until a late hour in the
+night; the Indians keeping the while within the shelter of the woods,
+which at no point came within sixty yards of the palisades. Whenever
+an Indian scalp-lock or a French cap showed itself from among the
+trees or bushes, it that instant became the mark of a dozen
+sharpshooters watching at the rifle-holes of the fort. All that day,
+and all the night too, the rain poured down from one black cloud, as
+only a summer ruin can pour, till the ditches were filled with water,
+and the breastworks nothing but a bank of miry clay; till the men were
+drenched to the skin, and the guns of many so dampened as to be unfit
+for use.
+
+About nine o'clock that night, the firing ceased; and shortly after a
+voice was heard, a little distance beyond the palisades, calling upon
+the garrison, in the name of Capt. de Villiers, to surrender.
+Suspecting this to be but a pretext for getting a spy into the fort,
+Col. Washington refused to admit the bearer of the summons. Capt. de
+Villiers then requested that an officer be sent to his quarters to
+parley; giving his word of honor that no mischief should befall him,
+or unfair advantage be taken of it. Whereupon, Capt. Van Braam, the
+old Dutch fencing-master, being the only French interpreter
+conveniently at hand, was employed to go and bring in the terms of
+surrender. He soon came back; but the terms were too dishonorable for
+any true soldier to think of accepting. He was sent again, but with no
+better result. The third time, Capt. de Villiers sent written articles
+of capitulation; which, being in his own language, must needs be first
+translated before an answer could be returned. By the flickering light
+of one poor candle, which could hardly be kept burning for the pouring
+rain, the Dutch captain read the terms he had brought, while the rest
+stood round him, gathering what sense they could from the confused
+jumbling of bad French, and worse English he was pleased to call a
+translation. After this, there followed a little more parleying
+between the hostile leaders; when it was at last settled that the
+prisoners taken in the Jumonville affair should be set at liberty;
+that the English should build no forts upon the disputed territories
+within a twelvemonth to come; and that the garrison, after destroying
+the artillery and military stores, should be allowed to march out with
+all the honors of war, and pursue their way to the settlements,
+unmolested either by the French or their Indian allies. When we take
+into account the more than double strength of the enemy, the starving
+condition of the garrison (still further weakened as it was by the
+loss of twelve men killed and forty-three wounded), and the slender
+hope of speedy succor from the settlements, these terms must be
+regarded as highly honorable to Col. Washington; and still more so
+when we add to this the fact, that the Half King and his other Indian
+allies had deserted him at the first approach of danger, under the
+pretext of finding some safer retreat for their wives and children.
+Whether they failed from choice, or hinderance to return, and take
+part in the action, can never now be known with certainty.
+
+Thus the dreary night wore away; and, when the dreary morning dawned,
+they destroyed the artillery and the military stores, preparatory to
+their setting forth on their retreat. As all the horses had been
+killed or lost the day before, they had no means of removing their
+heavy baggage: they therefore secured it as best they might, hoping to
+be able to send back for it from the settlements. Still in possession
+of their small-arms, they then marched out of the fort with all the
+honors of war,--fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying. They
+had gone but a few yards from the fort, when a large body of Indians
+pounced with plundering hands upon the baggage. Seeing that the French
+could not or would not keep them back, Washington, to disappoint them
+of their booty, ordered his men to set fire to it, and destroy all
+they could not bring away upon their backs.
+
+This done, they once more took up their line of march; and a
+melancholy march it was. Between them and the nearest settlements,
+there lay seventy miles of steep and rugged mountain-roads, over which
+they must drag their weary and aching limbs before they could hope to
+find a little rest. Washington did all that a kind and thoughtful
+commander could to keep up the flagging spirits of his men; sharing
+with them their every toil and privation, and all the while
+maintaining a firm and cheerful demeanor. Reaching Wills's Creek, he
+there left them to enjoy the full abundance which they found awaiting
+them at that place; and, in company with Capt. Mackay, repaired at
+once to Williamsburg to report the result of the campaign to Gov.
+Dinwiddie.
+
+A short time after, the terms of surrender were laid before the
+Virginia House of Burgesses, and received the entire approval of that
+wise body; who, although the expedition had ended in defeat and
+failure, most cheerfully gave Col. Washington and his men a vote of
+thanks, in testimony of their having done their whole duty as good and
+brave and faithful soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+GENERAL BRADDOCK.
+
+
+Having brought the campaign to an honorable if not successful end,
+Col. Washington threw up his commission, and left the service. This
+had been his determination for some time past; and he felt that he
+could do so now without laying his conduct open to censure or
+suspicion, having within his own breast the happy assurance, that, in
+the discharge of his late trust, he had acted the part of a faithful
+soldier and true patriot, seeking only his country's good. The reasons
+that led him to take this step need not be repeated, as you will
+readily understand them, if you still bear in mind what I told you a
+short time since touching those questions of rank which caused the
+difficulty between him and Capt. Mackay.
+
+A visit to his much-beloved mother was the first use he made of his
+leisure. The profound love and reverence that never failed to mark his
+conduct towards his mother were among the most beautiful traits of his
+character. The management of the family estate, and the education of
+the younger children, were concerns in which he ever took the
+liveliest interest; and to make these labors light and easy to her by
+his aid or counsel was a pleasure to him indeed. This grateful duty
+duly done, he once more sought the shelter of Mount Vernon, to whose
+comforts he had been for so many months a stranger. The toils of a
+soldier's life were now exchanged for the peaceful labors of a
+husbandman. Nor did this change, to his well-ordered mind, bring with
+it any idle regrets; for the quiet pursuits of a farmer's life yielded
+him, young, ardent, and adventurous as he was, scarcely less delight
+than the profession of arms, and even more as he grew in years.
+
+The affair of the Great Meadows roused the mother-country at last to a
+full sense of the danger that threatened her possessions in America.
+Accordingly, to regain what had been lost, money, and munitions of
+war, and a gallant little army fitted out in the completest style of
+that day, were sent over with all possible expedition, under the
+command of Major-Gen. Braddock.
+
+From the shrubby heights of Mount Vernon, Washington could look down,
+and behold the British ships-of-war as they moved slowly up the
+majestic Potomac, their decks thronged with officers and soldiers
+dressed in showy uniform, their polished arms and accoutrements
+flashing back the cold, clear light of the February sun. From their
+encampment at Alexandria, a few miles distant, he could hear the
+booming of their morning and evening guns, as it came roiling over the
+hills and through the woods, and shook his quiet home like a sullen
+summons to arms. Often, no longer able to keep down his youthful
+ardor, he would mount his horse, and, galloping up to the town, spend
+hours there in watching the different companies, as with the precision
+of clockwork they went through their varied and difficult evolutions.
+At these sights and sounds, all the martial spirit within him took
+fire again.
+
+To Gen. Braddock, who commanded all the forces in America, provincial
+as well as royal, Gov. Dinwiddie and other Virginia notables spoke in
+the highest terms of the character of young Washington; giving him at
+the same time still further particulars of the brave and soldierly
+conduct he had so signally shown during the campaign of the previous
+year. They took pleasure, they said, in recommending him as one whose
+skill and experience in Indian warfare, and thorough acquaintance with
+the wild country beyond the borders, were such as could be turned to
+the greatest advantage in the course of the following campaign.
+
+Desirous of securing services of such peculiar value, Braddock sent
+our young Virginian a courteous invitation to join his staff; offering
+him the post of volunteer aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel. Here
+was an opportunity of gratifying his taste for arms under one of the
+first generals of the day. Could he do it without the sacrifice of
+honor or self-respect? Although he had left the service for the best
+of reasons, as you must bear in mind, yet there was nothing in these
+reasons to hinder him from serving his country, not for pay, but as a
+generous volunteer, bearing his own expenses. Besides, such a post as
+this would place him altogether above the authority of any equal or
+inferior officer who might chance to hold a king's commission.
+Debating thus with himself, and urged on by his friends, he accepted
+Braddock's invitation, and joined his staff as volunteer aide-de-camp.
+
+Now, would you know what an aide-de-camp is? Wait, and you will find
+out for yourselves when we come to the battle of the Monongahela,
+where Braddock suffered his gallant little army to be cut to pieces by
+the French and Indians.
+
+When Mrs. Washington heard that her son was on the eve of joining the
+new army, full of a mother's fears, she hastened to entreat him not
+again to expose himself to the dangers and trials of a soldier's life.
+Although the army was the only opening to distinction at that time in
+the Colonies, yet, to have him ever near her, she would rather have
+seen him quietly settled at his beautiful homestead, as an
+unpretending farmer, than on the high road to every worldly honor at
+the risk of life or virtue. Ever mindful of her slightest wishes, her
+son listened respectfully to all her objections, and said all he could
+to quiet her motherly fears: but, feeling that he owed his highest
+duty to his country, he was not to be turned from his steadfast
+purpose; and, taking an affectionate leave of her, he set out to join
+his general at Fort Cumberland.
+
+Fort Cumberland was situated on Wills's Creek, and had just been built
+by Braddock as a gathering point for the border; and thither he had
+removed his whole army, with all his stores, and munitions of war.
+Upon further acquaintance, Washington found this old veteran a man of
+courteous though somewhat haughty manners, of a hasty and uneven
+temper, strict and rigid in the discipline of his soldiers, much given
+to martial pomp and parade, and self-conceited and wilful to a degree
+that was sometimes scarcely bearable. He was, however, of a sociable
+and hospitable turn; often inviting his officers to dine with him, and
+entertaining them like princes. So keen a relish had he for the good
+things of the table, that he never travelled without his two cooks,
+who were said to have been so uncommonly skilful in their line of
+business, that they could take a pair of boots, and boil them down
+into a very respectable dish of soup, give them only the seasoning to
+finish it off with. The little folks, however, must be very cautious
+how they receive this story, as their Uncle Juvinell will not
+undertake to vouch for the truth of it.
+
+The contractors--that is to say, the men who had been engaged to
+furnish the army with a certain number of horses, pack-saddles, and
+wagons, by a certain time, and for a certain consideration--had failed
+to be as good as their word, and had thereby seriously hindered the
+progress of the campaign. As might have been expected, this was enough
+to throw such a man as Braddock into a towering passion; and, to mend
+his humor, the governors of the different provinces were not as ready
+and brisk to answer his call for men and supplies as he thought he had
+a right to expect.
+
+So he poured forth his vials of wrath upon whomsoever or whatsoever
+chanced to come uppermost. He stormed at the contractors; he railed at
+the governors, and sneered at the troops they sent him; he abused the
+country in general, and scolded about the bad roads in particular.
+
+Washington, with his usual clearness of insight into character, soon
+saw, to his deep disappointment, that this was hardly the man to
+conduct a wilderness campaign to any thing like a successful end,
+however brave the testy old veteran might be, and expert in the
+management of well-drilled regulars in the open and cultivated regions
+of the Old World. Of the same opinion was Dr. Franklin, who, being at
+that time Postmaster-General of all the Colonies, came to Braddock's
+quarters at Fort Cumberland to make some arrangements for transporting
+the mail to and from the army during the progress of the expedition. I
+will read you his own lively account of this interview, as it will
+enable you to see more clearly those faults of Braddock's character
+that so soon after brought ruin on his own head, and disgrace upon
+English arms in America.
+
+     "In conversation with him one day, he was giving me some
+     account of his intended progress. 'After taking Fort Duquesne,'
+     said he, 'I am to proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that,
+     to Frontenac, if the season will allow; and I suppose it will,
+     for Duquesne can hardly detain me above three or four days: and
+     then I can see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara.'
+
+     "Having before revolved in my mind the long line his army must
+     make in their march by a very narrow road to be cut for them
+     through the woods and bushes, and also what I had heard of a
+     former defeat of fifteen hundred French who invaded the
+     Illinois country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears
+     for the event of the campaign; but I ventured only to say, 'To
+     be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne with these
+     fine troops, so well provided with artillery, the fort, though
+     completely fortified and assisted with a very strong garrison,
+     can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I
+     apprehend of obstruction to your march is from the ambuscades
+     of the Indians, who, by constant practice, are dexterous in
+     laying and executing them; and the slender line, nearly four
+     miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to be
+     attacked by surprise on its flanks, and to be cut like thread
+     into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up
+     in time to support one another.' He smiled at my ignorance, and
+     replied,"'These savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to
+     raw American militia; but upon the king's regular and
+     disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make an
+     impression.'
+
+     "I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing with a
+     military man in matters of his profession, and said no more."
+
+In the course of this interview, Franklin chanced to express a regret
+that the army had not been landed in Pennsylvania, where, as every
+farmer kept his own wagon and horses, better means would have been
+more readily found for transporting the troops, with their heavy guns
+and munitions of war, across the country and over the mountains. Quick
+to take a hint, Braddock made haste to request him, as a man of
+standing in his colony, to furnish him, in the king's name, one
+hundred and fifty wagons, and four horses to each wagon, besides a
+large number of pack-horses and pack-saddles. This, Franklin readily
+undertook to do; and went about it with such diligence, that by the
+latter part of spring, even before the time set, he had fulfilled his
+promise to the last letter; and Braddock had now the satisfaction of
+seeing his army, after all these vexatious delays, in a condition to
+move forward.
+
+Meanwhile, Washington was all attention to affairs in camp, and was
+daily gaining fresh insight into the art of war, as understood and
+practised in the most civilized countries of the Old World. Every day
+the men were drilled, and passed under review; their arms and
+accoutrements carefully inspected by their officers, to make sure that
+they were in perfect order, and ready for use at a moment's notice.
+Sentinels and guards were stationed in and about the camp, day and
+night.
+
+So strict was the watch kept by this lynx-eyed old general over the
+morals of his men, that drunkenness was punished with severe
+confinement; and any one found guilty of theft was drummed out of his
+regiment, after receiving five hundred stripes on his bare back. Every
+Sunday, the soldiers were called together, under the colors of their
+separate regiments, to hear divine service performed by their
+chaplains.
+
+To lend variety to the scene, the Indians of the neighboring
+wilderness came flocking in to join their fortunes with the English,
+or bring information of the movements or designs of the French. Among
+these came his old friend and ally, White Thunder, keeper of the
+speech-belt; and Silver Heels, a renowned warrior, so called, no
+doubt, from his being uncommonly nimble of foot. Also, as we shall
+meet him again hereafter, should be mentioned another sachem, whose
+Indian name the little folks must excuse their Uncle Juvinell from
+giving them in full. By your leave, then, for the sake of brevity and
+convenience, we will call him by the last two syllables of his name,
+Yadi. From them Washington learned, much to his regret, that his red
+brother, the Half King, had died a few months before; having, as the
+conjurors or medicine-men of his tribe pretended, been bewitched by
+the French for the terrible blow he had dealt them at the battle of
+Jumonville, which had filled them with such terror, that they dared
+not hope for safety in the wide earth till certain that he walked and
+ate and slept no more among living men.
+
+Although Braddock held these savage allies in high contempt, yet when
+Washington pointed out to him how much was to be gained by their
+friendship, and how much to be lost by their enmity, he was persuaded,
+for that one time at least, to treat them with marked respect and
+distinction.
+
+To give them an overwhelming idea of the power and splendor of English
+arms, he received them with all the honors of war,--fifes playing,
+drums beating, and the regulars lowering their muskets as they passed
+on to the general's tent. Here Braddock received them in the midst of
+his officers, and made them a speech of welcome, in the course of
+which he told them of the deep sorrow felt by their great father, the
+King of England, for the death of his red brother, the Half King; and
+that, to console his red children in America for so grievous a loss,
+as well as to reward them for their friendship and services to the
+English, he had sent them many rich and handsome presents, which they
+should receive before leaving the fort. This speech was answered by a
+dozen warriors in as many orations, which being very long and very
+flowery, and very little to the point, bored their English listeners
+dreadfully. The peace-pipe smoked and the Big Talk ended, Braddock, by
+way of putting a cap on the grand occasion, ordered all the fifes to
+play, and drums to beat, and, in the midst of the music, all the guns
+in the fort to be fired at once. He then caused a bullock to be
+killed, and roasted whole, for the refreshment of his Indian guests.
+
+The Indians, in their turn, to show how sensible they were of the
+honor done them by this distinguished reception, entertained the
+English by dancing their war-dances and singing their war-songs: by
+which you are to understand that they jumped and whirled and capered
+about in a thousand outlandish antics till they grew limber and weak
+in the knees, and yelped and bellowed and howled till their bodies
+were almost empty of breath; when, from very exhaustion, they hushed
+their barbarous din, and night and slumber fell on the camp. In the
+daytime, these lords of the forest, tricked out in all their savage
+finery, their faces streaked with war-paint and their scalp-locks
+brave with gay bunches of feathers, would stalk about the fort, big
+with wonder over every thing they saw. Now and then, they would follow
+with admiring eyes the rapid and skilful movement of the red-coated
+regulars, as one or other of the regiments, like some huge machine,
+went through their martial exercises; or, standing on the ramparts,
+they would watch with still keener zest and interest the young
+officers as they amused themselves by racing their horses outside the
+fort.
+
+As ill luck would have it, these warriors had brought with them their
+wives and children, among whom were many very pretty Indian girls,
+with plump, round forms, little hands and feet, and beady, roguish
+eyes. As female society was not by any means one of the charms of life
+at Fort Cumberland, the coming of these wild beauties was hailed with
+the liveliest delight by the young English officers, who, the moment
+they laid eyes on them, fell to loving them to desperation. First
+among these forest belles was one who went by the expressive name of
+Bright Lightning; so called, no doubt, from being the favorite
+daughter of White Thunder. It being noised abroad that she was a
+savage princess of the very first blood, she, of course, at once
+became the centre of fashionable attraction, and the leading toast of
+all the young blades in camp. No sooner, however, did the warriors get
+wind of these gallantries, than they were quite beside themselves with
+rage and jealousy, and straightway put an end to them; making the
+erring fair ones pack off home, bag and baggage, sorely to their
+disappointment, as well as to that of the young British lions, who
+were quite inconsolable for their loss.
+
+This scandalous behavior on the part of the English--of which,
+however, your Uncle Juvinell may have spoken more lightly than he
+ought--was, as you may well believe, very disgusting to Washington,
+who was a young man of the purest thoughts and habits. As may be
+naturally supposed, it gave deep and lasting offence to the sachems;
+and when to this is coupled the fact, that their wishes and opinions
+touching war-matters were never heeded or consulted, we cannot wonder
+that they one by one forsook the English, with all their warriors, and
+came no more.
+
+Foreseeing this, and well knowing what valuable service these people
+could render as scouts and spies, Washington had gone to Braddock,
+time and again, warning him to treat them with more regard to their
+peculiar whims and customs, if he did not wish to lose the advantages
+to be expected from their friendship, or bring upon him the terrible
+consequences of their enmity. As this wise and timely advice came from
+a young provincial colonel, the wrong-headed old general treated it,
+of course, with high disdain, and to the last remained obstinate in
+the belief that he could march to the very heart of the continent
+without meeting an enemy who could withstand his well-drilled regulars
+and fine artillery.
+
+And thus, my dear children, did this rash and wilful man cast lightly
+away the golden opportunity, wherein, by a few kind words, or tokens
+of respect, he could have gained the lasting friendship of this
+much-despised race, and thereby made them, in all human likelihood,
+the humble means of saving from early destruction the finest army,
+which, up to that time, had carried its banners to the Western World.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+ROUGH WORK.
+
+
+At last, all things were got in readiness; and the gallant little army
+began its toilsome march through the forest, and over the mountains,
+and up and down the valleys. Beside the regulars, fourteen hundred
+strong, it consisted of two companies of hatchet-men, or carpenters,
+whose business it was to go on before, and open the road; a small
+company of seamen, who had the care and management of the artillery;
+six companies of rangers, some of whom were Pennsylvanians; and two
+companies of light horse, which, being composed of young men taken
+from the very first families of Virginia, Braddock had chosen to be
+his body-guard: the whole numbering two thousand, or thereabouts.
+
+Owing to the difficulty of dragging the loaded wagons and heavy guns
+over the steep and rocky roads, the march was slow and tedious in the
+extreme; and what made it still more trying to Washington's patience
+was to see so many wagons and pack-horses loaded down with the private
+baggage of the English officers,--such as fine clothing, table
+dainties, and a hundred little troublesome conveniences, which they
+must needs lug about with them wherever they went. Weeks before they
+left Fort Cumberland, Washington had pointed out to Braddock the folly
+of attempting to cross that monstrous mountain barrier with a cumbrous
+train of wheel-carriages; and expressed the opinion, that, for the
+present, they had better leave the bulk of their baggage and their
+heaviest artillery, and, trusting entirely to pack-horses for
+transporting what should be needed most, make their way at once to
+Fort Duquesne while the garrison was yet too weak to offer any
+resistance. This prudent counsel, however, as usual, had failed to
+produce the least effect on the narrow and stubborn mind of Braddock;
+but by the time he had dragged his unwieldy length over two or three
+mountains, and had made but a few miles in many days, it began to dawn
+on his mind by slow degrees, that a campaign in an American wilderness
+was a very different thing from what it was in the cultivated regions
+of Europe, where nearly every meadow, field, or wood, could tell of a
+Christian and civilized battle there fought, and where the fine roads
+and bridges made the march of an army a mere holiday jaunt as compared
+to this rough service. The difficulties that beset him seeming to
+thicken around him at every step, he was at last so sorely put to it
+and perplexed as to be obliged to turn to the young provincial
+colonel for that advice which he, in his blind self-confidence, had
+but a short while before disdained.
+
+Too well bred to seem surprised at this unbending of the haughty old
+general, although he really was not a little, Washington readily, yet
+with all becoming modesty, did as he was desired, in a clear, brief,
+and soldierly manner. He gave it as his opinion, that their best plan
+would be to divide the army into two parts,--the smaller division,
+under command of Col. Dunbar, to form the rear, and bring up the heavy
+guns and baggage-wagons; the larger division, under the command of
+Braddock, to form the advance, and taking with it but two pieces of
+light artillery, and no more baggage than could be conveniently
+carried on pack-horses, push rapidly on to Fort Duquesne, and surprise
+the garrison before they could receive timely warning of their danger,
+or be re-enforced by the troops from Canada, which would have arrived
+ere then, had not the summer drought prevented. To some extent, this
+prudent advice was followed; and, to give it the force of example,
+Washington reduced his baggage to a few little necessaries that he
+could easily carry in a small portmanteau strapped to his back, and
+gave his fine charger to be used as a pack-horse. His brother
+provincial officers, accustomed as they were to dealing with the
+difficulties and inconveniences of a backwoods life, in a ready,
+off-hand fashion, followed his example with the greatest willingness
+and good-humor. Notwithstanding this, however, there were still two
+hundred pack-horses loaded with the private baggage of the English
+officers, who were unwilling, even in that hour of pressing need, to
+make this little sacrifice of their present comfort to the common
+good. So tender did they seem of their bodily ease, and so given up to
+the pleasures of appetite, that Washington began to have serious
+doubts of their fitness to endure the hardships of a rough campaign,
+and of their courage and firmness to face the dangers of the
+battle-field.
+
+One evening late, about this time, as the army lay encamped at the
+Little Meadows, there suddenly appeared among them, from the
+neighboring woods, a large party of hunters, all Pennsylvanians,
+dressed in the wild garb of Indians, and armed with hatchets, knives,
+and rifles. Their leader was a certain Capt. Jack, one of the greatest
+hunters of his day, and nearly as famous in the border tales of
+Pennsylvania as Daniel Boone in those of green Kentucky. When your
+Uncle Juvinell was quite a lad, he read the story of this strange man,
+in an old book, which pleased and interested him so much at the time,
+that he has never since forgotten it, and will now repeat it to you in
+the very words of the old chronicler:--
+
+     "The 'Black Hunter,' the 'Black Rifle,' the 'Wild Hunter of
+     Juniata,' is a white man. His history is this: He entered the
+     woods with a few enterprising companions, built his cabin,
+     cleared a little land, and amused himself with the pleasure of
+     fishing and hunting. He felt happy; for then he had not a care.
+     But on an evening, when he returned from a day of sport, he
+     found his cabin burnt, his wife and children murdered. From
+     that moment he forsakes civilized man, hunts out caves in which
+     he lives, protects the frontier inhabitants from the Indians,
+     and seizes every opportunity of revenge that offers. He lives
+     the terror of the Indians, and the consolation of the whites.
+     On one occasion, near Juniata, in the middle of a dark night, a
+     family were suddenly awaked from sleep by the report of a gun.
+     They jumped from their huts; and, by the glimmering light from
+     the chimney, saw an Indian fall to rise no more. The open door
+     exposed to view the Wild Hunter. 'I have saved your lives!' he
+     cried; then turned, and was buried in the gloom of night."
+
+Bidding his leather-stockings to wait where they were till he came
+back, the Black Hunter strode on to the general's tent, and, without
+more ado than to enter, made known the object of his coming there, in
+a speech that smacked somewhat of the Indian style of oratory; which I
+will give you, as nearly as I can, in his own words:--
+
+     "Englishmen, the foe is on the watch. He lurks in the
+     strongholds of the mountains. He hides in the shadows of the
+     forest. He hovers over you like a hungry vulture ready to
+     pounce upon its prey. He has made a boast that he will keep his
+     eye upon you, from his look-outs on the hills, day and night,
+     till you have walked into his snare, when he will shoot down
+     your gay red-birds like pigeons. Englishmen, dangers thicken
+     round you at every step; but in the pride of your strength you
+     have blinded your eyes, so that you see them not. I have
+     brought my hunters, who are brave and trusty men, to serve you
+     as scouts and spies. In your front and in your rear, and on
+     either hand, we will scour the woods, and beat the bushes, to
+     stir up the lurking foe, that your gallant men fall not into
+     his murderous ambuscade. To us the secret places of the
+     wilderness are as an open book; in its depths we have made our
+     homes this many a year: there we can find both food and
+     shelter. We ask no pay, and our rifles are all our own."
+
+To this noble and disinterested offer, Braddock returned a cold and
+haughty answer.
+
+     "There is time enough," said he, "for making such arrangements;
+     and I have experienced troops on whom I can rely."
+
+Stung to the quick by this uncivil and ungenerous treatment, the Black
+Hunter, without another word, turned, and, with a kindling eye and
+proud step, left the tent. When he told his followers of the scornful
+manner in which the English general had treated their leader, and
+rejected their offer of service, they staid not, but, with angry and
+indignant mien, filed out of the camp, and, plunging once more into
+the wilderness, left the devoted little army to march on to that
+destruction to which its ill-starred commander seemed so fatally bent
+on leading it. The contemptuous indifference which always marked the
+demeanor of Braddock towards these rude but brave and trusty warriors
+of the woods was very offensive to Washington; the more, as he knew,
+that, when it came to be put to the test, these men, unskilled though
+they were in the modes of civilized warfare, would be found far better
+fitted to cope with the cunning and stealthy enemy they had then to
+deal with, than those well-dressed, well-armed, well-drilled, but
+unwieldy regulars.
+
+After having rested a few days at the Little Meadows, the advanced
+division of the army once more took up the line of march; but, to
+Washington's disappointment, made scarcely better speed than before,
+although lightened of nearly all of the heavy baggage. "I found,"
+wrote he a short time after, "that, instead of pushing on with vigor,
+we were halting to level every mole-hill, and erect bridges over every
+brook; by which means we were sometimes four days in getting twelve
+miles." Slowly the long and straggling lines held on their weary way,
+now scrambling over some rugged steep, now winding along some narrow
+defile, till at length the silence of that gloomy vale--the Shades of
+Death--was again broken by the shouts and uproar of a marching army.
+
+For several days, Washington had been suffering much from fever,
+attended with a racking headache, which had obliged him to travel in a
+covered wagon. By the time they reached the great crossings of the
+Youghiogeny, his illness had so increased, that Dr. Craik, his good
+friend and physician, declared it would be almost certain death for
+him to travel further; at the same time advising him to stay where he
+was until his fever should somewhat abate its violence, when he could
+come up with Dunbar's rear division. His brother officers also, and
+even his old general, kindly urged him to give up all thought of going
+on for the present; while, to render his disappointment more bearable,
+some of them promised to keep him informed, by writing, of every thing
+noteworthy which should happen in the course of their march. Seeing
+then; was no help for it, he suffered himself to be left behind: but
+it was with a sad and heavy heart that, he saw them pass on without
+him; and when they had vanished, one by one, in the shadows of the
+neighboring wilds, and the gleaming of their arms could no longer be
+seen through the openings of the trees and bushes, he turned with a
+sigh, and said to the men whom Braddock had left to nurse and guard
+him, "I would not for five hundred pounds miss being at the taking of
+Fort Duquesne." Here he lay for ten days; his fever, no doubt, much
+aggravated by his impatience to rejoin his comrades, and the fear lest
+he should not be well in time to share with them the dangers and
+honors of the coming contest.
+
+Meanwhile, Braddock pursued his slow and tedious march, and in a few
+days had passed the Great Meadows, where young Washington, the year
+before, as you must well remember, had learned his first lessons in
+the rude art of war. A few miles beyond this, he came to a deserted
+Indian camp, on the top of a rocky hill, where, to judge from the
+number of wigwams, at least one hundred and seventy warriors must have
+lodged. The fires were still burning; which showed but too plainly
+that the stealthy foe was on the watch, and not far distant. Some of
+the trees hard by had been stripped of their bark; and on their white,
+sappy trunks were to be seen, in the rude picture-writing of the
+Indians, savage taunts and threats of vengeance meant for the English;
+while intermixed with these were bullying boasts and blackguard slang,
+written in the French language, as if to force on the notice of those
+who were to read them the fact, that there were white as well as red
+men lurking near.
+
+It had almost slipped my mind to tell you, that Braddock, moved
+perhaps by the advice of Washington, had, before setting out from Fort
+Cumberland, employed a small party of Indians, with their sachem Yadi
+at their head, to serve as guides and spies during the campaign. A few
+days after passing the deserted camp on the rock, four or five
+soldiers, straggling too far in the rear, were suddenly waylaid by the
+prowling foe, and all murdered and scalped on the spot.
+
+To avenge the death of their comrades, a squad of regulars went out
+in quest of the enemy, and soon came in sight of a small party of
+Indians, who held up the boughs of trees before them, and stood their
+rifles on the ground, as a sign that they were friends. Not
+understanding this, however, and the distance being too great for them
+to make out who they were, the blundering regulars fired, and one of
+the party fell dead on the spot,--a youthful warrior, who proved to be
+the son of the sachem Yadi. When Braddock heard of this melancholy
+accident, he was deeply grieved. He forthwith sent for the bereaved
+father, and, to his praise be it ever recorded, endeavored, by kind
+words and liberal presents, to console him, and make some little
+amends for his heavy loss; and, as a still further token of his
+regard, he ordered the hapless youth to be buried with all the honors
+of war. The body, borne on a bier, was followed by the officers, two
+and two; while the soldiers, drawn up in two lines, with the grave
+between them, stood facing each other, with the points of their
+muskets turned downward, and their chins resting in the hollow of the
+breeches. When the body was lowered, they fired three volleys over the
+grave, and left the young warrior to his long sleep on the hillside,
+with his bright hatchet and trusty rifle beside him. All this was very
+soothing to the sorrow and gratifying to the fatherly pride of the old
+sachem, and made him ever after a loving friend and faithful ally of
+the English. I have told you this little story to show you, that this
+testy and obstinate old general, with all his faults, was far from
+being the hard, unfeeling man that he sometimes seemed; and also as a
+tribute that every historian should pay to the memory of one whose
+misfortune it has been to be blamed so much, and pitied so little.
+
+By this time, Washington had so far regained his strength as to admit
+of his being borne along in a covered wagon; and, setting out
+accordingly, in five days came up with the advance division, where it
+lay encamped in a beautiful spot about two miles from the Monongahela,
+and fifteen miles from Fort Duquesne. Here he was joyfully welcomed by
+both officers and men, with whom his generosity, and frank, manly
+bearing, had made him a great favorite. Shortly after his arrival, Mr.
+Gist and two Indian scouts, who had been sent out to reconnoitre or
+spy out the enemy, came back with the cheering tidings, that the
+re-enforcements had not yet come down from Canada, and that the
+garrison in the fort was at present too weak to stand a single hour's
+siege. But what gave him a little uneasiness was a lofty column of
+smoke, rising from a deep and densely wooded hollow, where they were
+quite sure the watchful enemy was lurking, and hatching some mischief
+for the English.
+
+Now, the fort and the camp lay on the same side of the river; and the
+most direct route between them was by a narrow mountain pass, rising
+abruptly from the water's edge on the left, and, on the right, shut
+in by a steep and lofty hill, whose stony sides were overgrown with
+laurel and stunted cedars and pines. As it was altogether out of the
+question to drag their wagons and artillery along this pass, it was
+resolved to cross the river, first at a point just over against the
+camp, and then, moving down along the opposite bank, recross it at
+another point five miles below; at both of which places the fords were
+shallow, and the banks not high.
+
+At last, the 9th of July, 1755,--a day ever to be remembered in
+American annals,--began to dawn. Long before its first red light had
+streaked the east, a hum in the camp told that the little army was,
+even at that hour, all astir, and big with the bustle of preparation.
+Officers and men were in the highest hopes, and looked forward with
+confidence to the coming evening, when they were to plant their
+victorious banners on the ramparts of Fort Duquesne. Although they had
+marched thus far without serious molestation, yet Col. Washington's
+fears of an ambuscade were not a whit diminished; for he felt quite
+certain that they should never reach the French fort without an
+attempt being made to surprise, or drive them back. Full of these
+apprehensions, he went to Gen. Braddock, and, pointing out to him the
+danger hanging over them, urged him by all means to send out the
+Virginia rangers to scour the woods and thickets, front and flank, and
+beat up the enemy, should any chance to be lurking near with the
+design of drawing them into an ambuscade. No advice, as it afterwards
+turned out, could have been more timely: but, coming from a raw
+provincial colonel, Braddock cast it aside with angry impatience; and
+when the line of march was formed, as if to show in what light esteem
+he held it, he ordered the rangers to the rear, to guard the baggage.
+Before daybreak, a large party of pioneers, or road-cutters, with a
+small guard of regulars, numbering in all about three hundred, had
+gone on before to open a passage for the army through the woods, and
+make the fords more passable by levelling the banks.
+
+The midsummer sun was shooting its first beams, level and red, among
+the Alleghany hills, when the little army, having crossed the
+Monongahela at the upper ford, stood on its southern bank, forming in
+line of march. By order of their general, officers and men had scoured
+and polished their arms and accoutrements the night before; and now
+appeared in full uniform, as if some grand military parade were to be
+the programme of the day. The whole line was soon moving slowly
+forward, with fifes playing, drums beating, and colors flying; the
+regulars keeping step the while to the "Grenadier's March." In the
+clear and tranquil depths of the river, as they moved along its shady
+banks, could be seen, as in a mirror, the long array of
+leather-shirted rangers and red-coated regulars, with their sun-lit
+arms and prancing steeds, and bright banners that floated in the
+morning breeze. This brilliant spectacle, so well set off by the
+smiling river in front and the frowning woods beyond, formed a picture
+that ever lived in the memory of Washington; and in after-years he
+used often to say, that, as it then appeared to him, he thought he had
+never seen any thing so beautiful. In the enthusiasm of the moment, he
+forgot his late illness, the still enfeebled condition of his
+body,--all, save the glory of serving his country; and, mounting his
+horse, he joined his brother-aides in their attendance on their
+general, else far more fatal must have been the end of that bloody
+day.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT.
+
+
+In my account of this battle, as well as all the others that will come
+thundering in upon us from time to time in the course of our story, I
+have thought it would suit our purpose best to touch upon those facts
+only that are likeliest to leave the most lasting pictures of such
+events on your minds; using the while no more words than may actually
+be needed to give clearness and completeness to the same. And now,
+Daniel, my young Herodotus, and Ned, my young Hannibal, bring in
+another Christmas log, that we may have a more cheerful blaze; for our
+story will be doleful enough for the next half-hour, without these
+goblin shadows dodging and flitting about the room to make it more so.
+
+At mid-day, Braddock's army came to the lower ford, where a halt was
+called to allow of a few minutes' rest. Far in front, across the
+river, the ringing of a hundred axes, followed at short intervals by
+the crash of falling trees, could be distinctly heard; telling that
+the pioneers were there, working might and main to clear a passage for
+those behind. The road just opened, after leaving the ford, ran
+across a heavily wooded bottom that skirted the river; and thence, for
+a few hundred yards, up a rocky slope to the foot of a high range of
+hills, about a mile distant, where it entered a narrow, bushy defile,
+and went no further. The country, for miles and miles around, as far
+as the eye could reach, was thickly wooded, save the rocky slope just
+mentioned, and the neighboring ravines, which were overgrown with
+long, coarse grass and whortleberry-bushes, so high as to sweep the
+horses' bellies; with here and there a few scattering trees of some
+size. It was the very place, of all others, that the wily Indian would
+be most likely to choose for his ambuscade.
+
+By two o'clock, the whole army had regained the northern bank of the
+river. They were now within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, and a lucky
+end to their present campaign seemed near at hand. In a few minutes,
+artillery and baggage, foot and horse, regulars and rangers, formed
+into separate and distinct columns, stood ready to move as soon as the
+word should be given. Just at the moment, however, when they were
+listening to hear the order, "Forward, march!" drop from their
+general's lips, they were startled by a sudden and heavy firing among
+the hills, which put a sudden stop to the hundred axes, and told but
+too plainly that the road-cutters and their guard of regulars had been
+drawn into an ambuscade. Washington knew at once, and too well, that
+the evil he dreaded from the beginning, had, on the very eve of
+success, come upon them; and with it also came the painful reflection,
+that it would never have so befallen them, had the rangers been
+suffered to scour the woods, and beat up the enemy, as had been
+recommended by him but a few hours before. Braddock forthwith ordered
+two companies to hurry on to the relief of the pioneers; and, at his
+bidding, one of his aides spurred forward to learn further of the
+matter, and bring him word. The firing grew heavier and heavier, and
+seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. The lonely hills and woods
+around rang with the whoops and yells of the unseen savages. Not able
+to restrain his impatience till his aide came back, Braddock ordered
+his main division to come up at double-quick; and, taking with him his
+two remaining aides and a small guard of light-horse, galloped up to
+the scene of action. Here what was his rage and mortification to find
+his doughty regulars, of whom he had boasted so much, changed, as it
+were in the whistling of a bullet, into a mere disorderly rabble of
+red-coats,--confused, bewildered, to a degree that he could never have
+dreamed possible! Crowded and huddled together in the narrow road, he
+saw them dropping down under the Indian bullets, helpless as a herd of
+frightened deer beset by a band of unseen hunters.
+
+By this time, the Indians, still hid from view by the grass and
+bushes, had stretched their lines along either side of the road, from
+the hollows among the hills to some distance down the rocky slope, and
+were pouring in a murderous fire upon the affrighted English; yelling
+and whooping the while like a legion of devils at some infernal
+frolic. Two bayonet charges had been made to drive them from their
+hiding-places, but in vain. The regulars, notwithstanding their
+officers' orders to the contrary, kept up a hurried but random firing,
+which had little or no effect upon the enemy, as nothing could be seen
+of him but the puffs of rifle-smoke that rose and hovered in little
+blue clouds over his place of ambush. The English, it is said, were
+less appalled by the whistling bullet; of the unseen savages than by
+their unearthly yells,--a sound that none of them had ever heard
+before, and many a poor fellow of them never heard again. The Indian
+war-whoop has been described as a sound so wild and terrible, that,
+when once heard in battle, it rings in the listener's ears for weeks
+thereafter, and is never forgotten even to his dying day.
+
+But the English officers, on the contrary, behaved themselves with a
+gallantry that filled Washington with astonishment and admiration.
+Heretofore he had seen them only in camp or on the line of march,
+where their habits of ease and self-indulgence had led him to doubt
+their having the courage and firmness to face, without shrinking,
+danger in such appalling forms. Unmindful of the bullets that whistled
+continually about their heads, they galloped up and down the broken
+and bleeding lines, in the vain endeavor to rally their men, and bring
+them again to something like order. Mounted on fine horses, and
+dressed in rich uniforms, they offered a tempting mark to the unseen
+rifles that were levelled at them from behind every tree and bush, and
+tuft of grass; and, ere the work of death was finished, many a gallant
+steed, with dangling reins and bloody saddle, dashed riderless about
+the field. And, as if this were not enough, many of them must needs
+fall victims to the unsoldierly conduct of their own men, who,
+forgetful of all discipline, and quite beside themselves with terror
+and bewilderment, loaded their pieces hurriedly, and fired them off at
+random, killing friends as well as foes. Nor did this most shameful
+part of the bloody scene end here: many of the Virginia rangers, who
+had already taken to the trees and bushes, and were doing good service
+by fighting the Indians in their own fashion, were shot down by the
+blundering regulars, who fired into the woods wherever they saw a puff
+of smoke, unable to distinguish whether it rose from a red or a white
+man's rifle. Upon these brave rangers the brunt of the battle fell;
+and indeed, had it not been for their firmness and presence of mind,
+their skill and address in the arts and strategems of Indian warfare,
+which enabled them for a time to hold the enemy in check, hardly a
+remnant of Braddock's fine army would have survived to behold the
+going-down of that summer's sun.
+
+At the very commencement of the battle, a small party of warriors,
+cheered on by a French officer in a fancifully trimmed hunting-shirt,
+had leaped out from their covert into the road, with the view, it
+seemed, of cutting off those in front from the assistance of their
+comrades in the rear; but the regulars, who guarded the road-cutters,
+having discharged a well-aimed volley of musketry into their very
+faces, they had turned, and fled with even more haste than they had
+come, leaving behind them several of their number dead on the spot,
+and among these their dashing French leader. After that, they had
+taken care to keep close under cover of the grass and bushes. Now and
+then, however, a tall brave, grim and hideous with war-paint, with a
+yell of defiance would leap from his ambush, and, darting into the
+road, tomahawk and scalp a wounded officer just fallen; then vanish
+again as suddenly as if the earth had opened to swallow him up.
+
+All this while, Col. Washington had borne himself with a firmness,
+courage, and presence of mind, that would have done honor to a
+forty-years' veteran. His two brother aides-de-camp having been
+wounded early in the engagement, the whole duty of carrying the
+general's orders had fallen on him; and nobly did he that day
+discharge it. Although brave men were falling thick and fast on every
+side, yet he shrank from no exposure, however perilous, did his duty
+but lead him there. Mounted on horseback, his tall and stately form
+was to be seen in every part of the field, the mark of a hundred
+rifles, whose deadly muzzles were pointed at him whithersoever he
+went. Two horses were shot dead under him, and his coat was pierced
+with bullets; but he seemed to bear about him a charmed life, and went
+unharmed. His danger was so great, that his friend Dr. Craik, who
+watched his movements with anxious interest, looked every moment to
+see him fall headlong to the ground; and that he came off alive seemed
+to him a miracle. Washington himself, with that piety which ever
+marked his character, laid his deliverance from the perils of that
+fatal day to the overruling care of a kind and watchful Providence.
+
+Although brought thus suddenly face to face with new and untried
+dangers, Braddock bore himself throughout the day like the valiant man
+that he really was. The bullets and yells of the invisible foe he
+scarcely noticed, as he galloped hither and thither about the field,
+giving his orders through a speaking-trumpet, whose brazen voice rose
+loud and hoarse above the din of battle. Under the mistaken notion
+that a savage enemy, hid in a thicket, was to be dealt with as a
+civilized one in an open plain, he sought to recover his lost ground
+by forming his men into companies and battalions; which, however, he
+had no sooner done, than they were mowed down by the murderous fire
+from the ambush, that had never ceased. "My soldiers," said he, "would
+fight, could they but see their enemy; but it is vain to shoot at
+trees and bushes." Whereupon Washington urgently besought him to let
+his regulars fight the Indians in their own fashion, which would the
+better enable them to pick off the lurking foe with less danger to
+their own safety. But Braddock's only answer to this was a sneer; and
+some of his regulars, who were already acting upon the suggestion, he
+angrily ordered back into the ranks, calling them cowards, and even
+striking them with the flat of his sword. He then caused the colors of
+the two regiments to be advanced in different parts of the field, that
+the soldiers might rally around their separate standards. It was all
+in vain. In his excitement, he cheered, he entreated, he swore, he
+stormed: it was only a waste of breath; for the poor fellows were too
+disheartened and broken, too overcome by mortal fear, to rally again.
+
+Col. Washington, seeing that the day was on the point of being lost,
+galloped down to the rear to see if nothing could be done with the
+artillery; but he found the gunners in a most disorderly plight,
+benumbed with terror, and utterly unable to manage their guns. What
+Washington did on this occasion, I had better tell you in the words of
+an old Pennsylvania soldier, who was there at the time, and survived
+the battle for half a hundred years or more; and used often, for the
+entertainment of your Uncle Juvinell and other little boys, to fight
+his battles over again as he sat smoking in his chimney corner.
+
+     "I saw Col. Washington," he would say, "spring from his panting
+     horse, and seize a brass field-piece as if it had been a stick.
+     His look was terrible. He put his right hand on the muzzle, his
+     left hand on the breech; he pulled with this, he pushed with
+     that, and wheeled it round, as if it had been a plaything: it
+     furrowed the ground like a ploughshare. He tore the sheet-lead
+     from the touch-hole; then the powder-monkey rushed up with the
+     fire, when the cannon went off, making the bark fly from the
+     trees, and many an Indian send up his last yell and bite the
+     dust."
+
+This, however, gave the savages but a momentary check, as he could not
+follow it up; there being no one by ready and willing to lend him a
+helping hand. The Virginia rangers and other provincial troops, who
+had done the only good fighting of the day, were thinned out to
+one-fourth their number; and the few that remained were too weary and
+faint to hold out longer against such fearful odds. Between the
+well-aimed firing of the enemy and the random shooting of the
+regulars, the slaughter of the English officers had been frightful:
+out of the eighty-six who went into the battle, only twenty-four came
+off unhurt. Gen. Braddock had five horses killed under him. By this
+time, he had given up all hope of regaining the day; and, galling as
+it must have been to his proud spirit, was at last forced to think of
+retreating as their only chance of safety. Just as he was on the
+point, however, of giving orders to this effect, a bullet--said by
+some to have been a random shot from one of his own soldiers--passed
+through his arm, and, lodging itself in his lungs, brought him to the
+ground, mortally wounded. His officers placed him in a tumbrel, or
+pioneer's cart, and bore him from the field, where, in his despair, he
+prayed them to leave him to die.
+
+Seeing their leader fall, a fresh panic seized the army. And now
+followed a wild and disorderly rout, the like of which was never known
+before, and has never since been known, in our border-wars. The
+soldiers in front fell back on those in the centre; those in the
+centre fell back on those in the rear: till foot and horse, artillery
+and baggage, were jammed and jumbled together, making a scene of
+dismay and confusion it would be vain for me to attempt to describe.
+To add wings to their speed, the Indians, with a long, loud yell of
+fiendish triumph, now rushed from their ambush, and, brandishing aloft
+their murderous tomahawks, began to press hard on the heels of the
+terrified fugitives. The better to elude their savage pursuers, the
+regulars threw away their arms, the gunners abandoned their guns, and
+the teamsters cut their horses from the traces, and, mounting them,
+fled, never halting until they reached Col. Dunbar's camp,--a gallop
+of forty miles. A few fell under the tomahawk before the farther bank
+of the river could be gained. Here, luckily for the survivors, the
+Indians gave over the pursuit, in their eagerness to plunder the
+slain, and gather what else of booty might be found on the field.
+
+Thus ended this bloody battle, or rather slaughter; for in truth it
+could be called nothing else. Of the sixteen hundred valiant men who
+had that morning, in all the bright array of gleaming arms and waving
+banners, marched along the banks of that beautiful river, nearly
+one-half, ere the sun went down, had fallen on Braddock's Hill. What
+made this disaster more shameful still was the weakness of the enemy's
+force, which did not exceed eight hundred, of whom only a fourth were
+French; and, of all this number, scarcely forty fell in the fight.
+
+Col. Washington was now ordered to ride back with all speed to
+Dunbar's camp, to fetch horses, wagons, and hospital-stores for the
+relief of the wounded. Although still quite weak from his ten days'
+fever, which indeed had left him with no more strength than should
+have sufficed for the fatigues of that trying day, yet he set out on
+the instant, and, taking with him a guard of grenadiers, travelled the
+livelong night. What with those terrible sights and sounds still
+ringing in his ears, and flashing before his eyes; what with the
+thought of the many dead and dying that lay on the lonely hillside far
+behind, with their ghastly upturned faces, more ghastly still in the
+light of the moon; and what with the bitter, bitter reflection, that
+all this would never have been but for the pride and folly of a single
+man,--that ride through the dark and silent woods must have been a
+melancholy one indeed. He pushed on, without leaving the saddle, till
+late in the afternoon of the following day, when he reached Dunbar's
+camp; and gathering together, without loss of time, the necessaries
+for which he had been sent, started on his return that same night,
+scarcely allowing himself and men an hour for food and rest. Early
+next morning, he met the main division at Mr. Gist's plantation,
+whither they had dragged their shattered lines the evening before.
+From thence they all went on together to the Great Meadows, where they
+arrived that same day, and halted.
+
+For the four and twenty hours following the battle, Braddock had
+remained sad and silent; never speaking except to say, "Who would have
+thought it?" The second day, he seemed more cheerful; for he said, "We
+shall better know how to deal with them another time." He spoke in
+high praise of the skill and courage shown by the Virginia rangers and
+other provincial troops during the whole engagement. He now saw, but
+too late, and to his deep regret, that he had not given these rough
+and hardy men half the credit due them as good soldiers; and also that
+he had made a fatal mistake in underrating the strength, skill, and
+address of the enemy he had been sent there to subdue. To Washington
+he made a frank and manly apology for the contempt and impatience with
+which he had so often treated his prudent and well-timed counsel. As
+if wishing to make still further amends for this, he bequeathed to him
+his faithful negro servant, Bishop, and his fine white charger, both
+of whom had helped to carry their wounded master from the field. On
+the fourth day after the battle, he died; having been kindly and
+tenderly cared for by Washington and his other surviving officers.
+
+They dug him a grave by the roadside, not a stone's-throw from Fort
+Necessity, in the depths of that lonely wilderness; and there, before
+the summer morn had dawned, they buried him. In the absence of the
+chaplain, the funeral service was read by Washington, in a low and
+solemn voice, by the dim and flickering light of a torch. Fearing lest
+the enemy might be lurking near, and, spying out the spot, commit some
+outrage on his remains, they fired not a farewell shot over the grave
+of their unfortunate general,--that last tribute of respect to a
+departed soldier, and one he had himself paid, but a short time
+before, to a nameless Indian warrior. So there they laid him; and, to
+this day, the great highway leading from Cumberland to Pittsburg goes
+by the name of Braddock's Road.
+
+I would, my dear children, have you dwell on these glimpses of a more
+manly and generous nature that brightened the closing hours of
+Braddock's life; because it is but Christian and just that we should
+be willing to honor virtue in whomsoever it may be found. With all his
+self-conceit and obstinacy, he had a kindly heart, and was a brave
+man; and had it been his lot to deal with a civilized enemy, instead
+of a savage one, he would, no doubt, have proved himself a skilful
+general. And we should not deal too harshly with the memory of a man,
+whose faults, however great they may have been, were more than atoned
+for by the inglorious death he died, and by "a name ever coupled with
+defeat."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+Here, again, Uncle Juvinell paused in his story, and looked beamingly
+around on his little auditors. They were all sitting with their eyes
+bent earnestly on the burning logs, thinking deeply, no doubt, and
+looking as sober as tombstones in the light of a spring morning.
+
+All on a sudden, Willie leaped from his chair, and gave a shrill
+Indian war-whoop, that threw the whole bevy into a terrible panic;
+making some of the smaller fry scream outright, and even Uncle
+Juvinell to blink a little. "There," said the youngster, "is something
+to ring in your ears for weeks hereafter, and never to be forgotten
+even to your dying day. I heard it the other night at the Indian
+circus, and have been practising it myself ever since. I fancy it must
+be a pretty fair sample of the genuine thing, or it wouldn't have
+scared you all up as it did." Whereupon Uncle Juvinell, frowning over
+his spectacles with his brows, and laughing behind them with his eyes,
+bade the young blood to pack himself into his chair again, and be
+civil; at the same time threatening to put him on a water-gruel diet,
+to bring his surplus spirits within reasonable bounds. Then all the
+little folks laughed, not so much at what their uncle had said, as to
+make believe they had not been frightened in the least; in which
+Willie, the cunning rogue, joined, that, under cover of the general
+merriment, he might snicker a little to himself at his own smartness.
+
+"And now, my dear children," continued the good man, "hand me the
+notes you have written down, that I may see what it is you would have
+me explain."
+
+"In five minutes' time after you began," said rattle-brained Willie,
+"I became so much interested in the story, that I quite forgot all
+about the notes, till it was too late to begin; but I was thinking all
+along, that I should like to understand more clearly the difference
+between a province and a colony, and"--
+
+"Indeed, uncle," broke in Dannie, "you made every thing so clear and
+plain as you went along, that I, for one, didn't feel the need of
+writing down a single note."
+
+"Then, Dannie," said his uncle, "that being the case, you can perhaps
+enlighten your cousin Willie as to the difference between a colony and
+a province."
+
+Had his uncle called upon him to give the difference between Gog and
+Magog, Daniel would have made the venture. So he promptly answered,--
+
+"A province is a country, and a colony is the people of it."
+
+Uncle Juvinell would have laughed outright at this answer; but he knew
+it would mortify the young historian: so he only smiled, and said,--
+
+"That will do pretty well, Dannie, as far as it goes; but it does not
+cover more than an acre of the ground. Now, a colony, you must know,
+Willie, is a settlement made by a country--called, in such cases, the
+mother-country--in some foreign region at a distance from it, but
+belonging to it; as, for example, the English colonies in America,
+which are separated from the mother-country, England, by the great
+Atlantic Ocean. A province, on the other hand, is a similar extent of
+foreign territory, belonging to a nation or a kingdom, either by
+conquest or purchase or settlement; and it may also be a division or
+district of the kingdom or nation itself. Thus, you see, a foreign
+region, settled and owned by the mother-country, may, with nearly
+equal propriety, be called either a colony or a province; while one
+that belongs to a nation or a kingdom by conquest or purchase is a
+province, and nothing else. Thus, for example, Canada is a province of
+Great Britain, won from the French by conquest, as you will learn
+to-morrow evening. From this you may see, that although a province
+may, yet a colony can no more exist within the boundaries of a
+mother-country, than can a man live at home and abroad at one and the
+same time."
+
+The other children were then called on to produce their notes. Laura
+said, that, after she had written two or three, she found she was
+losing more than she was gaining; for, when she stopped to take down
+any item she wished to remember, she did not hear what came right
+after. Ellen chimed in with the same; and Ned said he was not yet out
+of his pot-hooks, and couldn't write; but that he was thinking all the
+time of getting Willie or Dannie to tell him all about it after they
+went to bed. So, what with this excuse, and that, and the other, not a
+single note was forthcoming, except a few that Master Charlie, the
+knowing young gentleman, had written on a very large slate, in letters
+quite of his own inventing, which he now laid before his uncle. To set
+off his penmanship to the best advantage, and couple the ornamental
+with the useful, he had drawn just above it a picture of Gen.
+Braddock, mounted on his dashing white charger, and waving aloft a
+sword of monstrous length. One unacquainted with the subject, however,
+would sooner have taken it for a big baboon, geared up in a cocked hat
+and high military boots, with a mowing-scythe in his hand, and
+astraddle of a rearing donkey heavily coated with feathers instead of
+hair. The old gentleman's spectacles seemed to twinkle as he ran his
+eye over the slate; and after making out two or three rather
+savage-looking _s_'s, as many long-legged _p_'s, a squat _h_ or two, a
+big bottle-bellied _b_, three or four gigantic _l_'s, a broken-backed
+_k_ or two, a high-shouldered _w_, a heavy-bottomed _d_, and a long
+slim-tailed _y_, it struck him, at length, that speech-belt, Long
+Knife, knapsack, Silver Heels, wigwam, and powder-monkey, were the
+items concerning which Master Charlie desired further enlightenment.
+
+"For information touching these matters, my dear Charles," then said
+Uncle Juvinell, "I will pass you over to Willie and Dannie, who, I
+dare say, are quite as well posted up in matters of this kind, as your
+old uncle; for, if I mistake not, they have just been reading Catlin's
+book on the Indians, and Gulliver's Travels in Brobdignag."
+
+"How is it," inquired Ellen, "that Washington, being the good man that
+he was, could have taken part in that wicked war between the French
+and English about a country that didn't belong to either of them, but
+to the poor Indians?"
+
+Now, although Uncle Juvinell was satisfied in his own mind that
+Washington's conduct in this matter was just what it should have been,
+yet, for all that, he was a little puzzled how to answer this question
+in a way that the little folks would rightly understand.
+
+"This very thing, my dear niece," replied he after a moment's pause,
+"grieved and troubled his mind a great deal, as you may well believe:
+but he knew, that, if the English did not get possession of this land,
+the French would; and this, by increasing the strength of the enemy,
+would by and by endanger the safety of his own native land, and even
+the lives and liberties of his countrymen. And he also knew that it
+would be far better for the spread of useful knowledge and the true
+religion, that all this rich country should be in the hands of some
+Christian people, who would make it a place fit to live in, and to be
+peaceful and prosperous and happy in, than that it should be left
+entirely to those barbarous savages, who only made of it a place to
+hunt and to fish in, to fight and scalp, and to burn and torture each
+other like devils in. Besides this, it is the duty of every true
+patriot (and no one knew this better than he) to serve and defend the
+country, under the protection of whose laws he has lived in peace and
+plenty, against all her enemies, whether at home or abroad, even
+should she now and then be a little in the wrong; for, by so doing, he
+defends his own home and family, rights and liberty,--objects that
+should be as dear to him as life itself."
+
+"O uncle!" exclaimed Ned with a start, as if he had just caught a
+passing recollection by the tail as it was about skedaddling round the
+corner, "tell me, will you? what kind of a life a charmed life is."
+
+"Really Ned," cried Uncle Juvinell, "I am very glad that you mentioned
+it; for it puts me in mind of something I should have told you before,
+and which I might else have forgotten. This, however, is as good a
+time as any; and, when you hear what I am now going to tell you, you
+will readily understand, without further explanation, what is meant
+when it is said of a man that he bears a charmed life about him. To do
+this, I must anticipate a little, or, to speak more clearly, take time
+by the forelock, and, going forward a little in our story, tell you of
+a circumstance which your Uncle Juvinell, when a boy, often heard
+related by Dr. Craik, who was then an aged and venerable man.
+
+"Fifteen years after poor Braddock had been laid in his unhonored
+grave, Col. Washington, taking with him his friend Dr. Craik, went on
+an exploring expedition to the Ohio, in behalf of the brave soldiers
+who had served under him at the Great Meadows, and to whom, it must be
+remembered, Gov. Dinwiddie had promised two hundred thousand acres of
+the best land to be found on this great river or its branches. There
+was peace then along the border, and little or no danger was to be
+apprehended from the Indians. They travelled in a large canoe, rowed
+by two or three hunters; and what with fishing in the streams (for
+they took with them their fishing tackle), what with hunting in the
+woods (for they took with them their hunting rifles), what with
+camping on the green shore at night (for they took with them their
+camp utensils), and what with the comfortable thought that there was
+not an Indian warrior within a hundred miles whose fingers were
+itching for their scalps (for they took with them this and many other
+pleasant thoughts besides), they had, you may depend upon it, a
+glorious time.
+
+"One day, there came to their camp, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha,
+a party of Indians, headed by an old chief of grave and venerable
+aspect, who approached Washington with deep reverence, as if entering
+the presence of some superior being. After several pipes of tobacco
+had been smoked, and several haunches of venison had been eaten,--the
+first to show that they had come friendly, the last to show that they
+came hungry,--the old chief addressed Washington in a speech, which
+your Uncle Juvinell cannot repeat to you word for word as he heard it
+from the lips of the worthy old doctor; but he well remembers the
+substance thereof, and will give it you as nearly as he can in the
+Indian style of oratory.
+
+     "'They came and told me,' began the old chief, 'that the great
+     Long Knife was in our country; and I was very glad. I said to
+     them, though I be old and feeble, though the way be long, and
+     the hills many and high, and the rivers many and wide, yet must
+     I go and see him once more before I die; for it is the young
+     warrior, whom, years ago, I saw shielded from our bullets by
+     the hand of the Great Spirit. Let the pale-faces hear my words.
+     Fifteen summers ago, when the woods and thickets were dense and
+     green, the French and Indians went out to lay in ambuscade for
+     the big English general, among the Monongahela hills. I took my
+     warriors, and went along, and we lay in wait together. The
+     English were many and strong; we were few and weak: thus we had
+     no thought of victory in our minds, but only to give our
+     enemies a little trouble, and keep them back a while till the
+     big French army came down from the Great Lakes. We saw the
+     English army cross the river and come up the hill; yet they
+     suspected not. We saw them walk into our snare, up to the very
+     muzzles of our guns; nor did they dream of danger, till our
+     war-whoop went up, and our bullets began to fly as fast as
+     winter hail. I saw the red-coats fall, and strew the ground
+     like the red leaves of the woods nipped by an untimely frost,
+     and smitten by the unseen hands of a mighty wind. The snows of
+     eighty winters have fallen upon my head. I have been in many a
+     bloody battle; yet never saw I the red life-stream run as it
+     that day ran down Braddock's Hill from English hearts. Listen!
+     I saw that day, among the English, a young warrior who was not
+     an Englishman. I singled him out as a mark for my rifle; for he
+     was tall and strong, and rode grandly, and his presence there
+     was a danger to us. Seventeen times did I take slow and steady
+     aim, and fire; but my bullets went astray, and found him not.
+     Then I pointed him out to my young men, whose eyes were sharper
+     and whose hands were steadier than mine, and bade them bring
+     him down. It was all in vain: their bullets glanced from him as
+     if he had been a rock. I saw two horses fall under him, shot
+     dead; yet he rose unhurt. Then did I lay my hand on my mouth in
+     wonder, and bade my young men turn their rifles another way;
+     for the Great Spirit, I knew, held that young warrior in his
+     keeping, and that his anger would be kindled against us if we
+     desisted not. That young warrior, the favorite of Heaven, the
+     man who is destined never to fall in battle, now stands before
+     me. Once more mine eyes have seen him, and I shall now go away
+     content.'
+
+"And now, Ned, my boy," said Uncle Juvinell, after he had ended this
+oration, "can you tell me what a charmed life is?"
+
+"One that is bullet-proof, I suppose," replied Ned.
+
+"You don't mean to say that Washington was bullet-proof, do you, Uncle
+Juve?" put in doubting Charlie.
+
+"No, not exactly that, my little nephew," replied his Uncle Juvinell;
+"and yet a great deal more: for, beyond all doubt, an all-wise
+Providence raised up George Washington to do the good and great work
+that he did, and to this end shielded him when encompassed by the
+perils of battle, strengthened him when beset by the wiles of
+temptation, and cheered him when visited by the trials of adversity.
+Dr. Davis, a famous preacher of that day, seemed to have looked upon
+him, as did the old Indian, as one favored of Heaven; for, in a sermon
+preached by him a few weeks after Braddock's defeat, he spoke of Col.
+Washington as 'that heroic youth, whom, he could not but hope,
+Providence had preserved in so signal a manner for some important
+service to his country.' And now, my little folks, the clock strikes
+nine, and our Christmas logs burn low: so join your old uncle in an
+evening hymn; then haste you to your happy beds to sleep and dream the
+peaceful night away."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+WORK IN EARNEST.
+
+
+Hardly had the last clod been thrown on poor Braddock's grave, when
+his army was seized with a second and most unaccountable panic; for no
+one could tell from whence or how it came. With those horrid yells
+still sounding in their ears, and those ghastly sights of blood and
+carnage still fresh in their memories, they fancied they heard, in
+every passing gust that stirred the dead leaves, warning whispers of
+the stealthy approach of the dreaded enemy, and that in every waving
+thicket he might be lurking for them in ambush.
+
+Col. Dunbar, as next in rank, had, for the time being, taken command
+of the troops; but, cowardly as the old general was rash, he shared in
+the general panic, and could do nothing to re-assure his men or give
+them a little confidence. So, without waiting to know by whose orders,
+or if by any at all, they fell to, and destroyed all the heavy
+baggage, baggage-wagons, and artillery; every thing, in fact, that
+could hinder them in their retreat. Thus disencumbered, they set out
+in hot haste; and after a hurried and disorderly march, or rather
+flight, they reached Fort Cumberland.
+
+Here Col. Washington, who had taken no part whatever in the
+unsoldierly proceedings just mentioned, stopped a few days to recruit
+a little after the severe fatigues he had, for a week past, been
+called upon to undergo, while still too much enfeebled from his
+ten-days' fever. The first use he made of this breathing spell was to
+write an affectionate letter to his much-honored mother to ease her
+mind of the anxiety he knew she would be feeling on his account, when
+rumors of the late disaster should reach her ears. He told her of his
+almost miraculous deliverance from a cruel and bloody death, in
+language full of gratitude to the God of battles, who had shielded him
+in so signal a manner, when his brave comrades were falling by
+hundreds around him. Writing to his brother Augustine at the same
+time, he wittily says, "Since my arrival at this place, I have heard a
+circumstantial account of my death and dying speech; and I take this
+early opportunity of contradicting the former, and assuring you that I
+have not yet composed the latter."
+
+When he had so far regained his strength as to enable him to travel,
+he betook himself once more to the peaceful shades of Mount Vernon. He
+re-entered at once upon his duties as Adjutant-General of the Northern
+District,--a post he still continued to hold, although his connection
+with the regular army had ceased with the death of Braddock.
+
+But we must return for a few moments to Fort Cumberland, where we left
+the valorous Col. Dunbar quite out of breath from the uncommonly brisk
+speed, which seems to have been his habit now and then, of getting
+over very rough and hilly roads. Any soldier, with a spark of manly
+spirit under his sword-belt, would have made a resolute stand at a
+place of so much importance, and held it to the death, rather than
+left the defenceless inhabitants exposed to the horrors of a border
+war. Col. Dunbar was not, by any means, the true soldier just hinted
+at; and consequently did no such thing. Seeing that the sick and
+wounded were but so many clogs to rapid and easy motion, he resolved
+to leave them behind under the care of the slender garrison he had
+placed in the fort, who were expected to defend it against an enemy
+that he, with a force of fifteen hundred strong, had not the courage
+to face. Thus rid of his hinderances to the last degree of
+lightsomeness, he pushed on by forced marches, as if a legion of
+painted savages were yelling at his heels; and never slackened speed
+until he found himself safe within the friendly walls of Philadelphia,
+where he went into comfortable winter-quarters while yet the dog-days
+were at their hottest.
+
+Thus basely deserted by these doughty regulars, who had been sent
+over so many thousand miles of salt water for their protection,
+the colonists saw with dismay the whole line of their vast frontier,
+from Lake Ontario to the Carolinas, open to the inroads of the
+French and their Indian allies. In the long-run, however (as you
+shall see hereafter), two luckier mishaps than Braddock's defeat
+and Dunbar's retreat, that seemed at the time so fraught with evil,
+could not have befallen them. They were thereby taught two wholesome
+lessons, which they might otherwise have been a long time in learning,
+and without which they never could have gained their independence
+and made themselves a nation. The first, by proving that British
+regulars were not, by any means, the never-to-be-beaten, and the
+never-to-be-made-to-skedaddle warriors that they boasted themselves to
+be, and that one-half of the Americans were foolish enough to believe
+them to be. Thus, when the War of Independence broke out, our
+Revolutionary fathers remembered this, and were not afraid to meet the
+English even on such unequal terms. The second, by opening their eyes
+to the fact, that, as they (the colonists) could no longer look to the
+mother-country for protection, they must henceforward rely upon their
+own strength and resources for their defence and safety.
+
+The people of Virginia, seeing the forlorn condition of things, were
+at last awakened to a full sense of the danger that threatened, not
+only their back settlements, but even the heart of the Old Dominion
+itself. They therefore began to bestir themselves in right good
+earnest to put the province in a better posture of defence; and, to
+this end, resolved to send more troops into the field, raise more
+money, procure new arms and fresh supplies of military stores, and
+erect a chain of twenty block-houses, or small forts, stretching along
+the whole line of their frontier, from Pennsylvania to North
+Carolina,--a distance of three hundred and sixty miles. Washington's
+career as a soldier had not, up to this time, been marked by any of
+those daring and brilliant exploits that charm and dazzle vulgar
+minds; but had, on the contrary, been one unbroken train of
+misfortunes and disasters. Notwithstanding this, however, the
+confidence his countrymen had placed in his prudence, courage,
+ability, and patriotism, so far from having been diminished thereby,
+had gone on steadily gaining strength from the very beginning. They
+well knew, that, had the headstrong and unlucky Braddock given heed to
+his prudent and timely counsel, the late campaign could never have
+ended in the disgraceful and disastrous manner that it had. As the
+most flattering proof of their esteem and confidence, they now turned
+to him in their hour of peril, and, although he was not yet
+twenty-four years of age, called upon him, as with one voice, to take
+the chief command of all the forces of the province. After some
+deliberation, being persuaded that it was really their earnest desire,
+he modestly accepted the appointment, on condition that certain
+changes should be made in the military, and that he should be allowed
+to choose his field-officers. This was readily agreed to by the
+Virginia House of Burgesses; who, in addition, voted him fifteen
+hundred dollars by way of compensating him for the many losses he had
+suffered, in horses, baggage, and money since the beginning of the
+war.
+
+Accordingly, early in the autumn, he took up his headquarters at the
+frontier town of Winchester, beyond the Blue Ridge, in the beautiful
+Valley of the Shenandoah. As four great highways met here from as many
+different quarters of the country, it was a post of much importance;
+and he resolved, by strongly fortifying it, to make it the
+rallying-point of all the border. His men were all raw recruits, just
+taken from the plough or forge or carpenter's bench, as the case might
+be; and, to render them fit for the peculiar service in which they
+were to be employed, it became his duty, besides training them in the
+regular military exercises, to instruct them in the arts and
+stratagems of Indian warfare, or bush-fighting, as it is more aptly
+called. Long, however, before he was ready to take the field, the
+French and Indians, made daring and audacious by their great victory
+on the Monongahela, had crossed the mountains at several different
+points in great numbers, and had already begun their bloody work. The
+terrified and defenceless inhabitants dwelling in the distant parts of
+the wilderness now came flocking to the Shenandoah Valley for
+protection from the merciless enemy, some of them never stopping till
+they had passed on over to the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge.
+
+One morning, a rumor found its way to Winchester, that a large party
+of Indians were within twelve miles of that place, pillaging, burning,
+and murdering at a frightful rate. Straightway a great fear fell upon
+the inhabitants. Little children ran, and hid their faces in their
+mothers' aprons, crying piteously; women ran hither and thither,
+screaming, and wringing their hands; and broad-shouldered,
+double-fisted men stood stock-still, and shook in their moccasins.
+Washington tried to prevail upon some of his soldiers to sally out
+with him, and drive the enemy back from the valley; but, being
+strangers to military obedience, not a leather-shirt of all the rabble
+could he get to venture beyond the ditches. When he put them in mind
+of what was expected of them as men and soldiers, they only answered,
+that, if they must die, they would rather stay there, and die with
+their wives and families. Having a lurking suspicion, that, after all,
+there might be more smoke than fire in these flying rumors, he sent
+out a scout to bring him some more certain tidings of the matter. In a
+wonderfully short time, the scout came back, pale and affrighted, with
+the dismal intelligence that he had, with his own ears, heard the guns
+and yells of the Indians not four miles distant, and that Winchester
+would be beset by the savages in less than an hour. Whereupon
+Washington made another appeal to the courage and manhood of his men;
+which proved so far successful, that a forlorn hope of forty finally
+screwed up pluck enough to follow him to the scene of danger. Moving
+with great caution and circumspection, and keeping all their ears and
+eyes about them, the party came at length to the spot mentioned by the
+scout; where, sure enough, they heard a somewhat scattering discharge
+of fire-arms, and divers outlandish noises, that bore, however, but a
+very slight resemblance to the terrific yells and whoops of Indian
+warriors. Advancing a few paces farther, a sudden turn of the road
+brought them in sight of two drunken soldiers, who were cursing and
+swearing and hallooing in a manner quite outrageous and immoral; and
+now and then, by way of adding a little spice to this part of their
+entertainment, firing off their pistols into the tree-tops. And this
+it was that had given rise to those wild rumors that had thrown the
+whole country into such a terrible panic. To this imprudent waste of
+breath and ammunition, the latter of which they had but little enough
+to spare, Washington put a rather sudden stop by ordering the lively
+young blades to be seized, and carried as prisoners to Winchester,
+where he kept them in severe confinement for more than a week after
+they had regained their sober senses. All this was ludicrous enough;
+and you may be sure that Washington, although grave and dignified
+beyond his years, had a hearty laugh over it the first time he found
+himself alone with one or two of his brother-officers.
+
+In addition to his other cares, the duties of his office required him
+to visit, from time to time, the several forts along the frontier, to
+see that those already finished were kept in fighting order, and give
+directions for the proper construction of those still under way. Now,
+the little garrison of forty men, that Col. Dunbar had left to hold
+and defend Fort Cumberland against the combined armies of the French
+and Indians, was commanded by a certain Dagworthy, who, pluming
+himself upon the king's commission as captain, refused to own the
+authority and render obedience to the orders of Washington, who held
+only a governor's commission as colonel. It will be remembered, that
+Washington had a similar misunderstanding with Capt. Mackay, eighteen
+months before, at the Great Meadows, touching this same question of
+rank between royal and provincial officers, which had caused him great
+trouble and annoyance. Matters had now come to such a pass, that a
+little upstart captain of forty men could set at naught the authority
+of the commander-in-chief of the forces of a whole province, merely
+because he could boast a bit of paper embellished with the king's
+name. This was a degradation too grievous to be longer borne by a
+manly, independent spirit. Though sorely vexed and annoyed, Washington
+had too much self-respect and prudence to make a noise about the
+matter; but he inwardly resolved, that, as soon as the coming-on of
+winter would oblige the Indians to recross the mountains to the
+shelter of their homes beyond, he would take advantage of the
+breathing spell thus allowed him to make a journey to Boston, there to
+submit the question for final settlement to Gen. Shirley, who had
+succeeded Braddock to the chief command of all the British forces in
+America.
+
+Accordingly, when the departure of the Indians brought the distressed
+inhabitants of the border the prospect of a few months' peace and
+quiet, he departed for Boston, in company with two of his
+brother-officers, Capts. Stewart and Mercer.
+
+Now, in those days, a journey from the Old Dominion to the Bay City, a
+distance of but five hundred miles, in the depth of winter, when the
+roads were either deep and stiff with mire, or rough and knobby with
+frost, was really a greater undertaking than a voyage in a steamship
+from Boston to Constantinople would now be considered. Our young men
+travelled on horseback, as was the fashion of the day; and took with
+them their negro servants, who, riding behind with their masters'
+saddle-bags and portmanteaus, and dressed in fine livery, with gold
+lace on their fur hats, and blue cloaks, gave quite an air of style
+and consequence to the little cavalcade.
+
+Washington's fame had long since gone before him, as was proved by the
+marked distinction and respect with which he was treated at
+Philadelphia, New York, and other places along the route. All were
+eager to behold with their own eyes the youthful hero, whose gallant
+conduct and wonderful escape at the defeat of Braddock had been so
+noised throughout the Colonies; and when we add to this his tall and
+commanding form, the manly beauty of his face, his dignified bearing,
+his rich and handsome dress, and the unequalled skill with which he
+managed his large and noble horse, we cannot wonder at the interest
+and admiration his appearance awakened in the minds of all who saw
+him.
+
+When he got to Boston, where he likewise met with a flattering
+reception, he lost no time in making known to Gen. Shirley the
+business that had taken him thither. The justness and reasonableness
+of his complaints were promptly acknowledged by this officer, who, to
+place the vexed question beyond dispute, declared, that henceforward
+Capt. Dagworthy and all inferior officers, holding king's commissions,
+should own the authority and render obedience to the orders of all
+provincial officers of superior rank. This, the main object of his
+journey, thus happily disposed of, Col. Washington set out on his
+return to Virginia: but, knowing that the Indian war-whoop was not
+likely soon to be heard in the Shenandoah Valley, he indulged himself
+so far as to tarry two whole weeks at New-York City; and for the best
+of reasons, as I will tell you.
+
+On his way to Boston, he had met here with the beautiful and
+accomplished Miss Phillipps, with whom he was vastly pleased; and it
+was for the nearer study of this young lady's charms, and further
+cultivation of her acquaintance, that our young Virginia colonel was
+now tempted for once in his life thus to linger on his way. Nothing
+came of it, however, that anybody now can tell; although the lady, you
+may stake your heads upon it, must and ought to have been highly
+flattered at being thus singled out by the young hero whose name and
+praise were in everybody's mouth. Perhaps his admiration never ripened
+into love; and, if it did, his modesty, as in the case of the Lowland
+Beauty, must have hindered him from making known his partiality.
+Whatever it may have been, it is, at this late day, of little
+consequence; for long before that year had passed away, with all its
+anxious cares, its perils and privations, and with all its train of
+ghastly Indian horrors, these tender sentiments had become to him
+nothing more than pleasant memories.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+DARK DAYS.
+
+
+It were long to tell you, my dear children, all that happened to
+Washington, and all that he did for the next two or three years of his
+life. I shall, therefore, in as brief and clear a manner as may be,
+present to your minds a picture simply of those scenes in which he
+figured as the chief actor; although there were, it must be
+remembered, others who played a far more important part in this old
+French War than our young Virginia colonel.
+
+The French and Indians, early in the spring of these years, were wont
+to cross the mountains at different points, and for months together
+follow their usual programme of fire, plunder, and massacre, till the
+approach of winter, when, loaded with booty and scalps, they would go
+as they had come, only to return on the opening of the following
+spring. With these cruel savages, and their scarcely less cruel white
+allies, neither age nor sex found mercy; old men, tender women, and
+helpless children, alike falling victims to their murderous tomahawks
+and scalping-knives. Farms were laid waste, crops destroyed, cattle
+butchered; and often, for days and nights together, the smoke could be
+seen in many directions at once, as it rose from burning barns and
+dwellings, and hung like a pall over the ill-fated land. At last, so
+great became the audacity of these pestilent savages, that they
+carried their depredations within cannon range of the very walls of
+Winchester; and, under their destroying hand, the rich and beautiful
+Valley of the Shenandoah seemed likely soon again to become a waste
+and desert place. It was a boast of theirs, that they could take any
+fort that could be fired; and round these places of refuge they would
+skulk and lurk with the greatest patience for a week at a time, quite
+content could they but get a single shot at such of the garrison as
+dared to show themselves beyond shelter of the walls. Sometimes,
+suddenly darting from their hiding-place, they would pounce upon
+little children playing in the woods, and, in full view of the fort,
+bear them away captives, never more to be seen by their bereaved
+parents, who could only listen in helpless anguish to the piteous
+cries of their little innocents, that grew fainter and fainter as
+their savage captors hurried them farther and farther into the gloomy
+depths of the wilderness.
+
+Often, in their excursions along the frontier, Washington and his men
+would come upon the still smoking ruins of a happy home, or the hacked
+and mangled body of an unfortunate traveller who had been waylaid and
+murdered by the Indians in some lonely mountain glen. In after-life,
+the recollection of these harrowing scenes was to Washington so
+painful, that he could but seldom be brought to speak of them. Now and
+then, however, he would relate to a few friends some of these dark
+experiences; among which is the following, given in his own words, as
+a fair example of all the rest:--
+
+     "One day," said he, "as we were traversing a part of the
+     frontier, we came upon a small log-house, standing in the
+     centre of a little clearing, surrounded by woods on all sides.
+     As we approached, we heard the report of a gun,--the usual
+     signal of coming horror. Our party crept cautiously through the
+     underwood, until we had approached near enough to see what we
+     had already foreboded. A smoke was slowly making its way
+     through the roof of the house; when, at the same time, a party
+     of Indians came forth, laden with plunder,--consisting of
+     clothes, household furniture, domestic utensils, and dripping
+     scalps. We fired, and killed all but one, who tried to get
+     away, but was soon overtaken and shot down. Upon entering the
+     hut, there met us a sight, which, though we were familiar with
+     scenes of blood and massacre, struck us--at least myself--with
+     feelings more mournful than I had ever experienced before. On a
+     bed, in one corner of the room, lay the body of a young woman,
+     swimming in blood, with a gash in the forehead that almost
+     separated the head into two parts. On her breast lay two little
+     babes, less than a twelvemonth old, also with their heads cut
+     open; their innocent blood, that had once flowed in one common
+     vein, now mingling in the same current again. I was inured to
+     scenes of bloodshed and misery; but this cut me to the heart;
+     and never in my after-life did I raise my arm against a savage,
+     without calling to mind the mother and her little twins with
+     their heads cleft asunder. On examining the tracks of the
+     Indians to see what other murders they might have committed, we
+     found a little boy, and, a few steps forward, his father, both
+     scalped, and both stone-dead. From the prints of the boy's
+     feet, it seemed that he had been following the plough with his
+     father, whom he had probably seen shot down; and, in attempting
+     to escape, had been pursued, overtaken, and murdered. The ruin
+     was complete: not one of the family had been spared. Such was
+     the character of this miserable warfare. The wretched people of
+     the frontier never went to rest without bidding each other
+     farewell; for the chances were they might never wake again, or
+     wake only to find their last sleep. When leaving one spot for
+     the purpose of giving protection to another point of exposure,
+     the scene was often such as I shall never forget. The women and
+     children would cling around our knees, and mothers would hold
+     up their little babes before our eyes, begging us to stay and
+     protect them, and, for God's sake, not leave them to be
+     butchered by the savages. A hundred times, I declare to Heaven,
+     I would have laid down my life with pleasure under the tomahawk
+     and scalping-knife, could I, by the sacrifice, have insured the
+     safety of these suffering people."
+
+The little folks can well imagine how scenes like these must have
+pained and wrung a heart like Washington's. But what could he do? His
+whole force did not exceed one thousand fighting men; with which he
+had to man more than twenty forts, and guard a frontier of nearly four
+hundred miles' extent. In addition to this, his men had been so
+scattered all the while at these different points, as to have placed
+it altogether beyond his power to give that attention to their
+military training which he had had so near at heart when he first
+entered upon his command. It naturally followed, then, that there was
+among the greater number an almost total want of order and discipline.
+They came and went when and where it suited their humor best; were
+impatient of control; wasted their ammunition, of which there was a
+great scarcity, in target-shooting; were far more ready to trouble
+their officers with good advice than aid them by prompt obedience to
+orders; and, if their sagacious counsels went unheeded, they would,
+without more ado, shoulder their rifles in high dudgeon, and tramp
+home. And, withal, so tender were they of what they were pleased to
+call their _honor_, that they would take it as quite an insult to be
+put on soldiers' rations; and were too proud or lazy--which with them
+was the same thing--to carry their own provisions while on the march;
+choosing, rather, to risk what chance might bring them, in the shape
+of bullocks, sheep, or pigs, which they would knock down, without a
+"By your leave" to the owner, and, after eating as much as satisfied
+their present hunger, would throw the rest away. Thus, between their
+wasteful defenders and their wasting invaders, the poor distressed
+inhabitants were brought to the verge of starvation.
+
+The forts were too far apart to prevent the Indians from passing
+between; and the garrisons were too weak to lend each other aid when
+any of them chanced to be in hard, besetting need. This plan of giving
+defence to the border had been strongly opposed by Washington, who
+foresaw the disadvantages just hinted at, and had urged the exact
+contrary. This was, instead of having so many small forts, with but a
+handful of men in each, to fortify Winchester in the completest manner
+possible, with a view of making it the only stronghold and
+rallying-point of all the border, and to be manned by the main body of
+the troops, who were to give support to the smaller parties in their
+excursions against the enemy. Long before the war was ended, it was
+clearly to be seen, that, had this plan been adopted, much useless
+expenditure of money and shedding of blood would have been avoided. As
+it was, the cunning and watchful foe, whose motions were swift as the
+birds, and secret as death, could pass between these forts, not only
+unopposed, but even unobserved, and, without let or hinderance, lay
+waste the country for the protection of which they had been built.
+Under this most melancholy state of things, all the region west of the
+Blue Ridge was fast becoming the dreary and silent wilderness it had
+been in days gone by. Scarcely a shadow of its former population was
+left: some had fled to the forts for refuge; some had resettled in the
+eastern parts of the province; some had been carried away into cruel
+captivity; and many, very many, had met with a horrible death at the
+hands of the merciless invaders.
+
+As if all this we have just related were not enough to try the
+patience and fortitude of young Washington, evil reports, injurious to
+his character, and charging him with being the author of all these
+failures and calamities, were set agoing by secret enemies at home.
+Foremost among these, you will be surprised and sorry to learn, was
+Gov. Dinwiddie, who had for some time past regarded with a jealous and
+envious eye this rising hope of the land, and was now seeking, by a
+variety of underhand means, to have him disgraced from the service,
+that Col. Innez, a particular chum of his, might be advanced to the
+chief command of the Virginia troops instead. The lower offices of the
+army he was zealous to bestow upon a knot of needy adventurers, who,
+being Scotchmen like himself, were in high favor with him, and
+scrupled not to make his likes and dislikes their own, if, by so
+doing, they could further their own private advantage. Perhaps Gov.
+Dinwiddie himself may not have been the direct author of these
+reports; but it is quite certain that his hungry hangers-on would
+never have dared whisper them had they not been fully aware of the
+ill-will he bore the person by whose injury they hoped to profit, and
+that they had but to do the thing, when their patron would not only
+wink at it, but even give it his secret approval.
+
+When these malicious whisperings came to the ears of Washington, he
+was stung to the quick by such unfair and unmerited treatment. Feeling
+assured in his own conscience that he had done his whole duty as far
+as in him lay, all his strong and manly nature was roused to indignant
+anger, that his fair name should thus become the target of these
+arrows flying in the dark, without an opportunity being allowed him of
+a fair and open hearing in his own defence. He would have left the
+service at once,--the very end his enemies had been plotting so hard
+to bring about,--had not the frontier settlements, just at that
+moment, been threatened with more than usual peril; and to have
+deserted his post at such a time would have given his accusers real
+grounds for the charges, which heretofore had been but a mere
+pretence. Before the immediate danger was past that kept him at his
+post, many of his warmest and most influential friends, residing in
+different parts of the province, had written to him, earnestly
+entreating him not to think of resigning his command; assuring him, at
+the same time, that the base slanders of those evil-minded men had
+found no place whatever in the minds of his fellow-countrymen. On the
+contrary, beholding the courage, patience, and humanity with which he
+was discharging the high and sacred duties they had intrusted to him,
+they felt their love for him, and confidence in him, increasing every
+day. With this gratifying assurance that his conduct and motives were
+rightly understood by those whose approbation he was most desirous of
+winning, Washington now held on his course with renewed hope and
+spirit.
+
+Thenceforward, Gov. Dinwiddie, as if to revenge himself for this
+failure of his base and selfish design, never let an opportunity slip
+of thwarting or annoying the man whose high public character his petty
+malice could not reach, and whose private worth his mean envy could
+not tarnish. His letters to Washington, the tone of which heretofore
+had been uncivil enough, now became harsh and insolent, full of
+fault-finding, and bristling all over with biting reproofs and unmanly
+insinuations. Although wretchedly ignorant of military matters, and at
+a distance from the seat of active operations, yet he must needs take
+upon himself the full control of all the troops of the province,
+without seeming to trouble his mind as to what might be the wishes and
+opinions of him who was in fact their true leader. Whether from a
+spiteful desire to perplex the object of his dislike, or natural
+fickleness of character, every letter from him brought with it some
+new plan. To-day, he ordered this; to-morrow, he ordered that; and,
+the next day, upset the other two by something quite different from
+either: so that Washington was often left completely in the dark as
+to what the uncertain meddler's wishes or plans really were.
+
+At last, from being thus harassed in mind by these petty annoyances,
+and worn in body by the hardships of such rough service, his health
+failed him; and he was advised to repair to Mount Vernon, and there
+remain until his disease should take a more favorable turn. Here he
+lay for four long, weary months, before he could rejoin big regiment;
+during much of which time, his friends, who nursed and watched him,
+really regarded his recovery as doubtful. This is another instance of
+what so often seems to us a matter of wonder,--the power of a
+narrow-minded, mean-spirited, ill-tempered, false-hearted man to
+inflict pain on a noble and lofty nature.
+
+A short time before the close of the war, it becoming quite certain
+that he had been putting public money, intrusted to his keeping, to
+private or dishonorable uses, Gov. Dinwiddie was recalled, and another
+sent over to fill his place. Being the man here described, and a petty
+tyrant withal, nobody was sorry to see him go, except the needy
+toadies who had hung about him, and who, seeing that nothing was
+likely to turn up for them in the New World, packed off to Scotland
+with their patron, as hungry and empty-handed as they came.
+
+By the by, I must not forget to tell you of the heroic conduct of old
+Lord Fairfax. Greenway Court, as you no doubt remember, was in the
+Shenandoah Valley, not many miles from Winchester; and, situated on
+the very edge of a vast forest, was quite open to the inroads of the
+Indians, any one of whom, would have risked limb or life to get his
+bloody clutches on the gray scalp of so renowned a Long Knife. To meet
+this danger, as well as do his part towards the general defence, he
+mustered his hunters and negro servants, to the number of a hundred or
+thereabouts, and formed them at his own expense into a company of
+horse, with which the keen old fox-hunter, now as daring a trooper,
+scoured the country from time to time, and did good service.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+A NEW ENTERPRISE.
+
+
+And thus these melancholy years came and went, with all their dark and
+painful experiences. A firm and self-reliant spirit like Washington's,
+however, could not be long cast down by even severer trials than those
+by which we have just seen his strength and manhood tested: so, from
+that time forward, come what might, he resolved to hold right on, nor
+bate a jot of heart or hope or zeal or patience, till the coming-on of
+better days, when, God willing, he might render a good and faithful
+account of this, his country's trust.
+
+But the little folks must not suppose that Col. Washington and Gov.
+Dinwiddie were by any means the only persons of consequence who
+figured in this Old French War. On the contrary, there were others of
+far more importance at the time than they, not so much from any
+peculiar merit of their own, as from the part they played in those
+events; and upon whom, as such, I must needs bestow some passing
+notice, were it but to give to our story greater clearness and
+completeness. What concerns you to know of them at present I will
+briefly sum up in a few words, and make it as plain to you as a table
+of simple addition.
+
+As Commander-in-chief of all the British forces in America, Braddock,
+as I have told you elsewhere, was succeeded by Gen. Shirley; who,
+proving himself unfit for the place, was soon recalled, and Lord
+Loudoun sent over from England instead; who, proving himself equally
+unfit, was dealt with in the same manner, and Gen. Abercrombie sent
+over instead; who also, proving himself incompetent, was also
+recalled, and Gen. Amherst sent over; who, proving a wiser choice,
+there followed happier results; and it fell to him, and to the brave
+young general, Wolfe, his next in rank, to bring this long and irksome
+war, in due course of time, to a glorious end. After the failure of
+Braddock's designs against Fort Duquesne, the conquest of Canada was
+made the chief object of the British Government; and the regions of
+the North thenceforth became the seat of war. While our young Virginia
+colonel, making the best use of the slender means allowed him, was
+struggling to keep back the pestilent savages and their pestilent
+white allies from his long line of frontier in the South and West,
+some of these leaders with their red allies, and some of the French
+leaders with their red allies, were, with various fortunes and
+misfortunes on either side, carrying on the war along the borders of
+the great Lake Ontario, the little Lakes Champlain and George, and up
+and down the mighty St. Lawrence.
+
+Of these English leaders, I will mention Lord Loudoun merely, as being
+the only one with whom Washington had any special dealings. Had this
+nobleman come up to the hopes and expectations which many of the
+colonists were at first wild enough to entertain respecting him, he
+would have regained what Braddock had lost, overrun and conquered
+Canada, and made a clean finish of the whole French empire in America,
+in less than six months' time. They soon discovered, however, that he
+was one of those unlucky persons, who, knowing much, seldom know what
+use to make of their knowledge; who, having no will that they can call
+their own, can never turn the will of others to any good or seasonable
+purpose; and who, making a great show of doing, have never any thing
+to show in the end what they have done. In this last particular, Dr.
+Franklin, with that peculiar humor all his own, likened him to the
+picture of St. George on the sign, that was always on horseback, but
+never riding on.
+
+Now, the recapture of Fort Duquesne, ever since the disgraceful
+failure of that first attempt, had been the one object nearest to
+Washington's heart. Foreseeing that there could never be peace or
+safety for the back settlements of the middle provinces so long as
+this stronghold of the enemy sent out its savage swarms to scourge
+and waste the border, he had repeatedly called Lord Loudoun's
+attention to the fact, and most earnestly urged its seizure as the
+only remedy. It was not, however, until early in the autumn of 1758,
+that an expedition, having for its object his long-cherished scheme,
+was set on foot. It was undertaken with a force of three thousand
+Pennsylvanians, twelve hundred North Carolinians, Washington's
+detachment of nineteen hundred Virginians, seven hundred Indians, and
+a few hundred regulars,--numbering in all seven thousand men, or
+thereabouts,--with Gen. Forbes for their chief commander.
+
+As an easy and rapid communication between the back settlements of
+Virginia and Pennsylvania would greatly lessen the difficulties of the
+coming campaign, this officer caused a road to be opened between Fort
+Cumberland and Raystown, a frontier post of the last-named province,
+where he had fixed his headquarters. Before the expedition could be
+put in motion, it was necessary that Col. Washington should go to
+Williamsburg to make known to the Virginia Legislature the needy
+condition of his soldiers, and make a call upon them for fresh
+supplies of tents, blankets, clothing, wagons, arms, &c.
+
+Accordingly, attended by his trusty negro servant Bishop, and mounted
+on his splendid white charger,--both of which had been bequeathed to
+him by poor Braddock,--he set out on his journey, which proved an
+eventful one indeed to him, as you shall directly see. At the ferry of
+the Pamunkey, a branch of York River, he fell in with Mr. Chamberlin,
+an acquaintance of his, who, according to the hospitable customs of
+those good old times, invited him to call at his house, not far
+distant, and be his honored guest till morning. The young colonel
+would be only too happy to do so: but the nature of his business was
+such as would not admit of an hour's delay; indeed, it was quite out
+of the question, and he must hasten on. But, his friend repeating the
+invitation in a manner too earnest to be mistaken, he felt it would be
+uncourteous to refuse; and consented to stop and dine with him; on
+condition, however, that he should be allowed to proceed on his
+journey that same evening. At his friend's hospitable mansion he met
+with a gay and brilliant throng of ladies and gentlemen, who, though
+strangers to him, knew him well by reputation, and were but too proud
+to be thus unexpectedly thrown in his company. Among them was Mrs.
+Martha Custis, a young and beautiful widow of good family and large
+fortune. Her husband had died three years before; leaving her with two
+small children, a girl and a boy. She is said to have been a lady of
+most winning and engaging manners, and of an excellent and cultivated
+understanding. In stature she was a little below middle size, and of a
+round and extremely well-proportioned form; which, on this occasion,
+was set off to the best advantage by a dress of rich blue silk. Her
+hair was dark; her features were pleasing and regular; and there was a
+look of earnest, womanly softness in her hazel eyes, that found its
+way at once to the heart and confidence of all on whom it chanced to
+rest.
+
+The little folks will not, I hope, suffer their admiration and respect
+for our young hero to be lessened in the least, if I tell them, that,
+like the rest of mankind who came within the magic circle of those
+bewitching charms, he was first surprised into admiration, and then
+led, whether or no, at a single step, into the enchanted realms of
+love. You have seen, how that, in his boyhood, he wrote broken-hearted
+verses to his Lowland Beauty; and how that, two or three years before,
+he had nearly yielded himself captive to the beautiful Miss Phillipps:
+which ought to prove to the satisfaction of all reasonable minds, that
+Washington, like other men, had a heart of real human flesh, that now
+and then gave him not a little trouble, despite that grave and
+dignified reserve which hung about him like a spell, and, even at that
+early age, was something to many quite overawing. The dinner, that had
+at first, in his hurry, seemed so long in coming on, seemed now quite
+as fast in going off. Not that I would have you suppose by this, that
+he thought the guests were showing any indecent haste to make way with
+the dishes that were set before them without number, and heaped up
+without measure, on Mr. Chamberlin's ample board. On the contrary,
+they partook of the good things of the table with a well-bred
+slowness, that would have been beyond his endurance to bear, had Mars
+been thundering with his iron fist at the gates of his fortress. But
+as it was Cupid, only tapping with his rosy knuckles at the casement
+of his heart, that dinner seemed no longer to him than, no, not half
+so long indeed as, the shortest snack he had ever eaten on horseback
+in the hurry of a forced march. The dinner over, Washington seemed in
+no haste to depart.
+
+The trusty Bishop, knowing well what a punctual man his master always
+was, had appeared, according to orders, with the horses; and was
+plainly enough to be seen from the parlor window, had any one cared to
+look that way, patiently waiting with them in the pleasant shade of an
+apple-tree. The fiery white charger soon began to paw the ground,
+impatient at his master's unwonted tardiness; but no rider came.
+Bishop Braddock shifted his place once, twice, thrice, to keep himself
+and horses in the shade of the apple-tree; but still his master
+lingered: and the ivory grin that settled by degrees on his ebony mug
+showed that he had a sly suspicion of what was going on in the house.
+The afternoon sped away as if old Time, all of a sudden forgetting his
+rheumatism, had reached sunset at a single stride. Of course, they
+would not suffer him to depart at this late hour: so Bishop was
+ordered to restable the horses, and make himself easy and snug for the
+night with the colored folks down at their quarters. The next morning,
+the sun was hours on his journey to the west, before our love-smitten
+hero was on his way to Williamsburg.
+
+Once in the saddle, however, all his yesterday's impatience returned
+upon him with redoubled force; and, giving his fiery white charger the
+spur, he dashed away at a break-neck speed on the road to the Virginia
+capital. It is said, so fast did he travel on that day, that, to keep
+up with him, Bishop Braddock ran serious risk of having his woolly nob
+shaken from his shoulders by the high, hard trotter he rode; and so
+sore was he made by the jolting he got, that, for a week thereafter,
+it was quite as much as he could do to bring his legs together. This
+last, by the way, is merely traditional, and must be received by the
+little folks with some caution.
+
+Luckily, the White House, the residence of Mrs. Custis, was situated
+within a very few miles of Williamsburg; which gave young Washington
+many opportunities, during his two-weeks' stay at that place, of
+seeing her, and still further cultivating her acquaintance.
+Experience, that sage teacher who never spoke to him in vain, had
+taught him, that although there are many blessings of this world which
+seem to come of their own accord, yet there are a few that never come
+except at the asking for; and the chiefest of these is woman's love.
+So, resolving to profit by this knowledge, he did precisely what any
+wise and reasonable man would have done in his place,--overcame his
+troublesome bashfulness, and made the lady an offer of marriage; which
+she, precisely as any wise and reasonable woman would have done in her
+place, modestly accepted. The business that had called him to
+Williamsburg being at last disposed of, Washington took leave of his
+intended, after it had been agreed between them to keep up an
+interchange of letters until the close of the present campaign, when
+they were to be united in the holy bonds of wedlock.
+
+Upon his return to Winchester, he was dismayed to find that the
+English generals had taken it into their inexperienced heads to cut a
+new road from Raystown to Fort Duquesne by the way of Laurel Hill,
+instead of marching there at once by the old Braddock Road, as he
+naturally supposed had been their intention from the beginning.
+Foreseeing the consequences, he, in an earnest and forcible manner,
+hastened to represent to them the difficulties and disadvantages of
+such an undertaking. Cold weather would be setting in, he urged, long
+before they could cut their way through so many miles of that mountain
+wilderness to the point in question; and they would be obliged either
+to winter at Laurel Hill, or fall back upon the settlements until
+spring. This would give the enemy time to get full intelligence of
+their threatened danger, and send to Canada for re-enforcements. Their
+Indian allies too, as was their wont, would grow impatient at the long
+delay that must needs attend this plan if carried out; and, returning
+to their homes in disgust, would fail to render to the expedition
+their valuable services as scouts and spies, as had been expected of
+them. On the other hand, by taking the old road, they could march
+directly to the fort; which, being at that time but feebly garrisoned,
+must fall almost without a blow, and this, too, in less than half the
+time, and with less than half the trouble and expense. This prudent
+counsel, coming from one, who, from his knowledge of the country, had
+so good a right to give it, was nevertheless overruled. The English
+generals had gathered a most appalling idea of the difficulties and
+dangers of this route from the account Braddock had given of it in his
+letters. He had therein described it as lying through a region where
+the mountains were of the highest and steepest, the forests of the
+thickest and tallest, the rocks of the most huge and rugged, the
+swamps of the deepest, and the torrents of the swiftest. The route for
+the new road, on the contrary, according to the Pennsylvanians, who
+saw in it a great advantage to themselves, lay through a region where
+the mountains were not by far so lofty, the woods so thick, the rocks
+so huge, the swamps so deep, nor the streams so swift, or half so
+given to running rampant over their banks. All these advantages this
+route had, besides being fifty miles shorter. So, under the mistaken
+notion that more was to be gained by following a short road that would
+take them a long time in getting over, than by following a long one
+that would take them but a short time in getting over, they resolved
+to cut the new road.
+
+This was a sore disappointment to Col. Washington; for he saw in it a
+likelihood of Braddock's folly being played all over again, and that,
+too, on a still larger scale. The tidings of glorious victories won by
+British arms in the North had filled the whole country with triumph
+and rejoicing, that rendered him all the more impatient at the
+tardiness with which their own expedition was moving forward. "He
+wished to rival the successes of the North by some brilliant blow in
+the South. Perhaps a desire for personal distinction in the eyes of
+the lady of his choice may have been at the bottom of his impatience."
+This last, it is but fair to say, is an assertion of our great
+countryman, Washington Irving; who, being a wise and learned
+historian, would not have made it, you may be sure, had not his deep
+insight into the workings of the human heart given him a perfect right
+so to do. If this be not enough to convince you that such was really
+the case, know that your Uncle Juvinell is entirely of the same
+opinion.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+MORE BLUNDERING.
+
+
+At last, about the middle of September, the expedition was set in
+motion. Gen. Forbes sent Col. Boquet in advance, with nearly two
+thousand men, to open and level the road. In order to get more certain
+information touching the condition of the enemy,--his number,
+strength, and probable designs,--it was thought advisable by some of
+the officers to send out a large party of observation in the direction
+of Fort Duquesne. It was to be made up of British regulars, Scotch
+Highlanders, and Pennsylvania and Virginia rangers,--eight hundred
+picked men in all. Washington strongly disapproved the plan, on the
+ground that the regulars, being wholly unacquainted with the Indian
+mode of fighting, and unable to operate at so great a distance without
+taking with them a cumbrous train of baggage, would prove a
+hinderance, instead of a furtherance, to an enterprise which must
+needs owe its success to the caution, silence, secrecy, and swiftness
+on the part of those engaged. He therefore advised the sending-out of
+small companies of rangers and Indian hunters, who, knowing the
+country well, could spy out the enemy with less risk of detection to
+themselves, and, moving without baggage, could make far better speed
+with the tidings they may have gathered. The like advice, you may
+remember, he gave to Braddock. It met with a like reception, and the
+like disaster was the consequence.
+
+The party set out from Laurel Hill, and began its tedious tramp across
+the fifty miles of wilderness that lay between that point and Fort
+Duquesne. It was headed by Major Grant, a noisy, blustering braggart,
+who, hankering after notoriety rather than seeking praise for duty
+well and faithfully done, went beyond the limits of his instructions;
+which were simply to find out all he could about the enemy, without
+suffering the enemy to find out more than he could help about himself,
+and, by all possible means, to avoid a battle. But, instead of
+conducting the expedition with silence and circumspection, he marched
+along in so open and boisterous a manner, as made it appear he meant
+to give the enemy timely notice of his coming, and bully him into an
+attack even while yet on the way. The French, keeping themselves well
+informed, by their spies, of his every movement, suffered him to
+approach almost to their very gates without molestation. When he got
+in the neighborhood of the fort, he posted himself on a hill
+overlooking it, and began throwing up intrenchments in full view of
+the garrison. As if all this were not imprudence enough, and as if
+bent on provoking the enemy to come out and give him battle on the
+instant, whether or no, he sent down a party of observation to spy out
+yet more narrowly the inside plan and defences of the fort; who were
+suffered not only to do this, but even to burn a house just outside
+the walls, and then return to their intrenchments, without a hostile
+sign betokening the unseen foe so silent yet watchful within.
+
+Early the next morning, as if to give the enemy warning of the
+threatened danger, the drums of the regulars beat the _reveille_, and
+the bagpipes of the Highlanders woke the forest-echoes far and wide
+with their wild and shrilly din. All this time, not a gun had been
+fired from the fort. The deathly silence that reigned within was
+mistaken for fear, and made the fool-hardy Grant so audacious as to
+fancy that he had but to raise his finger, and the fort must fall. As
+Braddock's day had begun with martial parade and music, so likewise
+did this. As on that day the regulars were sent in advance, while the
+Virginians were left in the rear to guard the baggage, so was likewise
+done on this. On this day, as on that, not an enemy was to be seen,
+till, all of a sudden, a quick and heavy firing was opened upon them
+by Indians lurking in ambush on either side; while, at the same
+moment, the French flung open their gates, and, rushing out, mingled
+their loud shouts with the horrid yells of their savage allies. On
+this day, as had been done on that, the regulars, surprised,
+bewildered, panic-stricken, were thrown at once into disorder, and
+began firing their pieces at random, killing friend as well as foe.
+Unlike them, however, the Highlanders stood their ground like men,
+and, fighting bravely, cheered each other with their slogan, or wild
+battle-cry. On this day, as on that, the Virginians came up in the
+very nick of time to rescue the helpless regulars from utter
+destruction. On this, as on Braddock's day, the Indians, seeing the
+hopeless confusion into which the English had fallen, rushed out from
+their ambush with yells of triumph, and fell upon them, tomahawk and
+scalping-knife in hand. Major Lewis, the brave leader of the
+Virginians, fought hand to hand with a tall warrior, whom he laid dead
+at his feet; but, soon overpowered by numbers, he was forced to
+surrender himself to a French officer, who received his sword. The
+blustering Grant, more lucky than the headstrong Braddock, saved his
+life by yielding himself up in like manner.
+
+And now the rout became general, and the slaughter dreadful. Seeing
+the unlooked-for turn affairs had taken, Capt. Bullitt, whom Major
+Lewis had left to guard the baggage, gathered a few of his brave
+Virginians about him, and prepared to make a desperate stand. Sending
+back the strongest horses with the baggage, he blocked up the road
+with the wagons, and, behind the barricade thus formed, posted his
+men, to whom he gave a few brief orders how to act. These scanty
+preparations were hardly made, when the Indians, having finished the
+work of plunder, had sprung into swift pursuit, and were now close
+upon them, the wild woods ringing with their terrible whoops and
+yells. When they had come within short rifle-range, Capt. Bullitt and
+his men met them with a well-aimed volley of musketry from behind the
+shelter of their wagons; which, however, checked the savages but for a
+moment. Rallying on the instant, they were pressing forward in still
+greater numbers; when Capt. Bullitt held out a signal of surrender,
+and came out from behind the barricade at the head of his men, as if
+to lay down their arms: but no sooner were they within eight yards of
+the enemy, and near enough to see the fierce light that shone in their
+eyes, than they suddenly levelled their pieces, and poured a murderous
+fire into the thickest of them; then, charging bayonets, scattered
+them in every direction, and sent them yelling with astonishment and
+dismay. Before they could rally again, and renew the pursuit, Capt.
+Bullitt, having picked up many more of the fugitives, began a rapid
+but orderly retreat.
+
+For several days thereafter, the fugitives, singly or in squads, came
+straggling into camp at Loyal Hannon. Of the eight hundred picked men
+who had been sent out with such good promise of success, twenty
+officers and two hundred and seventy-three privates had been left
+behind, either killed or taken prisoners. The whole force of the
+enemy, French and Indians, did not exceed that of the English: their
+loss in the battle is not known; but, as the Highlanders fought well
+and the Virginians fought well, it must have been heavy. The disaster
+foreboded by Washington had thus in reality fallen upon them. He was
+at Raystown when the dismal tidings came; and, although complimented
+by Gen. Forbes upon the bravery his rangers had displayed, was deeply
+grieved and mortified. In secret, many a man would have been gratified
+at beholding a prophecy he had uttered thus fulfilled; but Washington,
+incapable of such selfish and unnatural vanity, could but sorrow
+thereat, although it must needs increase his reputation for foresight
+and sagacity. As the only good thing that came from this defeat, I
+must tell you (and you will be glad to hear it) that Capt. Bullitt was
+rewarded with a major's commission for the gallant and soldierly
+conduct he had shown on that disastrous day in the midst of such
+fearful perils.
+
+It was not until the middle of November that the whole army came up to
+Loyal Hannon, a little distance beyond Laurel Hill. Winter was coming
+on apace. What with rain and snow and frost, the roads would soon be
+rendered impassable, not only to wheeled carriages, but to pack-horses
+also. Fifty miles of unbroken wilderness lay between them and Fort
+Duquesne,--so long the goal of their hopes and toils, that seemed to
+recede as they advanced, like some enchanted castle we have read of
+before now in books of fairy tales, that poor benighted travellers
+never reach, although, in fancy, every step they take brings them
+nearer. The leaders began to talk seriously of going into
+winter-quarters at that place until the return of spring; and it
+seemed as if another of Washington's prophecies were likely to be
+fulfilled. But, about this time, two prisoners from Fort Duquesne were
+brought into camp; from whom they drew such an account of the weakness
+of the French, and the discontent and daily desertions of their Indian
+allies, as determined them to push forward without further delay, in
+spite of the wintry weather, and, at one fell blow, make a finish of
+the campaign. So, leaving behind them their tents and baggage, and
+taking with them but a few pieces of light artillery, they once more
+resumed their toilsome march. Col. Washington was ordered to go on in
+advance with a part of his detachment, to throw out scouts and
+scouting parties, who were to scour the woods in every direction, and
+thereby prevent the possibility of an ambuscade. This new arrangement,
+which showed that Gen. Forbes had the wisdom to profit by the folly of
+those who had gone before him, was a signal proof of the high esteem
+in which provincial troops were at last beginning to be held; and to
+which, by their courage, skill, and hardihood, they had, even years
+before, won so just a title.
+
+When within a few miles of the French fort, the road began to show
+signs of the late disaster. Here and there were to be seen the
+blackened and mangled bodies of men, who, while fleeing for their
+lives, had been overtaken, and cut down by the murderous tomahawk; or,
+exhausted from the loss of blood, had there, by the lonely wayside,
+laid them down to die of their wounds. As they advanced, these ghastly
+tokens of defeat and massacre were to be met with at shorter and
+shorter intervals, till at length they lay thickly scattered about the
+ground.
+
+Being now in close neighborhood with the enemy, the English moved with
+even greater caution and wariness than before; for they had every
+reason to suspect, that, as he had suffered them to come thus far
+without molestation, he meant to meet them here, under shelter of his
+stronghold, with a resistance all the move determined. When come in
+sight, however, what was their surprise, instead of beholding the high
+ramparts and strong walls, grim and frowning with cannon, which they
+had pictured to their minds, to find a heap of blackened and smoking
+ruins!
+
+Deserted by his Indian allies, threatened with famine, cut off from
+all hope of aid from the North (where the English were everywhere
+gaining ground), and with a force of but five hundred men wherewith to
+defend the post against ten times that number, the French general had
+seen that the attempt to hold it would be but folly; and, like a
+prudent officer, had resolved to abandon it as his only chance of
+safety. Waiting, therefore, until the English were within a day's
+march of the place, he blew up the magazine, set fire to the works,
+and, embarking in his bateaux by the light of the flames, retreated
+down the Ohio.
+
+Col. Washington, still leading the advance, was the first to enter;
+and, with his own hand planting the British banner on the still
+smouldering heaps, took formal possession thereof in the name of his
+Britannic majesty, King George the Second. And thus this stronghold of
+French power in the Ohio Valley, so long the pest and terror of the
+border, fell without a blow. Under the name of Fort Pitt, it was soon
+rebuilt, and garrisoned with two hundred of Washington's men; and,
+from that time to the war of the Revolution, it was held by the
+English, chiefly as a trading-post; and hence the dingy, smoky, noisy,
+thriving, fast young city of Pittsburg.
+
+They now had leisure to pay the last sad duty to the dead who had
+fallen in the two defeats of Braddock and Grant. For three long years,
+the bodies of Braddock's slaughtered men had lain without Christian
+burial, bleaching in the sun of as many summers, and shrouded in the
+snows of as many winters. Mingled with the bones of oxen and horses,
+or half hidden in heaps of autumn leaves, they lay scattered about the
+stony hillsides,--a spectacle ghastly indeed, and most melancholy to
+behold. With many a sigh of pity for the hapless dead, and many a
+shudder of dark remembrance on the part of those who had been present
+at the scenes of rout and massacre, they gathered together the
+blackened corpses of Grant's men and the whitened bones of Braddock's
+men, and, digging a huge pit, buried them in one common grave. In this
+pious duty all took part alike, from the general down to the common
+soldier.
+
+With the fall of Fort Duquesne, ended, as Washington had years ago
+foreseen, the troubles of the Western and Southern frontiers, and with
+it the power so long held by the French in the Ohio Valley. The
+Indians, with that fickleness of mind peculiar to savage races, now
+hastened to offer terms of amity and peace to the party whom the
+fortunes of war had left uppermost.
+
+Having done his part, and so large a part, towards the restoration of
+quiet and security to his native province, the cherished object of his
+heart, for which he had so faithfully and manfully struggled,
+Washington resolved to bring his career as a soldier to a close. In
+his very soul, he was sick and weary of strife, and longed for peace.
+The scenes of violence and bloodshed had become loathing and painful
+to him beyond the power of words to tell; and, now that his country
+had no longer need of his services, he felt that he could, without
+reproach, retire to the tranquil shades of private life he loved so
+much, and had looked forward to with such earnest longings. He
+therefore, at the end of the year, gave up his commission, and left
+the service, followed by the admiration and affection of his soldiers,
+and the applause and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen.
+
+With the fall of Quebec in the course of the following year (1759),
+this long and eventful Old French War was brought to a close, and
+French empire in America was at an end.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+WASHINGTON AT HOME.
+
+
+Having done all that a brave and prudent man could for his country's
+welfare, Col. Washington now lost no time, you may depend upon it, in
+doing what every wise and prudent man should for his own: by which you
+are to understand, that on the sixth day of January, 1759, when he
+wanted but a few weeks of completing his twenty-seventh year, he was
+joined in the holy bonds of marriage with Mrs. Martha Custis, the
+blooming and lovely young widow, and mother of the two interesting
+little children,--to all of whom you had a slight introduction a short
+time ago.
+
+The nuptials were celebrated at the White House, the home of the
+bride, in the presence of a goodly company of stately dames and fine
+old gentlemen, fair maidens and handsome youth,--the kith and kin and
+loving friends of the wedded pair. Had some belated traveller been
+overtaken by the little hours of that night, as he chanced to pass
+that way, he might have guessed, from the soft, warm light that shone
+from all of the many windows, and sounds of sweet music that came
+through the open doors, mingled with peals of joyous laughter, and the
+light tripping of numerous feet in the merry dance, that it must be a
+much-beloved and fortunate couple indeed that could draw together so
+happy and brilliant a throng under that hospitable roof. Had this same
+belated traveller wanted further proof of this, he had but to turn a
+little aside, and take a peep into the negro quarters, where he would
+have seen the colored folks in a jubilee over the grand occasion, and,
+to all appearances, quite as jolly as if the wedding had been an
+affair of their own getting-up, and in which each son and daughter of
+ebony had a personal interest. He would have seen them feasting on the
+abundant leavings that came down from the great house, till their
+faces shone again; and dancing to the music of Bishop Braddock's
+fiddle in a fashion all their own, and nobody's else.
+
+First and foremost among these, with his wool combed the highest, his
+breeches the reddest, and manners the genteelest, might have been
+spied Black Jerry (who, when a negroling, had been saved from a
+thrashing by little George, as you well remember), showing off his
+heels to the envy of all male and the admiration of all female
+beholders. This last, it is but fair to say, is merely a fancy sketch
+of your Uncle Juvinell's, conjured up by recollections of certain long
+talks he often had, when a boy, with Black Jerry himself, at that time
+a very old negro of most excellent morals, who never failed, when his
+honored master's name was mentioned, to show his yellow ivory, and,
+for very respect, uncover his head, the wool of which was then as
+white as a Merino ram's.
+
+This joyous event having passed thus happily off, Col. Washington, a
+short time after, repaired to Williamsburg to take his seat in the
+Virginia Legislature, or House of Burgesses as it was then called, to
+which he had been elected while absent on the last campaign; without,
+however, any particular desire or effort on his part, but by that of
+his numerous friends. Hardly had his name been enrolled as a member of
+that honorable body, when Mr. Robinson, Speaker of the House, by
+previous agreement arose and addressed him in a short but eloquent
+speech; thanking him, in the name of the rest, for the many and
+valuable services he had rendered his country during the past five
+years, and setting forth the gratitude and esteem with which he was
+regarded by his fellow-countrymen. Surprised out of his usual
+composure and self-possession by the honor thus unexpectedly done him,
+Washington, upon rising to thank the House, could only blush, stammer,
+and stand trembling, without the power to utter a single word. Seeing
+his painful embarrassment, Mr. Robinson hastened to his relief by
+saying with a courteous smile, "Sit down, Mr. Washington: your modesty
+equals your valor; and that surpasses the power of any language I
+possess." From that time till near the breaking-cut of the
+Revolution,--a period of fifteen years, he remained an active and
+influential member of this body; being returned from year to year by
+the united voice of the good people whose district he represented.
+Always thorough in whatever he undertook, he rested not until he had
+made himself muster of every point and question touching the duties of
+his new office; and, for method, promptness, prudence, and sagacity,
+soon proved himself quite as good a civilian as he had been a soldier.
+
+Early in the following spring, his first session ended, he betook
+himself to the sweet retirement of Mount Vernon; where, cheered by the
+company of his beautiful young wife and her interesting little
+children, he once more resumed those peaceful pursuits and innocent
+amusements to which he had looked forward with such bright
+anticipations amidst the perils and hardships of a soldier's life.
+War, as war, had already, young and ardent as he was, lost for him its
+charms; and he had learned to look upon it as a hard and terrible
+necessity, ever to be avoided, except in cases where the safety of his
+country should demand it as a last desperate remedy. Unlike most men
+of a bold and adventurous disposition, he all his life long took the
+greatest pleasure in the pursuits of a husbandman; and, to his manner
+of thinking, there was no lot or calling in life so happy, and none
+more honorable. Having now ample time for the indulgence of his
+tastes, he set about improving and beautifying his plantations, of
+which he had several, in the most approved style of that day. He
+planted orchards of various fruits; set his hillsides in grass;
+drained his marshes, and turned them into rich meadow-lands; built
+mills and blacksmith-shops; enlarged his family mansion to a size
+better befitting his elegant and hospitable style of living; adorned
+the grounds about it with shrubbery, trees, and gardens; and converted
+the wild woods hard by into open and verdant parks. To his negro
+slaves he was the kindest of masters; ever mindful of their comfort,
+and extremely careful of them in sickness. Being of industrious habits
+himself, he would not make the least grain of allowance for sloth or
+idleness in them, or indeed in any one about him, but was strict in
+exacting of them the speedy and full performance of their allotted
+tasks; which, however, he always took care should come under rather
+than up to the measure of their strength. In his business habits, he
+was methodical to a nicety; kept his own books, and was his own
+overseer: for, having a strong aversion to being waited on, he never
+suffered others to do for him what he could do for himself. He kept a
+close and clear account, in writing, of the profits arising from the
+grain, tobacco, and other produce of his lands; and also the amount of
+his personal, household, and plantation expenses: by which means he
+could tell at a glance whether he were on the making or losing order,
+and readily detect whether any of whom he had dealings were given to
+careless or dishonest practices. So superior was the quality of every
+thing produced on his estate, and so widely known did he become for
+his honesty and uprightness in all business transactions, that, in
+time, a box of tobacco or a barrel of flour marked "George Washington,
+Mount Vernon, Va.," would be received into many foreign ports without
+the custom-house authorities opening or inspecting it.
+
+He was an early riser. In winter, getting up before day, and lighting
+his own fire, he wrote or read two or three hours by candle-light.
+After a frugal breakfast of two small cups of tea and four small cakes
+of Indian meal, he mounted his horse, and rode about his plantations;
+seeing to every thing with his own eye, and often lending a helping
+hand. This duty done, he returned to the house at noon, and dined
+heartily, as well beseemed the active, robust man that he was, yet
+never exceeding the bounds of temperance and moderation both as to
+eating and drinking. His afternoons he usually devoted to the
+entertainment of his numerous guests, who thronged his hospitable
+mansion almost daily, and, if from a distance, abiding there for weeks
+together. After a supper frugal as his breakfast, if there was no
+company in the house, he would read aloud to his family from some
+instructive and entertaining book, or from the newspapers of the day;
+and then, at an early hour, retire to his room for the night.
+
+Fish and game abounded in the woods and streams of his domain, as well
+as in those of the adjoining plantations; and he was thus enabled to
+indulge his fondness for angling and hunting to the utmost, whenever
+he felt so inclined. Two or three times a week, the shrill winding of
+the hunter's horn and the deep-mouthed baying of the fox-hounds would
+ring out on the clear morning air; when he might be seen at the head
+of a brilliant company of mounted hunters, dashing over the fields,
+across the streams, and through the woods, hot on the heels of some
+unlucky Reynard. I should not say unlucky, however; for although
+Washington was as bold and skilful a rider as could be found in
+thirteen provinces, and kept the finest of horses and finest of dogs,
+yet, for all that, he could seldom boast of any great success as a
+fox-hunter. But having the happy knack of making the best and most of
+every thing, be it toward or untoward, he always consoled himself with
+the reflection, that, if they had failed to catch their fox, they at
+least had their sport and a deal of healthful exercise; which, after
+all, should be the only object of fox-hunting. On such occasions, he
+was either joined by the neighboring gentry, or by such guests as
+chanced at the time to be enjoying the hospitalities of Mount Vernon.
+Among these, it was not unusual to find old Lord Fairfax, the friend
+and companion of his stripling days, who would come down from Greenway
+Court several times a year, with a long train of hunters and hounds,
+and by his presence double the mirth and cheer of all the country-side
+for miles and miles around. The fate of poor Reynard being duly
+settled, they would repair either to Mount Vernon, or to the residence
+of any one else of the party that chanced to be nearest, and wind up
+the sports of the day by a hunting-dinner, at which they were usually
+favored with the company of the ladies. At such times, Washington is
+said to have entered so keenly into the general hilarity, as to quite
+lay aside his accustomed gravity and reserve, and show himself almost
+as jovial as the merry old lord himself. Speaking of these amusements,
+brings to mind an anecdote of him, which I must tell you, as it will
+give you a still more lively idea of the promptness and decision with
+which he was wont to act whenever occasion demanded.
+
+In those old-fashioned times, among many other laws that would seem
+odd enough to us at the present day, there were many very strict and
+severe ones for the protection of game, which made poaching (that is
+to say, hunting on private grounds without leave or license from the
+owner) no less a crime than theft, and punished the poacher as a thief
+accordingly. Now, there was a certain idle, worthless fellow,
+notorious for his desperate character, as being the most daring
+poacher in seven counties, who was known to be much in the habit of
+trespassing on the grounds belonging to Mount Vernon. This had been
+forbidden him by Washington, who had warned him of the consequences if
+he did not cease his depredations, and keep at a safe distance; but to
+this the sturdy vagrant gave little heed. He would cross over the
+river in a canoe, which he would hide, in some secret nook best known
+to himself, among the reeds and rushes that fringed the banks, and
+with his fowling-piece make ruinous havoc among the canvas-back ducks
+that flocked in great multitudes to the low marsh-lands of that
+region.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+One day, as Washington was going his accustomed rounds about the
+plantations, he heard the report of a gun in the neighborhood of the
+river; and, guessing what was in the wind, he forthwith spurred his
+horse in that direction, and, dashing through the bushes, came upon
+the culprit, just as he, paddle in hand, was pushing from the shore.
+The fellow, seeing his danger, cocked his gun, and, with a threatening
+look, levelled it directly at Washington, who, without heeding this in
+the least, rode into the water, and, seizing the canoe by the painter,
+dragged it ashore. Leaping then from his horse, he wrenched the
+fowling-piece from the astonished poacher, and fell to belaboring him
+in so clean and handsome a manner, as to make the unlucky wight
+heartily wish he had the wide Potomac between him and the terrible man
+whose iron grasp was then on his collar. My word for it, he never
+trespassed again on those forbidden grounds; and I dare be sworn, he
+never saw or ate or smelt a canvas-back thereafter, without feeling a
+lively smarting up and down under his jacket, and, it may be, his
+buckskin breeches too. It was not that a few dozen or even a hundred
+ducks had been shot on his premises, that Washington was thus moved to
+chastise this fellow; but that, in spite of wholesome warnings, he
+should go on breaking the laws of the land with such impunity; and
+also, that, instead of seeking to earn an honest livelihood by the
+labor of his hands, he should prefer rather to live in idleness, and
+gain a bare subsistence by such paltry and unlawful means.
+
+Although verging on to middle age, Washington was still very fond of
+active and manly sports, such as tossing the bar and throwing the
+sledge, wrestling, running, and jumping; in all of which he had but
+few equals, and no superiors. Among other stories of his strength and
+agility, there is one which you may come across some day in the course
+of your reading, relating how that, at a leaping-match, he cleared
+twenty-two feet seven inches of dead level turf at a single bound.
+
+Notwithstanding his modesty and reserve, he took much pleasure in
+society, and ever sought to keep up a free and social interchange of
+visits between his family and those of his neighbors. Besides their
+fine horses and elegant carriages, he, and others of the old Virginia
+gentry of that day whose plantations lay along the Potomac, kept their
+own barges or pleasure-boats, which were finished and fitted up in a
+sumptuous style, and were sometimes rowed by as many as six negro men,
+all in neat uniforms. In these, they, with their wives and children,
+would visit each other up and down the river; and often, after
+lengthening out their calls far into the night, would row home by the
+light of the moon, which, lending charms that the sun had not to the
+tranquil flow of the winding stream, and to the waving woods that
+crowned the banks on either hand, caused them often to linger, as
+loath to quit the enchanting scene. A few weeks of the winter months
+were usually spent by Mr. and Mrs. Washington either at Williamsburg
+or at Annapolis, then, as now, the capital of Maryland, where was to
+be found the best society of the provinces, and of which they were the
+pride and ornament. Here they entered into the gayeties of the season,
+such as dinners and balls, with much real relish; and, if the theatre
+added its attractions to the rest, Washington always made it a point
+to attend, as the entertainments there offered were of the sort that
+afforded him much delight. Nor was he loath to join in the dance; and
+your Uncle Juvinell, when a boy, had the rare fortune of meeting, now
+and then, with stately old dames, who had been belles in their days,
+and could boast of having had him for a partner; but, at the same
+time, they were wont to confess, that they were generally too much
+overawed by the gravity and dignity of his demeanor to feel entirely
+at their ease in his company, however flattered they may have been at
+the honor, which he, in his modesty, so little dreamed he was doing
+them.
+
+Washington's marriage was never blessed with children; but he was all
+that a father could be to those of Mrs. Washington, whom he loved and
+cherished as tenderly as if they had been his own. As their guardian,
+he had the care of their education, and also the entire control of the
+immense fortune, amounting, in negroes, land, and money, to nearly two
+hundred thousand dollars, left them by their father, Mr. George
+Custis; and lovingly and faithfully did he discharge this sacred and
+delicate trust. Of these two children, the daughter (who was the
+younger of the two) died, in early maidenhood, of consumption. She had
+been of a slender constitution from her childhood; but, for all that,
+her death was an unexpected stroke, and was long and deeply mourned by
+Mrs. Washington and her husband. He is said to have been absent during
+her illness; but, returning a short time before she breathed her last,
+was so overcome with pity and tenderness upon seeing the sad change
+wrought in so brief a space by this dreadful disease in her fair young
+face and delicate form, that he threw himself upon his knees by her
+bedside, and, in a passionate burst of grief, poured out a fervent
+prayer for her recovery. The son now became the sole object of
+parental love and solicitude; and being, like his sister, of frail and
+uncertain health, was a source of much affectionate anxiety to his
+step-father as well as to his mother.
+
+Both Mr. and Mrs. Washington were members of the Episcopal Church, and
+persons of the truest Christian piety. Every sabbath, when the roads
+and weather permitted, they attended divine worship either at
+Alexandria or at a church in their own neighborhood, and always took
+part in the religious exercises of the day with earnest and solemn
+devotion. In addition to the many charms of mind and person already
+mentioned, Mrs. Washington was a woman of great benevolence, and spent
+much of her time in acts of kindness and charity, which won her the
+love and gratitude of every poor family in the country around.
+
+Thus passed away fifteen tranquil years,--the white days of
+Washington's life. When we behold him as he was then, in the full
+strength and beauty of his ripened manhood, possessed of one of
+the handsomest fortunes in America, living in the bountiful and
+elegant style of those hospitable times, the pride and honor of
+his native province, the object of applause and gratitude to his
+fellow-countrymen, and of esteem and love to all whose privilege it
+was to call him friend; and, above all, blessed, in the partner of his
+choice, with a woman gifted with every grace and virtue that can adorn
+her sex,--when we behold him thus, well may we exclaim, "Verily, here
+was a man favored of Heaven in a special manner, and blessed beyond
+the lot of common mortals here below." But the clouds were gathering,
+and had long been gathering, that were soon to burst in storm and
+tempest over that happy and rising young land, and force him for
+many, many weary years from those, his loved retreats and peaceful
+pursuits, upon a wider, nobler field of action, wherein he was to play
+a part that should, in fine, win for him the name so dear to every
+American heart,--Father of his Country.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+A FAMILY QUARREL.
+
+
+"And now, Dannie, mend the fire with another Christmas log. You,
+Willie, open the windows at top and bottom, to let out the smoke the
+young historian will be sure to raise. Laura, my dear, trim the lamp;
+and you, Ella,--will you have the kindness to put a little sugar in
+your uncle's cider?--there's a darling! Ned, my boy, just tumble
+sleepy-headed Charlie there out of his comfortable nap, and touse him
+into his waking senses again. All right? Now I would have every one of
+you put your thinking-caps square and tight upon your heads, and keep
+all your ears about you; for, depend upon it, what I am now going to
+tell you is so full of hard points and tough knots, that, should you
+but lose the crossing of a 't,' or even the dotting of an 'i,'
+thereof, all the rest will be to you as so much hifalutin
+transcendentalism." (Here Uncle Juvinell took a gigantic swallow of
+cider, and pronounced the sugar a decided improvement; while the
+little folks wrote something on their slates, very long, and which no
+two of them spelt alike. Uncle Juvinell smacked his lips, and then
+resumed.)
+
+Now, you must know, my dear children, that Great Britain, at the time
+of which we are speaking, was, and for many years had been, and, in
+fact, still is, and, in all human likelihood, will ever continue to
+be, burdened with a mountain-load of debt, which has already given her
+a frightful stoop in the shoulders, and may, in time, grow to such an
+enormous bulk as to break her sturdy old back outright. She had, as
+you have seen, added all French America to her dominions; but with
+this increase of power and glory, that made her king and nobles smile
+and sing with joy, came also an increase of debt and trouble, that
+made her common people scowl and growl with want and discontent. The
+expenses of the late war with France had added the weight of another
+AEtna or Sinai to the already staggering load that chafed her back;
+and, sorely grieved thereat, she began casting in her mind what might
+be done to lighten it a little.
+
+"My young Colonies," said our mother to herself, "which were planted
+by my love so many years ago, have grown to a goodly size, and
+prospered in a wonderful manner, under my fostering care, for which
+they owe me many thanks; and, being quite old and strong enough, must
+now repay it by taking their due share of my heavy burden."
+
+Now, in all this, our mother did but deceive herself: for these
+Colonies had been planted by her oppression, not by her love; they
+had grown by her neglect, not by her fostering care. Therefore, they
+did not, as she pretended, owe her either love or thanks, although
+they gave her both; and she had no right to make them carry her burden
+without their consent. Strange as it may appear, these infant Colonies
+loved their mother to distraction, in spite of her unmotherly
+treatment of them; and would have gone any length to serve her,--even
+to the extent of bearing double the burden she would have laid on
+them,--had she been wise enough to consult their wishes about the
+matter, and suffer them to lay it on their own shoulders, in their own
+fashion, and of their own free will. To this the perverse old mother
+would not listen for a moment; and, without pausing to reflect what
+might be the consequences, took an AEtna or a Sinai from the load on
+her own shoulders, and clapped it on those of her children, who sat
+down under it plump, and sturdily refused to budge until they should
+be allowed to put it there themselves. Whereupon, this stiff-necked,
+wrong-headed old Britannia (for such was her Christian name) was
+exceeding wroth, made an outlandish noise among the nations, and even
+went so far (you will be shocked to hear) as to swear a little. Seeing
+there was no help for it but to remove this AEtna, she did so with as
+good a grace as could be expected in a family-quarrel; but was so
+indiscreet and short-sighted as still to leave a very small burden,--a
+mere hillock indeed,--just by way, as she said, of showing that she
+had the right to load and unload them when and how it suited her
+sovereign pleasure best.
+
+Now, be it known, it was not the burden they had to carry of which
+these generous and high-spirited Colonies complained so bitterly; but
+that they should be denied the right of freely judging when and how
+and wherefore they were to be taxed,--a right that had been the pride
+and boast of Englishmen time out of mind. As for the matter of the
+burden, had that been all, they could have danced, ay, and blithely
+too, under AEtna and Sinai both, had the load but been of their own
+choosing, of their own putting-on, and of their own adjusting.
+
+To add to their distress and humiliation, this hardest and
+unnaturalest of mothers now set over them judges, who were strangers
+to them, and loved them not; who were to hold their places, not, as
+theretofore, during good behavior, but at her will and pleasure.
+Another right, as dear to Englishmen as life itself, was taken from
+them,--to wit, the right of trial by jury; which gave every person,
+great or small, suspected or known to be guilty of any crime against
+the laws of the land, the privilege of a speedy trial, in open court,
+in the place where the crime may have been committed, and by a jury of
+honest and impartial men. Instead of this, the person accused was to
+be taken aboard some ship-of-war, likely as not a thousand miles from
+Christian land, and there tried by some authorities of the navy, who
+would know but little, and must needs care still less, concerning the
+person under trial, or his offence.
+
+Under these and many other oppressions and injuries, the young
+Colonies groaned grievously. But, for all that, they were not to be
+subdued or broken. Time and again, they sent petitions to this
+unkindest and wilfulest of mothers, beseeching her, in humble and
+loving and dutiful terms, to remove this degrading burden from their
+shoulders, and once more receive them as children into her maternal
+bosom; warning her, at the same time, of what must be the melancholy
+consequences, if she hearkened not to their prayers. Then was the
+time, if ever, when, by a few kind words betokening a desire for
+reconciliation, she might have secured and made fast the love of these
+devoted and affectionate children for ever; and, had she been as wise
+as she was powerful, even so would she have done. But, like the Egypt
+of olden times, she did but harden her heart against them all the
+more, even to the hardness of the nether mill-stone; and only sought
+how she could the more easily grind them into obedience and
+submission. She had grown to be mighty among the nations, this
+Britannia. Her armed legions told of her power by land; her ships of
+war and her ships of commerce whitened a hundred seas. The great sun,
+that set on every kingdom of the known earth, she boasted never went
+down on her dominion. Wherefore was she swollen and big with pride,
+and from a high place looked haughtily down upon the little nations at
+her feet. What height of presumption was it, then, in these
+insignificant young Colonies, struggling for bare existence off there
+on the uttermost edges of the civilized earth, thus to lift themselves
+against her sovereign will, and dare dispute her high decrees! It was
+not to be borne: she would humble them for this presumption, chastise
+them for their disobedience, and show them what a terrible thing it
+was to provoke her wrath. Her heart thus steeled to mercy, she stayed
+not her hand, but sent her hosts of armed men in her fleets of armed
+ships, to lay her heavy yoke, and fit it firm and fast on the necks of
+her rebellious children.
+
+Beholding this, and that it were vain to hope for reconciliation, the
+Colonies, with one voice, with one indignant voice, exclaimed, "Now,
+since our mother seems bent on treating us as slaves and strangers,
+and not as children, then are we compelled, in our own defence, to
+treat her, not as our mother, but as a stranger and our enemy. And
+bear us witness, O ye nations! how long and humbly and earnestly we
+have prayed that there should be love and peace between us and this
+our mother; and bear us witness also, that, although we now lift our
+rebellious hand against her, there is no hatred in our hearts, even
+now, but rather sorrow unspeakable, that she should at last have
+driven us to this saddest, this direfulest of alternatives." Then,
+moved with one spirit (that of the love of freedom), and bent on one
+purpose (that of the defence of their sacred rights), they rose in
+their young strength, and, commending their just cause to the God of
+hosts, made that last appeal,--which, to a brave and virtuous people,
+has ever been the last,--the appeal to arms. And so they did, while
+the nations looked on in wonder and applause.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+THE CAUSE OF THE QUARREL.
+
+
+But, my children, I must tell you, in other and perhaps plainer words,
+what these measures were that led to such momentous results, why
+resorted to, how carried out, and by whom.
+
+From what you have just been told, you can have no difficulty in
+guessing that Great Britain was desperately in debt, and in the very
+mood to resort to desperate measures of delivering herself therefrom.
+Her being in this particular mood at that particular time (for it is
+only now and then that she has shown herself so unamiable) was owing
+chiefly to the fact, that she was just then under the rule, or rather
+misrule, of that narrow-minded, short-sighted, hard-fisted,
+wrong-headed man, who commonly goes in history by the name of King
+George the Third. Had he been the superintendent of a town workhouse,
+he might perhaps have acquitted himself respectably enough; or, if I
+may be so bold, he might have served a life-term as Governor of London
+Tower, and gone to his grave without any great discredit or reproach:
+but, in all human reason and justice, he certainly had no more
+business on the throne of England than your Uncle Juvinell himself.
+His ministers, who were of his own choosing, were vultures, of the
+same harsh, unsightly plumage, and, at his beck or nod, stood ready to
+do whatever knave's work he might have on hand,--even to the grinding
+of his people's bones to make his bread, should his royal appetite
+turn that way.
+
+With such men at the helm of State, it is no wonder, then, that unwise
+and oppressive measures should be resorted to for raising money, or,
+as it is more properly called in such cases, a revenue, for paying the
+debts and keeping up the expenses of the government. The first pounce
+they made was on their young Colonies in America, whom they sought to
+burden with heavy taxes laid on exports, or articles of commerce sent
+out of the country, and on imports, or articles of commerce brought
+into the country. The principal articles thus taxed were paper,
+painters' colors, glass, sugar and molasses, and tea. The tax-money or
+revenue scraped together from the sale of these articles--and which
+made them dearer to him who bought and him who sold, according to the
+amount of duty laid on--was to be gathered into the public treasury
+for the purposes aforesaid. Another plan for raising revenue, hit upon
+by these ingenious kites, was that famous one called the "Stamp Act,"
+the design of which was to compel the people of the Colonies, in order
+to make their business transactions good and valid, to use a certain
+kind of paper, having on it a certain stamp. Each kind of paper had
+its own particular stamp, and could only be applied to a certain
+purpose specified thereon. Thus there was a deed stamp-paper, the will
+stamp-paper, the note-of-hand and bill-of-exchange stamp-paper, the
+marriage stamp-paper; and, in short, stamp-paper for every concern in
+life requiring an instrument of writing. The paper itself was
+altogether a commodity of the government, by whom it was manufactured,
+and sold at prices varying from a few pence up to many pounds sterling
+of good, hard English money, just according to the magnitude or nature
+of the business in hand. Had it gone into effect, it must needs have
+borne on the dead as well as on the living: for, if the last will and
+testament of a deceased and lamented relative were not written on
+paper with the proper stamp, it could not have been good and valid in
+the king's eyes; and this would have led to grievous misunderstandings
+between the bereaved and affectionate heirs, and perhaps the deceased
+himself, in consequence, would have slept uneasily in his grave.
+
+Another oppressive measure--the design whereof, however, was for
+saving money, rather than for raising revenue--was that of quartering
+troops upon the country in time of peace; by which means they must
+needs be supported to a great extent by the people so sponged upon.
+
+But the most brilliant stroke of all was an act forbidding the
+Colonies from trading with any foreign ports, and from manufacturing
+certain articles, lest the value and sale of the same articles
+manufactured in England, and to be sold in America, might be lowered
+or hindered thereby.
+
+I have already mentioned, how that the right of choosing their judges
+and other civil officers, and the right of trial by jury, had been
+taken from them,--measures that had a meanness and odium quite their
+own; as serving no end of profit, but merely as safety-valves, through
+which the royal bile might find vent now and then.
+
+Now, the good people of the Colonies, as I have hinted elsewhere,
+would not have raised the hue and outcry that they did against these
+measures, had it not been for one thing, which to them, as Englishmen,
+was all in all; to wit, the right of taxing themselves, and
+legislating or making laws for themselves through persons of their own
+choosing, called representatives. And this is, my little folks, what
+is meant by taxation, and legislation by representation, in a nation.
+You will do well to bear this in mind continually; for it is the very
+keystone to the arch of all true government.
+
+This right of representation, however, was denied them; for what
+earthly reason, no one, not in the secret, could imagine. As the king
+himself was never able to render a reason for any thing he did, his
+ministers would not for any thing they did, and the parliament dared
+not for any thing they did.
+
+What could they do, then, but send petitions to the king, and
+remonstrances to the parliament, complaining of, and crying out
+against, their many grievances, and deploring and demanding that they
+be removed and redressed. Although they did this with more dignity and
+respectfulness, with more clearness and ability, than the like thing
+had ever been done before, or has been since, by any people, yet their
+petitions were spurned by the king, because they were just and manly,
+and he was not; and their remonstrances went unheeded by the
+parliament, because they were wise and reasonable, and it was not.
+
+Failing to get redress for their grievances, the colonists resolved
+that the source of these same grievances should not be a source of
+profit to those who imposed them. To bring about this result, they, as
+one man, entered into what was called the "non-importation
+agreement,"--or, in other words, an agreement by which they solemnly
+pledged themselves to abstain from the use of all articles burdened
+with a tax, until such tax should be removed; and, furthermore, that
+they would not buy or use any thing that they were forbidden to
+manufacture themselves; and, still furthermore, that not a ship of
+theirs should trade with British ports, until the act forbidding them
+to trade with foreign ports should be repealed. Some of them, I dare
+say, would have gone so far, had that been possible, as to pledge
+themselves not to die, until the Stamp Act, compelling them to write
+their wills on stamp-paper, was also repealed. This agreement was so
+rigidly observed, that the men took to wearing jeans, and the women
+linsey-woolseys, which they wove in their own looms; the old ladies
+drank sassafras-tea, sweetened with maple-sugar; and old gentlemen
+wrote no wills, but declared them on their death-bed to their weeping
+families by word of mouth. Whether the people stopped marrying or not,
+it is not known with certainty; but from my knowledge of human nature,
+which is extensive, I do not think I should greatly hazard my
+reputation as a historian, were I to state flatly, roundly, and
+emphatically, that it had not the least effect in that way.
+
+The days on which these measures were to go into effect were observed
+by the colonists as days of fasting, prayer, and humiliation. All
+business was laid aside, the shops were closed, the churches opened,
+and the church-bells tolled as on some funeral occasion; and between
+praying at church, and fasting at home, and brooding over their
+grievances, the good people were very miserable indeed. Although they
+suffered great inconvenience from their observance of the
+non-importation agreement, yet they bore it patiently and cheerfully,
+like men who felt that their cause was just and right. But the sudden
+stoppage of the immense trade that flowed from the colonial ports into
+those of the mother-country told dreadfully on the commerce of Great
+Britain; and British merchants and British manufacturers, and British
+people in general, soon began to suffer even more than the colonists
+themselves. Whereupon, a counter stream of petitions and remonstrances
+set in upon the king and parliament from the people at home, who
+declared that the country would be ruined, if these odious measures,
+crippling American commerce, were not speedily withdrawn. Said they,
+"If we cannot sell the Americans our broadcloths, our flannels, and
+our silks, the obstinate men of that country will stick to their
+jeans, and the perverse women to their linsey-woolseys, till we are
+undone for ever. In that one pestilent little town of Boston, our
+trade in silks alone is not so good by fifty thousand dollars a year
+as it has been heretofore: and we humbly entreat that our American
+brothers be allowed to trade with us and foreign nations as in days
+gone by; for you must see by this time with your own eyes, that we, as
+a nation, are growing poorer every day under this state of things,
+instead of richer every year as had been expected."
+
+The commissioners--that is to say, the persons who had been appointed
+by the British Government to bring or receive the stamp-paper, and
+give it circulation throughout the Colonies--were mobbed and pelted by
+the indignant people, whenever and wherever they made the least
+attempt to do their odious work. In consequence of this determined
+opposition, the paper never went into circulation: so it was stocked
+away in outhouses, and there left to mould and to be eaten by rats and
+mice, if their stomachs were not too dainty for such vile provender.
+Thus this famous piece of ingenuity, the Stamp Act, had no other
+effect than that of giving the civilized world a hearty laugh, and
+increasing the British debt just so much as the paper cost, instead of
+lessening it, as its inventors, in their blind confidence, had hoped.
+
+Beholding how utterly had failed all their pet schemes for raising
+revenue, the narrow-minded king, and the king-minded ministry, and the
+many-minded parliament, were, so to speak, thrown on their haunches,
+and forced to eat their own folly; which, I dare say, they found less
+palatable than their roast beef and plum-pudding. In other words, they
+repealed the Stamp Act; with one stroke of the royal pen, struck off
+the taxes laid on the above-mentioned articles; and once more gave the
+Colonies full liberty to manufacture whatsoever, and re-open
+commercial intercourse with whomsoever, they chose. And thus this
+non-importation agreement worked like a charm: it brought about in a
+trice what petitions and remonstrances had failed to accomplish in
+years.
+
+When tidings came of what had been done at home, there was great
+rejoicing throughout the provinces: the church-bells were tolled to
+another tune than that with which they had been tolled a short time
+before; the good people met at church, but this time to give thanks;
+and went home, not to fast, but to feast; and were now quite as
+comfortable as they had before been miserable. But I have gone a
+little too far, however. There was one circumstance that greatly
+dampened the general feeling of joy, and made a mere thanksgiving of
+what might else have been a high-sounding jubilee. This was the tax on
+tea, which had not been struck off along with the rest, but had been
+suffered to remain; not that any great revenue was expected to arise
+therefrom, but simply to show that they--the king and parliament--had
+not disclaimed or yielded up the right to tax and burden the Colonies
+when and how they thought fit and proper. This vexed the American
+people sorely; for though the bulk of the nuisance had been taken
+away, yet all the odor still remained: or, speaking more plainly, the
+right of laying such burdens on themselves, of their own free will,
+was still denied them; and this, in fact, was the very thing that made
+it so intolerable for them to bear. "Is it," said Washington in a
+letter to a friend, "the duty of threepence per pound upon tea that we
+object to as burdensome? No; but it is the right to lay this duty upon
+ourselves for which we contend."
+
+Therefore, as far as the commodity tea was concerned, the people of
+the Colonies still observed the non-importation agreement. From some
+of the ports, the ships that had come over from England laden with
+this delightful plant were sent back, without being suffered to
+discharge their cargoes; in others, where it had been landed, it was
+not allowed to be sold, but was stowed away in cellars and the like
+out-of-the-way places, where it moulded, or became the food of rats
+and mice, whose bowels, if we may trust the testimony of some of our
+great-grandmothers, were so bound up thereby, that a terrible
+mortality set in among them, that swept them away by cart-loads.
+
+Now, the East-India Company, to whom had been granted the sole
+privilege of trading in tea for the space of a hundred years, if I
+remember rightly, were greatly alarmed at the consequences of the
+tea-tax. Enormous quantities of the article had begun to accumulate in
+their London warehouses, now that there was no market for it in
+America, which hitherto had fed the purse in their left-hand pocket,
+as did that in Great Britain the larger one in their right-hand
+pocket. "Something must be done," said they to themselves (they
+certainly said it to nobody else),--"something must be done, or these
+high-spirited women of America will drink their wishy-washy sassafras
+till their blood be no thicker than whey, and the purse in our
+left-hand pocket become as light and lean and lank as when we sent our
+first ship-load thither years ago." This "something to be done" was a
+loud petition to parliament, praying for speedy relief from the ruin,
+which has an uncomfortable fashion of staring at great mercantile
+companies, and was now staring them full in the face.
+
+So, putting their heads together, the king and parliament hit upon an
+ingenious plan, by which they, the East-India Company, could sell
+their tea, and the government collect the duty thereon. It was this:
+The price of the article should be so far reduced, that it would be
+lower, even with the duty on it, than, at the usual rate of sale,
+without any duty at all. This was a brilliant scheme indeed, and would
+have succeeded to admiration, had the good people of America been a
+nation of bats and geese; but, as they were not, the scheme failed
+disgracefully, as you shall presently see.
+
+By way of giving this plan a trial, a few ships loaded with tea were
+sent over to Boston, where they lay for some time in the harbor,
+without being permitted by the people to land their cargoes. One day,
+as if to show the king and ministers and parliament, the East-India
+Company, and the whole British nation, that they, the Americans, were,
+and had been from the very beginning, desperately in earnest in all
+that they had said and done for years past, a party, composed of about
+fifty of the most sober and respectable citizens of Boston and the
+country around, disguised themselves as Indians, and went aboard these
+ships. Not a word was to be heard among them; but, keeping a grim and
+ominous silence, they ranged the vessel from stem to stern, ransacked
+their cargoes, broke open the tea-chests, and, pouring their contents
+into the sea, made the fishes a dish of tea, which is said to have had
+the same effect on them as on the rats and mice. This done with
+perfect coolness and sobriety, the party returned to their homes as
+orderly and silent as they had come; not the first movement towards a
+mob or tumult having been made by the people during the whole
+proceeding.
+
+This affair, commonly known in history as the Boston Tea-party, and
+which took place in 1774, overwhelmed his majesty with stupid
+astonishment, threw his ministers into fits of foaming rage, fell like
+a thunder-clap upon the House of Parliament, and effectually
+demolished the last forlorn hope of the East-India Company. The spirit
+of resistance on the part of the Colonies had now been carried to such
+a length, that the home-government determined to send over the
+military to awe them by the terror of its presence into obedience to
+their unreasonable and oppressive demands; and, should not this be
+found sufficient, to compel them into submission by the force of its
+arms.
+
+Oh, woful, woful, that ever a tyrant should live to keep his
+dragon-watch on the birth of the free-born thought, the independent
+wish, and ere the full, clear light of heaven descend upon it, warming
+it into strength and beauty, to seize and crush it into slavish fear,
+and love and justice without power to stay his impious hand!
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY.
+
+
+With what deep and earnest interest Washington watched the course of
+these momentous events may be readily imagined, if we reflect how much
+of his life had been already spent in the service of the public, and
+how near he had ever kept the good and welfare of his native land at
+heart.
+
+He was not a mere looker-on, but one of those who had in the very
+beginning shown themselves ready to enter, heart and hand and fortune,
+into all just and lawful measures of resistance to oppression in every
+shape and form; but, with his usual modesty, forbearing to push
+himself forward, which served, no doubt, to add to his example still
+greater weight and influence, and make it all the more illustrious. He
+rigidly observed the non-importation agreement, and was, in fact, one
+of the first to propose its adoption; and none of the articles therein
+named were to be seen in his house until the odious burdens laid
+thereon had been removed.
+
+Little or no lasting good, however, could be expected from these, or
+indeed any measures, unless the Colonies should come to a clearer and
+fuller understanding, one with another, touching the troubles that
+concerned all equally and alike. To bring this much-to-be-wished-for
+end about, it was resolved that a general assembly of all the Colonies
+should be called, wherein each province, through its representatives
+chosen by the people thereof, should have a voice. As the first step
+towards this object, conventions were summoned in the various
+provinces, the members whereof had the authority to choose from among
+their number those who were to be their representatives or
+mouth-pieces in this great Colonial Assembly, since known in history
+as the Old Continental Congress.
+
+Patrick Henry (the great American orator), Mr. Pendleton, and
+Washington were those appointed to represent Virginia. Accordingly,
+about the middle of September, 1774, these three Congress-men set out
+together on horseback for Philadelphia, the place of meeting. Arrived
+here, Washington found assembled the first talent, wisdom, and virtue
+of the land. It was to him a sublime spectacle indeed,--that of the
+people of many widely separated provinces thus met together to give
+voice and expression to what they felt to be their sacred rights as
+freemen and free Englishmen. To add still greater solemnity to their
+proceedings, and give their cause the stamp of the just and righteous
+cause they felt it to be, it was resolved to open the business of each
+day with prayer. Next morning, there came a report that Boston had
+been cannonaded by the king's troops, who had been stationed there for
+many weeks past. Although this afterwards turned out to be false, yet,
+at the time, it had a most beneficial effect, in drawing still nearer
+together those who but the day before had met as strangers, by
+impressing their minds with a still deeper sense of the sacredness of
+the trust imposed on them by their country, and by bringing more
+directly home to them their common danger, and dependence one upon
+another. The minister, before offering up his prayer, took up the
+Bible to read a passage therefrom, and, as if providentially, opened
+at the thirty-fifth Psalm, which seemed to have been written expressly
+for this great occasion, and began thus: "Plead my cause, O Lord, with
+them that strive with me; fight against them that fight against me."
+What wonder, then, that, under circumstances like these, they should
+feel their hearts joined together in stronger, holier bonds of union,
+as they knelt side by side on that memorable morning, commending their
+just cause to the Ruler of nations? For several minutes after they had
+resumed their seats, a profound and solemn silence reigned throughout
+the house; each looking the other in the face, as if uncertain how to
+set about the great work that had brought them together, and no one
+willing to open the Assembly. The silence was becoming painful and
+embarrassing; when Patrick Henry at length arose, and began addressing
+the House, at first in a faltering voice and hesitating manner, which
+soon, however, as he warmed with his subject, gave place to a bolder,
+higher strain, till, long before he had ended, the hearts of his
+hearers were thrilled with a flow of eloquence, the like of which none
+present had ever heard before; and, when it ceased, each felt that he
+had just been listening to the greatest orator, not of Virginia only,
+but of all America. The burden of his declamation was the oppressive
+and unlawful system of taxation devised by Great Britain against her
+American Colonies; the severe restriction laid on their commerce; the
+abolition of the right of trial by jury, and of choosing their own
+judges; the danger that must ever threaten their liberties, if they
+suffered troops of war to be quartered upon them in times of peace;
+and, above all, that they should be denied the right of taxing
+themselves, of making their own laws, and of regulating their internal
+concerns, as seemed to their judgment wise and proper, through
+representatives of their own choosing. To get redress for these and
+similar grievances, was the chief, and, I may say, the only object for
+which this first Congress had been called; for at that time, and for a
+long time after, no one harbored such a thought as that of breaking
+with the mother-country, with a view of achieving their independence.
+To this end, they now applied themselves with deep and sober
+earnestness, and brought to their work all the resources that their
+wisdom and experience could command.
+
+The first session of the Old Continental Congress lasted fifty-one
+days. Such was the decorum with which they conducted their
+proceedings, such the eloquence, force, and precision with which they
+set forth their grievances, such the temperate and dignified tone that
+marked their petitions to the king, and such the manliness, firmness,
+and unwavering constancy with which they persisted in battling for
+their right as freemen to be represented in the councils of the
+nation, that thousands of their brothers across the Atlantic were
+filled with wonder and admiration. And here, for once and for all, be
+it known to you, my dear children, and, in justice to the British
+nation as a people, never fail hereafter to bear it in mind, that
+there were many, very many, perhaps a large majority, of our English
+uncles, who deeply sympathized with our fathers in their troubles, and
+heartily condemned the oppressive burdens heaped upon them by the king
+and his ministers. Even in the House of Parliament itself were there
+many of the greatest spirits of that age, who had all along opposed
+these harsh and unjust measures of the government towards the
+Colonies, and were now so impressed with all that marked the
+proceedings of this first Colonial Congress, that they exerted
+themselves in behalf of their oppressed brothers in America with more
+zeal than ever before, and pleaded their cause in strains of eloquence
+that shall ring in our ears, and dwell in our hearts, till history
+shall tell us we have ceased to be a nation.
+
+And well indeed they might admire and praise; for what with the
+eloquence of such men as Henry and Rutledge, the learning of such men
+as Hancock and Adams, the wisdom of such men as Washington, and the
+pure and exalted character of them all, it was a body of men, the like
+of which had never before assembled together in any age or country.
+
+Patrick Henry, upon being asked who was the greatest man in the
+Congress, replied, "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South
+Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but, if you speak of solid
+information and sound judgment, Col. Washington is, beyond all
+question, the greatest man on that floor." Had Mr. Rutledge been asked
+the same question, he would as readily have pronounced Patrick Henry
+the greatest orator, as indeed he was.
+
+Bent on one common object, encompassed by dangers that threatened all
+alike, and glowing with the same ardent and heroic spirit, they seemed
+for the time to have quite forgotten that they were the natives and
+representatives of many different and widely separated provinces, and
+to think that they were, as Patrick Henry happily expressed it, not
+Carolinians, not Pennsylvanians, not Virginians, so much as that they
+were Americans; and had been sent there, not so much to represent the
+will and wishes of the people of their respective provinces, as of
+those of the whole American people. Thus Union became the watchword
+throughout the Colonies. And by union alone were they able to make a
+stand against tyranny; by it alone came off victorious in the end; by
+it alone won for themselves a place among the nations; and by it alone
+can their posterity hope to hold that place as a powerful, free, and
+happy people.
+
+Having done all that could be done for the present, the Congress was
+adjourned, and the members returned to their homes to await the result
+of the petitions and remonstrances they had sent on to the king and
+parliament. Although these were couched in moderate and respectful
+terms, expressing their unaltered attachment to the king and his
+family, deploring that there should be aught but peace and good-will
+between them, and entreating him not to drive his children to the
+dreadful alternative of taking up arms in their defence, yet, like
+those that had gone before them, they were received with contempt or
+indifference, and failed to awaken in the king's mind any sentiment of
+mercy, or desire on the part of the parliament for reconciliation with
+their younger brothers in America. Here was the last, the golden
+opportunity, wherein, by an act of simple justice, by an expression of
+Christian kindness, they might have won back to obedience and love
+this much-injured people; but under the mistaken and fatal belief
+that they were all-powerful, and that, if they yielded up these
+pretended rights, the colonists would never rest until they had thrown
+off and trampled under foot all authority, they suffered it to pass
+unheeded, lost for ever.
+
+A short time after the adjournment of Congress, at a second Virginia
+Convention, held at Richmond, Patrick Henry, in closing one of the
+grandest efforts he ever made, thus boldly declared his mind: "The
+time of reconciliation is past; the time for action is at hand. It is
+useless to send further petitions to the government, or to await the
+result of those already addressed to the throne. We must fight, Mr.
+Speaker: I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the
+God of hosts is all that is left us!" The great orator did but give
+voice to the feelings and sentiments of thousands of pure patriots,
+among whom was Washington, who represented his district in this
+convention also. No one regretted more sincerely than he that they
+were thus compelled to take up the sword as the only remedy of their
+wrongs and grievances. In his own mind, he had fully resolved, if
+needful, to devote his life and fortune to the cause; and was willing,
+he told his brother, to arm and equip a thousand men at his own
+expense, and lead them to the succor of Boston, at that time blockaded
+by the British fleet. Grave and thoughtful, and pondering deeply all
+these things, he went to his home; and, in this frame of mind, the
+winter months passed slowly by.
+
+It was now apparent to all, that open hostilities between the Colonies
+and the mother-country were no longer avoidable; and on the nineteenth
+of April, 1775, the battle of Lexington announced to the world that
+the first blood of a desperate struggle had been shed, and that civil
+war, with all its train of horrors, had begun.
+
+When the tidings reached Mount Vernon, the impressions made on
+Washington's mind were solemn and profound, if we may judge from a
+letter written at the time, in which he says, "Unhappy it is to
+reflect, that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's
+breast, and that the once-peaceful plains of America are to be
+drenched with blood, or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can
+a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?" Early in May, as he was just
+on the eve of setting out for Philadelphia to take his seat in the
+second session of the Congress, news reached him of the capture of
+Ticonderoga by Col. Ethan Allen. It was a brilliant little exploit
+enough, and the very kind to raise undue expectations in the many, who
+looked no further into the future than to-night, when it is yet
+evening; but it could have no other effect than to deepen the
+thoughtfulness of a mind like Washington's, that could look through
+the glare of these accidental hits of war, and behold the untried
+perils still further beyond.
+
+As the war had now begun in earnest, so dreaded and deeply deplored by
+all the good men, as the only remedy left to their distress, the
+deliberations of the second Congress turned chiefly on the devising of
+means for their defence and safety. Towards this object, nothing
+effectual could be done till some person was fixed upon to be the
+leader of the army, which they had yet, in large measure, to raise,
+arm, and equip.
+
+There were not a few, who, for age, talent, experience, fortune, and
+social position, as well as for the sacrifices they had already made
+to the cause, were, in the opinion of their friends, and perhaps in
+that of their own, justly entitled to this high distinction. After
+some time spent in viewing the matter in all its bearings, and
+carefully weighing the claims of each, without being able to fix upon
+a choice, John Adams decided the question by addressing the House to
+the following effect: That the person intrusted with a place of such
+importance to Americans must be a native-born American; a man of large
+fortune, in order to give him a strong personal interest in the issue
+of the contest, and the means of carrying it on; he should be a man of
+military experience, and accustomed to the government of large bodies
+of men; he should be of tried integrity and patriotism, of great
+courage and bodily endurance, and known ability; and a resident of
+some central province, that in him might be blended the extreme
+interests of North and South, which would tend to lessen the
+jealousies of the two sections, and harmonize them, as it were, into
+one. Such a province was Virginia, and such a man was Col. Washington;
+whom, therefore, he commended to the favor and consideration of the
+Honorable House.
+
+Before this address was ended, Washington, perceiving that he was the
+person on the point of being singled out, rose from his seat, much
+agitated and embarrassed, and hastily quitted the House.
+
+Next morning, Mr. Adams's recommendation was acted upon; and the
+House, without a single dissenting voice, chose GEORGE WASHINGTON to
+be _Commander-in-chief_ of all the army of the United Colonies, with
+the salary of six thousand dollars a year. In his reply, Washington
+expressed his grateful sense of so signal a proof of the confidence
+reposed in him by his countrymen, and added,--
+
+     "But lest some unfortunate event should happen, unfavorable to
+     my reputation, I beg that it may be remembered by every
+     gentleman in this room, that I this day declare, with the
+     utmost sincerity, that I do not think myself equal to the
+     command I am honored with. As to pay, I beg leave to assure the
+     Congress, that, as no pecuniary consideration could have
+     tempted me to accept of this employment at the expense of my
+     domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit
+     of it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses: these, I
+     doubt not, they will discharge; and that is all I desire."
+
+In a letter to Mrs. Washington, informing her of the great change thus
+made in his destiny, he deplores the hard necessity that makes it his
+duty to give up the sweet pleasures of home and her society; and
+exhorts her, in affectionate language, to bear up under their
+separation with cheerfulness and fortitude; at the same time giving
+her the gratifying assurance, that with her he could have more
+happiness at Mount Vernon in one month, than he could hope to find
+without her, were he to remain abroad seven times seven years. From
+the tone of this letter, she must readily have guessed that the place
+was not one of his own seeking.
+
+Accordingly, on the 21st of June, General Washington,--for so we must
+now call him,--having received his commission, set out to take command
+of the American army, then lying before Boston, which, being occupied
+by the king's troops, was in a state of siege. A company of
+Pennsylvania light-horse escorted him from Philadelphia to New York,
+where he was received with all the honor due, not only to the high
+station he had been called to fill, but also to his exalted character
+and distinguished abilities. Here he heard further particulars of the
+battle of Bunker's Hill, fought near Boston a few days before. From
+New York, the general-in-chief proceeded to Boston, and was greeted
+everywhere on the way with the greatest enthusiasm by the people, who
+came streaming in from all quarters to behold the man into whose
+keeping had been intrusted the destinies of America.
+
+Thus, my dear children, I have brought you, step by step, up to that
+great event in Washington's life when his character and actions were
+to be subjected to the gaze and scrutiny, not only of his own age and
+country, but of all ages to come, and of all the nations of
+Christendom.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+Here Uncle Juvinell paused, and, with a countenance of undisturbed
+sobriety, emptied his ninth mug. In justice, however, to the good man,
+this pattern of old-fashioned gentility, it must be borne in mind,
+that the mug was a Dutch mug, and consequently a small one (as indeed
+are all things Dutch, from clocks to cheeses); and also that, small as
+it was, he never more than half filled it, except once or twice in the
+course of an evening, when he would gird up his loins, as it were,
+with a brimmer to help him over some passage in his story of unusual
+knottiness and difficulty.
+
+Willie (whose surname should have been fox or weasel or lynx), having
+heretofore divided his attention between what his uncle imparted and
+what he imbibed, had, by careful counting, discovered that the ninth
+mug invariably closed their evening lessons: so, without waiting for
+any further signal that such was now the case, he alertly bounced from
+his chair, and, snatching up a basket of big red apples that black
+daddy had just brought in and set on the hearth, began handing them
+round to the rest of the company with a great show of playing the
+polite and obliging, but taking care, when unobserved, to pick out the
+largest and mellowest one of them all for himself, and smuggle it
+under his coat-tail. When all were helped, he reset the basket on the
+hearth, and with a grand flourish, unmasking his royal red, opened
+wide his mouth, as if he would have bolted it whole: but, seeming to
+think better of it, he carefully laid it in Uncle Juvinell's mug,
+which it exactly filled, saying as he did so, "It goes to my heart to
+part with you; but only the king of historians is worthy to enjoy the
+queen of apples." Then, plunging his hand into the basket, he snatched
+up another, hap-hazard, and began eating it with savage voracity, as
+if made reckless by this act of self-denial. Re-seating himself as he
+had chosen his apple, hap-hazard, he missed his chair, and keeled
+over, bringing his heels in the air where his head should have been,
+and his head on the rug where the dog and cat were, and the
+half-munched plug in his mouth, plump into his windpipe, so as to
+almost strangle him out of his breeches, and cause his buttons to fly
+like grains from a corn-cob when thrown into a corn-sheller. Of
+course, all the little folks fairly screamed with laughter, in which
+even Uncle Juvinell could not help joining right heartily: nor would
+he venture upon the broad wedge which he had cut out of his apple,
+till his chuckle was well ended; when he remarked, that "Willie was
+one of the boys we read about." To which Willie, picking himself up
+again, replied, that "he rather thought he was not, just then, but
+perhaps would be as soon as he could get back some of the breath he
+had lost, and gather up the buttons he had shed." Then, drawing down
+his waistcoat from under his arm-pits to hide a breadth of white
+muslin not usually intended for the eyes of a mixed company, he
+reseated himself with such care and circumspection, that the middle
+seam of his breeches tallied exactly with the middle round of the
+chair-back, and began mincing and nibbling his apple delicately like a
+sheep, as if to show that he meant to profit by the lesson his fit of
+strangling had taught him.
+
+After a little while, when he saw that the children had had their fill
+of laughter and red apples, Uncle Juvinell wiped the blade of his
+knife with his bandanna, and said, "And now, my darlings, don't you
+think we are getting along swimmingly?"
+
+"Swimmingly!" they all chimed in with one voice.
+
+"Gloriously?" again inquired Uncle Juvinell.
+
+"Gloriously!" cried all the children at once, as pat to their uncle's
+words as an echo to the sound. Whereupon the old gentleman's
+spectacles shone with a lustre that was charming to see. In a moment
+after, however, Bryce, the pugnacious urchin of ten, expressed himself
+a little disappointed that they had had so much building of forts, and
+digging and cutting of roads, and so much scouting and marching, and
+so much getting ready to fight, and yet withal so little downright
+fighting.
+
+"You quite forget, Bryce, that affair of Grant's defeat there at Fort
+Duquesne," said Willie. "In my opinion, that was a very decent,
+respectable piece of bloodshed; and quite as good as Braddock's
+disaster, as far as it goes."
+
+"How heartless you must be, Willie, to speak so lightly of such
+horrible things!" exclaimed Miss Laura with a look of refined disgust.
+"To my mind, Washington's courtship and wedding, and the pleasant life
+he led at Mount Vernon, are more entertaining than all your dismal
+battles."
+
+"And those charming barge-rides by moonlight," chimed in Ella, "that
+the old Virginia planters used to take when they visited each other up
+and down the Potomac."
+
+"You are welcome to your courtships and your weddings and your
+boat-rides by moonlight," cried Willie, turning up his nose; "but I
+would not have given a good fox-hunt with old Lord Fairfax for any of
+them: and what a glorious fellow Washington must have been, with his
+fine horses and his fine dogs, and his jumping twenty-one feet seven
+inches at a bound!"
+
+"Oh, Willie! how can you be so wanting in respect as to call such a
+man as Washington '_fellow_'?" exclaimed Laura, with a look of pious
+horror. "I am astonished at you!"
+
+"But I said he was glorious; didn't I now, Miss Over-nice?" retorted
+Willie.
+
+"Your Cousin Laura, William, is quite right in what she says,"
+observed Uncle Juvinell, with something like severity in his look and
+tone. "We should never speak of the good and great in other terms than
+those of esteem and reverence; for the effect of such a habit is to
+cultivate in ourselves those very qualities of mind and heart which
+make them worthy of our love and admiration."
+
+Willie was somewhat abashed by this mild rebuke, and apologized in a
+dumb way by coughing a time or two behind his slate.
+
+"Uncle," inquired Ella, "is transcendentalism an art or a science?"
+
+"I think I can tell you what that is, Ella," Daniel made haste to put
+in; for he never let an opportunity slip of showing off what he knew
+to the best advantage.
+
+"I did not call upon you for information, Mr. Wiseacre," said Ella, a
+little nettled at her brother's air of superior wisdom.
+
+"Nevertheless," cried Uncle Juvinell, "let us listen, and be wise.
+Come, give us the benefit of your knowledge, Daniel, touching this
+important matter."
+
+"I overheard father say to you the other day," replied Daniel, without
+hesitation, "that your transcendentalism, uncle, was an equal mixture
+of opium, moonshine, fog, and sick-man's dreams."
+
+"Good! you have hit it exactly!" cried Uncle Juvinell; "and, to reward
+you for your diligence in picking up and storing away such precious
+bits of knowledge, I promise you for your next Christmas present a
+gilt-edged copy of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress.'"
+
+"I thank you very much, dear uncle," replied Dannie; "but, if it makes
+no difference with you, I would prefer 'Josephus' to 'Bunyan.'"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, my dear nephew; it shall be as you wish,"
+replied Uncle Juvinell, a little provoked with himself for having been
+so thoughtless as to overlook the fact, that Daniel, being a
+curly-headed, Jewish boy, was not likely to be much interested in the
+ups and downs of good old Christian's doleful pilgrimage.
+
+"Tell me, uncle," cried John, who had an ear for rhyme, "what is meant
+by taxation, and legislation by representation, in a nation. Is it
+sense, or only poetry?"
+
+"Bad poetry, but mighty good sense, my little boy," replied Uncle
+Juvinell; "and, if you will be right attentive, I will endeavor to
+make clear to you what is meant thereby. In a popular form of
+government,--such as the one we live under,--the people tax
+themselves, and make laws for themselves, through persons chosen by
+themselves, and from among themselves, to serve for a certain term of
+months or years in our State Legislatures or in our National
+Congress, as the case may be. The persons whom the people thus
+authorize to tax them and make laws, or, as it is otherwise termed, to
+legislate for them, representing, as they do, the will, desires, and
+wants of the communities by whom they are chosen, are called
+representatives; and hence the phrase, 'taxation, and representation
+by legislation.'"
+
+"In a nation," added Johnnie, by way of giving it a finish, and to
+show that it was all as clear as day to him.
+
+"Yes, in a nation and a state too," rejoined Uncle Juvinell, with a
+merry twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Will you have the kindness, uncle," said Dannie, "to tell us the
+difference between a legislature and a congress and a parliament?"
+
+"In our own country," replied Uncle Juvinell, "a legislature is the
+law-making assembly of a State, and Congress is the law-making
+assembly of the whole nation; while Parliament is the great law-making
+or legislative assembly of Great Britain and Ireland. The rules and
+regulations in all these bodies are quite similar; and, besides being
+vested with the power of laying taxes and making laws, they perform
+other services necessary to the safety and welfare of the state or
+nation. Thus the old Continental Congress was composed of
+representatives from all the thirteen States, which entitled each,
+through its representation, to one vote, and to equal weight and
+influence with the rest, in the acts and deliberations of this
+assembly, no matter what may have been its size and population,
+whether large or small; nor what the number of its representatives,
+whether one or several."
+
+"And will you also tell me, uncle, wherein a convention differs from
+all these legislative assemblies?" said Daniel, grappling manfully
+with the tall words, but staggering under them nevertheless.
+
+"Simply not being legislative at all, as the term is now generally
+used in our country," replied Uncle Juvinell. "A convention is a body
+of men assembled together as representatives of a party or state or
+nation, for some special purpose, such as the formation of a new State
+Constitution, or for making changes in an old one, or to give
+expression to the views and designs of a party, and to nominate
+candidates to the various offices of the government; which purpose
+being effected, they are dissolved, and cease to exist or to have any
+legal force."
+
+"And why, uncle, was the name 'Continental' given to our first
+Congress?" inquired Willie.
+
+"To distinguish it from the Congress of the several States, and as the
+one in which the common interest and welfare of all the States of the
+continent were represented," was Uncle Juvinell's reply; and then he
+added, "And hence the same term was applied to whatever belonged to
+the States conjointly, and grew out of their union or confederation.
+Thus, for example, besides the Continental Congress, there was a
+Continental Army, raised, equipped, and supported at the joint expense
+of all the States, and subject in a great measure to the control of
+the Continental Congress. And there was the Continental uniform, which
+was the uniform worn by an officer or a soldier of the Continental
+Army. And there was the Continental currency, which was the
+paper-money issued and put into circulation by the Continental
+Congress, all the States unitedly holding themselves accountable for
+its redemption in specie; or, in other words, binding themselves,
+after having gained their independence as a nation, to take it back at
+the value specified thereon, and giving to those who held it gold and
+silver in exchange. But more of this in another place."
+
+"And what is a minister, uncle?" inquired Laura. "And what is a
+commissioner, uncle?" chimed in Ella. "And what is a revenue, uncle?"
+put in Charlie. "And what is a remonstrance, uncle?" inquired Bryce,
+following up the attack.
+
+"Hold, you rogues! and one at a time!" cried Uncle Juvinell. "A
+minister, Laura, in the sense in which we have been using the term, is
+a high officer of State, intrusted with the control and management of
+some office or department of the national government, such as that of
+the navy or war or treasury or commerce or foreign affairs. All the
+ministers, taken collectively, make up what is called the ministry;
+who, besides discharging the duties of their respective offices, are
+also expected to serve as counsellors to the king, and aid him in
+carrying out the measures of the government. A commissioner, Ella, is
+an agent appointed and authorized by another, or a number of others,
+or a State, to transact some business of a private or public
+character, as the case may be. A revenue, Charlie, is the income or
+yearly sum of money of a State, raised from taxes on the people or
+their property, from duties on foreign merchandise imported into the
+country, and from the sale of public lands and other sources, to meet
+the expenses of the government. A remonstrance, Bryce, is a
+setting-forth in strong terms, either by writing or by word of mouth,
+the facts and reasons against something complained of or opposed, as
+unjust, unwise, or unadvisable."
+
+"I can't imagine," said Daniel, with the air of one who had weighed
+well in his own mind a matter of importance, "what advantage to
+themselves or to the nation George the Third and his ministers could
+have expected, when they laid those heavy taxes on their American
+Colonies, then took from them the power to pay them by crippling their
+commerce and putting a stop to their manufactures; and it seems
+strange to me that Englishmen could ever have denied to Englishmen the
+rights and liberties of Englishmen, without having something more to
+gain." Here Daniel broke down, and scratched his head; and Uncle
+Juvinell, with an approving, good-humored smile, replied, "Those very
+questions, Daniel, have puzzled many an older head than yours, and
+many a wiser head than mine; and, indeed, some of the most learned
+historians, who have written about these matters, have expressed
+themselves perplexed at this strange conduct of the king and his
+ministers, and have been able to account for it only on the
+supposition, that they were all, for the time being, bereft of their
+wits, and therefore rendered incapable of foreseeing the tremendous
+consequences of their unjust and ill-judged measures."
+
+Much gratified at the interest the little folks had taken in such dry
+matters, and seeing that they had no more questions to put to him, and
+that some of the smaller ones were already nodding in their chairs,
+Uncle Juvinell, by way of winding up the evening's entertainment,
+concluded thus:--
+
+"Some of you, my dear children, have read how good Christian, in his
+pilgrimage to the Celestial City, went on sometimes sighingly,
+sometimes comfortably, until he came to the foot of a hill called
+Difficulty, where he found three roads to choose between. The one to
+the right went around the bottom of the hill, and led into a
+wilderness of dark woods, out of which no one ever found his way again
+after venturing therein. The one to the left went likewise around the
+bottom of the hill, and led into a wilderness of dark mountains, which
+was even more difficult to escape from than the one to the right. But
+the middle road, which was narrow and straight, went right up the
+steep and flinty sides of the hill, and was the route that led direct
+to Mount Zion. Not being the man to flinch from any difficulty,
+however great, good Christian hesitated not a moment to choose the
+middle road; and accordingly he fell from running to walking, and from
+walking to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and
+knees, till he had made his way to the top. Here, as you must well
+remember, there met his view a stately palace called Beautiful, kept
+by a company of prim, precise, proper, prudent, and pious maiden
+ladies, who gave our weary pilgrim a cordial but well-considered
+reception, and, besides admitting him to the hospitalities of the
+house gratis, entertained him with a variety of pleasing and edifying
+discourse. And you have not forgotten, either, how, when they had a
+clear morning, these discreet and well-ordered damsels, to reward him
+for the zeal and diligence with which he had heretofore pursued his
+journey, as well as to encourage him to still further effort, led him
+up to the top of their house, whence he might have a delightful view
+of the Delectable Mountains, far, far away. And you also still hear in
+mind, how poor Christian must needs pass through the dismal Vale of
+Humiliation, and there meet in deadly fight the terrible monster
+Apollyon; then through the Valley and Shadow of Death, with all its
+doleful sights and sounds; then through the wicked city of Vanity
+Fair; then through the gloomy domains of Doubting Castle and Giant
+Despair,--all before he could hope to set foot on these Delectable
+Mountains of Emanuel's land.
+
+"Now, do you not see, my dear children, that not altogether unlike
+good Christian's case, at this stage of his journey, is that of our
+own at this point of our story? But a little while ago we were
+trudging along, sometimes heavily, sometimes swimmingly, till by and
+by we reached the bottom of our Hill Difficulty; by which, of course,
+you understand me to mean the causes that brought about our
+Revolutionary War. And here, had we gone to the right or the left, we
+should most assuredly have wandered into a wilderness of romance and
+Brobdignagian wonders, among whose mazes we would have become
+entangled beyond all reasonable hope of escape. But our eyes were
+opened to our danger; and like good Christian, by whose example we
+might profit oftener than we do, we knew in what direction lay our
+best interest, and were not to be enticed astray by the prospect of
+ease or novelty, nor turned back by flinty facts and rough realities.
+So straightway up the difficult hill we marched, lofty and steep as it
+was; and hardly left a stone unturned till we had scrambled to the
+top. This gained, we have felt it our privilege to halt and rest a
+while, and refresh ourselves with a little pleasing and edifying
+discourse, one with another, touching what we have seen or heard in
+the course of our journey.
+
+"We have thus surmounted the most tedious and difficult part of our
+story. But still there lies before us many a hard-fought battle, many
+an irksome siege, many a forlorn retreat, many a gloomy winter-camp,
+and many a season of doubt and discouragement, privation and dire
+calamity, through which we must pass before we can hope to set our
+weary feet on the Delectable Mountains of Freemen's Land, smiling
+invitingly beyond. But to reward you for the diligent attention with
+which you have followed me thus far, as well as to entice you to
+trudge on to the end, I will, from this elevated point, unfold to your
+view a glimpse of this glorious region, ere 'the war-clouds rolling
+dun' from the plains of Lexington and the heights of Bunker's Hill
+have too much obscured our morning sky.
+
+    "See yon land of shining mountains,
+      Stately forests, verdant dells,
+    Sun-bright rivers, sparkling fountains,
+      Healthful breezes, balmy smells,
+    Golden grain-fields, pleasant meadows,
+      Fruitful orchards, gardens fair,
+    Lasting sunshine, fleeting shadows!
+      Freedom dwells for ever there!
+
+    Hark! what song is that high swelling,
+      Like an anthem dropped from heaven,
+    Of some joyful tidings telling,
+      Some rich boon to mankind given?
+    'Tis a happy people, singing
+      Thanks for Freedom's victory won;
+    Valley, forest, mountain, ringing
+      With one name,--great Washington.
+    Through distress, through tribulation,
+      Through the lowering clouds of war,
+    They have risen to be a nation:
+      Freedom shines, their morning-star.
+    Would we reach those realms of glory,
+      Would we join that righteous band,
+    We must speed us in our story:
+      Come, let's on to Freemen's Land!"
+
+The next evening, the little folks, upon repairing to the library,
+found their Uncle Juvinell seated, as was his wont, cross-legged in
+his great arm-chair, looking with a fixed and absent gaze into 'the
+glowing embers of the fire,' as if his thoughts were far away.
+
+In his hand he held an open letter which he had just brought from the
+post-office, in the contents whereof, it was evident, he had found
+somewhat of a painful character; for a slight shadow had dimmed the
+brightness of his otherwise placid countenance. So rare a thing as
+that of a cloud on their good old uncle's sunny face caught their
+notice at once; and instead of gathering round him in their usual
+coaxing, teasing, bantering, frolicsome way, they seated themselves
+quietly on either hand, and awaited in respectful silence until he
+should rise to the surface of the deep brown-study into which he
+seemed to be plunged. But the longer he sat, the harder he looked at
+the fire, and the deeper he sank into his revery, till the little
+folks began to fear that it would be a full hour before he would reach
+the bottom and come up again.
+
+Daniel, the young historian, sat watching his uncle's countenance with
+his sharp black eyes, expecting each moment to hear him break the
+silence with, "After the battle of Bunker's Hill;" or, "Washington,
+upon his arrival at Boston;" or something to that effect. But, last in
+his own thoughts, Uncle Juvinell still sat cross-legged in his
+arm-chair, and spoke not a word. At last, just by way of reminding him
+that a select and highly enlightened audience were in waiting to hear
+him, Willie softly arose from his chair, and, filling the little Dutch
+mug to the brim with rich brown cider, offered it to his uncle, with a
+forward duck of the head and a backward jerk of the heel, which he, no
+doubt, intended for a genteel bow. Uncle Juvinell took it; but set it
+again, with an absent air, untasted on the table. Then, drawing his
+spectacles down from his forehead, he again perused the letter he held
+in his hand, with earnest attention, the shadow on his brow deepening
+as he read.
+
+When he had finished, he laid it on the table, and finally broke the
+long silence; his first words falling like ice-water on the ears of
+the little folks.
+
+"Sad news for you, my dear children; sad news for us all! I have just
+received a letter from my old friend and kinsman, Peter Parley, of
+whom you have all heard so much, and to whom, for the many delightful
+books he has written, the younger generations of America are more
+indebted than perhaps to any man now living. In his letter he tells
+me, that, owing to his declining health, and increasing years, he has
+ceased his literary labors altogether, and betaken himself to New
+Orleans, in whose milder climate he hopes he may, in some measure,
+recruit his failing powers. What he says in addition to this I will
+give you in his own words:--
+
+     "The effects of that unlucky fall on the ice, while crossing
+     Boston Common, so many years ago, I have felt in my right hip,
+     to a greater or less degree, ever since; and within the past
+     year my lameness has so much increased as to have become a
+     matter of much anxiety to my friends, and some uneasiness to
+     myself. Taking this in connection with the growing infirmities
+     of age, I sometimes have a foreboding that I shall never return
+     to Boston alive.
+
+     "Under this impression, I now write you, my Cousin Juvinell,
+     entreating you, as my nearest living kinsman and much-beloved
+     friend, to come and see me at this place, and sojourn here with
+     me, until, in the wisdom of a kind Providence, it be determined
+     whether my span of life is to be shortened or lengthened yet a
+     little more. It will be a comfort to me to have you by my side
+     at the closing scene; and it may be that your cheerful presence
+     and sunny humor will do more to revive me than I can hope for
+     even from this mild, pleasant Louisiana air.
+
+     "I know that your compliance with my request will for a season
+     prove a serious interruption to the enjoyment of the little
+     folks in your vicinity, whom you have taken under your wing,
+     and to whose entertainment and instruction so much of your
+     useful life is devoted. But they will, I am sure, without
+     hesitation, make this sacrifice in behalf of one who has for
+     many long years labored so hard and faithfully for their
+     happiness and improvement. Commend me kindly to them. Hoping to
+     see you at an early day, I remain, as ever, your affectionate
+     friend and kinsman,
+
+     "PETER PARLEY."
+
+Uncle Juvinell went on: "I am gratified, my dear children, to see in
+your grateful and sympathetic looks, saddened and disappointed though
+I know you really to be, that you are ready and willing to sacrifice
+what pleasure and entertainment my company and conversation may afford
+you, to the comfort and wishes of this venerated and excellent man. My
+going-away at this moment will, it is true, cause a sad interruption
+to our story of the life of Washington; but next Christmas, if we all
+be spared, and your Uncle Juvinell keep his memory fresh and green, we
+will gather together again in this very room, and take it up where we
+now drop it, and follow it through all its eventful changes to the
+glorious and happy end. Meanwhile, ponder well in your minds what I
+have already told you of the childhood, youth, and early prime of this
+illustrious man. And after all, now that I give the matter a second
+thought, we could not have been interrupted at a more suitable place;
+for the account I have given up to this point needs scarcely a single
+important particular to make it a complete and separate story. We
+have followed him step by step, and seen how he rose, first from the
+boy-farmer to the youthful surveyor, from that to the young colonel,
+from that to the legislator of more mature years, and lastly from that
+to commander-in-chief of the armies of a young and rising nation.
+
+"The history of his career after this period is, in fact, so closely
+connected with that of his country, as to be altogether inseparable
+from it.
+
+"And again I repeat, ponder well in your minds what I have already
+told you, as being, after all, the part most necessary for you at
+present to know. Ever strive to keep his example before your eyes,
+ever to cherish his virtues in your hearts. Like him, be industrious
+in your habits, diligent in your studies, polite in your manners,
+orderly in your dress, peaceable in your disposition, upright in your
+dealings, faithful in your friendships, patient under trials,
+persevering under difficulties, strangers to covetousness, content
+with little, moderate with much, generous, self-denying, courageous in
+well-doing, pure in heart, devout in spirit, modest before men,
+reverent to your parents, respectful to your superiors, humble before
+God; and, like him, let the clear light of truth shine forth in all
+your words, in all your actions, in all your looks and gestures, in
+all your secret thoughts, and in your very souls. Be all this, that
+men may reverence you, that angels may honor you, that God may bless
+and reward you."
+
+Here Uncle Juvinell paused; and, as he looked round on the saddened
+faces of his little auditors, a moisture crept out softly upon his
+eyelashes, and dimmed the brightness of his spectacles. "It grieves me
+much, my dearest children," said he, after a moment or two,--and there
+was a tremor of deep fatherly feeling in his voice,--"it grieves me
+much, that our happy little circle must be broken up. It will be but
+for a season, however; and, when we meet again, we shall be happier
+than had we not parted at all. On Monday, I take the stage-coach for
+Louisville; and there I take the steamer 'Eclipse' for New Orleans. As
+it is a long journey I have before me, I must needs write many
+letters, and do a deal of packing, before setting out: so we will sing
+our evening hymn now, and separate for the night."
+
+Then, joining their voices together, they sang that beautiful hymn,
+"Though far away from friends and home." At the second line,
+however,--"A lonely wanderer I may roam,"--the little folks fairly
+broke down; their hearts rising into their throats from very grief,
+and choking their voices: but, with all the ease of a professed
+singing-master, Uncle Juvinell, though his heart was full too, glided
+at once from the lowest bass to the highest treble, which he carried
+alone, until some of the children, getting the better of their
+feelings, chimed in with him, when he softly dropped to the very
+bottom of his bass again.
+
+The hymn ended, the little folks came one by one, and, without
+speaking a word, embraced and kissed their dear old uncle, this best
+of men; he laying his gentle hand upon their bowed heads, and blessing
+them with more than his usual fervor.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Farmer Boy, and How He Became
+Commander-In-Chief, by Morrison Heady
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