family a strong tendency to the independence of agricultural pursuits. They were lords of land. They were patriarchal men, and had large families, flocks and possessions. They seem through the whole six centuries of their known history, to have been loyal to their king, patriotic and devout. They were a large-minded, conservative, generous, devout race of men, abreast of their times, provident, broad-seeing, magnets around which property and men naturally gathered, centers of power which their communities always felt with confidence and respect.

BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON.

The trite saying that "the boy is father of the man," is seldom found truer than in the case of Washington. Our Virginia boy that we have found has twenty generations of good English blood running in his veins, and the strong minds and hearts of a long line of noble ancestors behind him, is favored with some excellent surroundings that are likely to do more and better for him than they would for many boys less thoughtful and sensitive to such surroundings. He had no village near him where the boys congregate often to amuse each other, dissipate time, originate nonsense, concoct mischief and create demoralizing tastes. He had no resort of evil associates, to counteract the good influences of his home and his neighbors. He had the open country which he early appreciated, the business of his father's plantation, his good home, his two older half brothers, who were high minded, and the strong interest of the family in the English church, which in Virginia was the prevailing church.

The tradition of the neighborhood represents his father, Augustine, as seeking in ways peculiar to himself to impress upon George the lessons of virtue and religion. The strong mother, who was always a woman of high force of character, did her full part in giving shape and force to the character of her

first born.

Lawrence was fifteen years older than George, and was sent to England to be educated. He returned, an educated and accomplished young man, when George was seven or eight years

old. He took a great interest in George and the two became fast and life-long friends. The stories of his school life, his teachers and friends in England, of English customs, manners, society, politics and men, which Lawrence told with youthful enthusiasm, to amuse and instruct George, were of immense importance to him. The educated thought, language and manners of Lawrence had their influence. Lawrence became the model man for George to imitate and grow up to. Few things, probably, in his boyhood did more to elevate and give character and cast to George's mind than this constant association with his educated and high-minded brother.

There was a

Soon after George was born, the family moved to an estate in Stafford county, opposite Fredericksburg. The house to which they went was similar to the one they left, and stood on rising ground overlooking the Rappahannock. meadow in front of the house which was often George's playground. He was a robust boy, large of his age, tall, athletic, vigorous and fond of all athletic sports. He grew up among the fine horses of the plantation, their friend and rider. By the time he was twelve years old he felt himself equal to the management of any stalwart and spirited colt. In jumping, running, climbing, pitching quoits, throwing stones, lifting, wrestling, and all the active games of the youth of his neighborhood, he was equal to the best. He was so full of muscular activity that he delighted in these sports. It is said that his fondness for them continued far into his manly years. These things show that he was a wide-awake boy and must have been a great favorite among the boys of his neighborhood.

Lawrence had inherited much of the military spirit of his ancestors. His education in England had quickened it. His two voyages across the Atlantic had taught him to love the sea. Two or three years after his return from England, a difficulty with the Spaniards in the West Indies broke out. France lent aid to Spain. A regiment of four battalions was raised in the colonies and sent to Jamaica. There was a quick outburst of military ardor in Virginia. Lawrence Washington, now twentytwo, caught the spirit and enlisted. He obtained a captain's

commission in the regiment and embarked with it for the West Indies. He served under General Wentworth and Admiral Vernon, and acquired the friendship of both. He served with zeal through that campaign, and returned to rehearse its vivid experiences in the ears of George.

George, too, had inherited the military spirit of his ancestors, and that spirit was easily aroused in him. The recitals of Indian wars, the stories of ancestral military exploits, Lawrence's observations in England, and now his actual experience in an army on sea and land, fired the military spirit in the boy's heart, and he became the military leader of the boys at school. He organized them, drilled them, fought mimic battles with them, and thus in his own and their hearts began that training which served them so well in after years.

Lawrence came back from the West Indies intending to seek promotion in the army and devote himself to military pursuits. But becoming acquainted with Miss Anne Fairfax and falling in love with her he changed his plan, married her and settled down on his estate which, in honor of his admiral, he named Mount Vernon.

Augustine, the father, died April 12, 1743, after a brief illness, aged forty-nine. He left large possessions, which he divided by will; giving Lawrence the estate on the Potomac, which he named for his admiral, and several shares in iron works; to Augustine the estate on Bridge's creek; to George the estate on the Rappahannock, when he should become of age; and to the rest their share of his property; but put all the property of the children under age into the mother's hands to manage till they should reach their majority. Augustine soon married an heiress of the same county of his estate, Miss Anne Aylett.

George was left fatherless at eleven years of age; so the responsibilities of the household and estate rested upon him and his mother. Thus at twelve he took up a man's cares and responsibilities in connection with his mother. Great school was this for such a boy.

HIS EDUCATION.

sure of an education, His own strong judgLife around him will

Such a boy as George Washington is whether the schools provide for it or not. ment will lead him to educate himself. give him lessons. He will force circumstances to become his teachers. He will demand knowledge of the men and things about him, and they will grant the demand. His ancestry and his life make it certain that he was born to greatness. He was the child of a favoring Providence. The conditions of eminent usefulness were all fulfilled in the circumstances of his birth and life. While humanly speaking he was a self-made man, truly speaking he was divinely made. The history into which he is set as the most lustrous gem, bears to the man of faith undoubting marks of a divine procedure, of a purpose to lift the world to a higher life through America, and Washington appears as the chosen and prepared man to lead in the sublime enterprise. To one who has studied the whole matter profoundly, this seems clear. And this thought is the fitting one to preface a consideration of his education.

In those days the children of the Virginia planters were educated as they could be. The estates were large, and neighbors far apart. The schools were not plenty, nor of a high order. One Mr. Hobby, a tenant of George's father and sexton of the church which the family attended, kept a school in a humble building called "The old Field school-house;" here George got the rudiments of reading, writing and ciphering. Nothing but the beginnings of an education was attempted. But the helps which the boy got at school were so meagre that his parents joined their help with the teachers as much as they could. After his father's death he was sent to his brother Augustine, at Bridge's creek, where a more advanced and systematic school was taught by a Mr. Williams. His education here, where he remained the most of the time for four years, was of the plain and solid kind. His object seems to have been to fit himself for the practical business of a Virginia planter. He was fond of mathematics, and became quite proficient, not only in arith

metic, but in geometry and surveying. He practiced the art of surveying in the fields about the school, and made extensive and accurate drawings of them which are preserved. It is not known that he studied grammar or rhetoric, or any lingual or philosophical studies. His early attempts at composition, preserved at Mount Vernon, by their grammatical mistakes and inaccuracies indicate that all philological studies were neglected. He aimed at the practical. He has left a volume into which he had copied forms for most all kinds of business transactions, such as notes, bills of sale and exchange, bonds, deeds, wills, legal transactions of all kinds common in the colony. He had dealings with domestics, tenants, magistrates and every matter of business likely to occur in his life, set in form, and neatly and accurately written out. His manuscript school-books are preserved models of painstaking neatness and precision. His field-books of surveying show proficiency in drafting, and that he studied order and accuracy as he would study a science. Even in these early days Mr. Irving, his most elaborate and accomplished biographer says: "He had acquired the magic of method, which of itself works wonders."

When about fourteen, a plan was concocted by Lawrence and Mr. Fairfax to get him a place in the navy. A midshipman's warrant was obtained, his mother's consent gained and his luggage taken aboard the vessel he was to go on; when his mother relented and he was retained at school a while longer.

It is recorded of his mother that at stated times she was accustomed to gather her family about her and read to them from her favorite book, "Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations, Moral and Divine." And we may well suppose that her readings were selected with reference to the moral lessons they imparted, and were emphasized with a mother's wisdom and affection. The effect of this maternal instruction on such a thoughtful youth as George, must have been great. His biographers have taken great pains to trace his ancestry and to recount the surrounding influences that helped educate and make George Washington, and have spoken respectfully of his mother's part; yet it seems clear to the author of this sketch,