then but eleven years of age, was left to the care of his mother, the second wife, Mary Washington. He had the prospect, when he should become of age, of the farm, where he then lived with his mother and the younger children in Stafford County, across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg. It was a high-spirited, vigorous, resourceful stock from which Washington was descended.

His school life was not such as it would have been, if his father had lived to a greater age. The sexton, Hobby, at his home on the Rappahannock, led him in the first steps of knowledge. Later he went to school to Mr. Williams at Bridges Creek, where, by the aid of Mather's Young Man's Companion, he made exact progress in arithmetic, surveying, measurements, legal forms, and didactic rules of behavior, as his preserved manuscripts, written in a well-rounded hand, faithfully show. If his father had lived, he might have had the opportunity to complete his education in England, as his father and brothers had. In place of this, however, he had the vigorous experience of hunting and journeying in the wilds, and he had also the society of his brother Lawrence at Mt. Vernon and of Lord Fairfax, the accomplished scholar and gentleman, at Belvoir, not far away, and later at

Greenway Court near the Shenandoah. Participation in the social and business life of the men of that time on the banks of the Potomac brought forward at an early age the independent and manly character of the young Washington.

In 1748, when he was but sixteen years of age, Lord Fairfax set him to work to survey and make maps of extensive estates beyond the Blue Ridge. Through vast forests and over swollen streams, among stray Indians and ignorant emigrants, he carried out his work with patience and skill to the pleasure of his employer, so that Fairfax secured for him an appointment as official surveyor. For three years, on old land and on new, he had all he could do in this strenuous occupation.

His brother Lawrence, suffering from consumption contracted at Carthagena, where he had served under

nat Admiral Vernon from whom Mt. Vernon was named, must needs go to the West Indies, and Washington went with him in 1751. His accounts of the Barbadoes are agreeable reading. This was the only time that Washington was outside of his country. The sea voyage proved unavailing, and his brother died in 1752, leaving to Washington the care of his estate, of his wife and little daughter, and making

him the heir in case of the latter's death. Thus at twenty years of age he found many and important cares placed upon him.

But Washington was soon drawn away from home . to military life. Years before, at his brother's at Mt. Vernon, he had received training from visiting military officers of France in martial drill and sword exercises. Before his brother's death he had taken the latter's place as major in the militia. Now the efforts of the French to dislodge the English settlers from the Ohio afforded opportunity for the services of this brave and masterful man. Washington was sent as a messenger by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to the French commander at Fort Le Bœuf, through two hundred and fifty miles of almost tractless wilderness, to demand that the French withdraw from the valley of the Ohio. In October, 1753, he set forth, in January he was back, though with the refusal of the French commander, yet with an exact knowledge of the country and the enemy's forces. In the next spring, at Great Meadows, he learned what battie was, and opened the French and Indian War. The following year he was with General Braddock on his fatal expedition against Fort Duquesne, as aide-de-camp, and did what he couìd to give sense

to the fight, to save the retreat, and to hold the way into Virginia. For the rest of the war, with poor resources, he was the defence of the long frontier, and rejoiced at last to be with General Forbes when, in July, 1858, he entered again the woods by the union of the rivers and changed the name of the old fort of the wilderness to Pitt. Arduous, preparatory upbuilding were these harassing years of his first military life.

When Washington was twenty-six years old, he married a beautiful widow of like age, Mrs. Martha Custis, who brought to him two children by her former marriage, and large wealth in money and lands. This, with the estates now his at Mt. Vernon, made him one of the wealthiest men of Virginia. He became a most successful business man and planter. He thoroughly enjoyed hunting and the chase with the horse and hounds. He was a fine, polished gentleman, scrupulous and elegant in dress, delighting in the social life. He was honored in the House of Burgesses, of which he was a member, and he became a leading man of the colony.

After the French and Indian War was finished, the various attempts to tax the colonies led to the Revolution. Washington was present as a member, when

the fiery eloquence of Patrick Henry induced the Virginia Assembly to adopt the Declaration of Rights. As events moved on, he came slowly but unflinchingly to the position of determined opposition, and at last he himself moved that the people no longer import the things which Parliament had taxed. In practice he allowed none of those articles to be used on his estates. When the Boston Port Bill came into operation on June 1, 1774, he joined in the day of fasting and prayer, and upon August 1, at the Convention of Virginia, he offered to raise one thousand men at his own expense and march to the relief of Boston.

In September, 1774, Washington took a silent part in the session of the Continental Congress as one of the delegates from Virginia. He watched the proceedings, visited among the members to secure harmony of action, and was considered by many delegates, as Patrick Henry said, the greatest man on the floor in "solid information and sound judgment." The Congress was a momentous gathering of great men, the slow beginning of the union of the forces of liberty. It formed an "American Association," engaging not to trade with England until the hostile legislation should be repealed. The Congress adjourned till spring. When it came together again in