Show U I l1t1 1i JiicI kI1Jf iJui t I I I 11 r I i I 1ki THE GENERALS BIRTHDAY BY EDGERTON DAVIES I have Just been reading a note from the diary of General Washington who ill remain until the crack of doom the one great flawless dignified hero of the nation if not of the world A hero means one who is a brave gentleman all the time Says General Washingtons diary June 30 17S5 Dined with only Mrs Washington which I believe is the first instance of it since my retirement from public life That was eighteen months after coming home from his victorious wars Think of the horror of it For all that time inquisitive hero worshipers had been dropping in just about dinner time to > say How wonderful won-derful really Mr Washington og I wakes me quite shudder 1 to think of really and truly it does Oh I must Kiss your hand And poor George ixould have to be polite and ask them to stay to dinner How cosy that little dinner on June Z < 1 i79o must have been how homelike at last when General Washington raised his glass and said Martha my 1m your health That ribbon bet be-t omrs you vastly TOll look too young for a battered old hulk like me 1 tJeorge said Mrs WabJiington dont dare talk like that You a bat tTod whatdidyousay The Idea Vty not a young man in old Virginia las your figure Then she got up and came round the faijle and kissed him the cupbearers liamg withdrawn and they walked tgptlier in the gentle summer after TI n and his excellency said as he ahered some cherries Why cant I pie always leave us In peace Man I ha How nice this is Lets go aj 1 look at the pigs TlHe were heaps of birthday presents a ting his excellency and all the jolly La k house servants wished him long t and happiness and a table was ighed down with 5000 birthday poem I1 I > 111 the 5000 most promising poets in the country and there was a heap of n papers with marked editorials in li > = praise and every man who had ever inv Jited anything from a clockwork i jmbaker almost curious and amusing t nuivance to a baseball sent the gen c al cne and every man woman and uiid ho had written a book even it rot published sent a copy to George Washington Yes everybody sent him pit sent and wished him joy and most f them wished something for them s > H es in return I certainly George Washington should hae been happy with all these beautiful beauti-ful costly things but somehow he slipped to the attic and left all his gifts jnI looked at the little hatchet his father had given him years and years and years ago and he said as he put it back When was I happier then or now When the visitors came very old men who told him he could never hope to lie as long as they for they had constitutions con-stitutions like iron and he must enjoy himself before it was time to give him a state funeral and very old ladies who had known his father and called him Georgie and very young misses who trembled so they could hardly utter the words of congratulation they had learned by heart And there was one manly little rascal who rode up on his puny bearing his grandfathers compliments compli-ments and pushed straight at the hero crying Genral grandpas compymens happy hap-py returns mine too General I want to know grandpa says youre a hero and I want to be a hero too when Im growed up Cant I please Grandpa says nut to talk nonsense Jt isnt nonsense non-sense is it general Cant 1 be a hero I I when Im growed big Big George Washington stooped and lifted the childdid you ever know a lnro that didnt love children and kissed his cheek and whispered None of us can be great or good uhout Gtds blessing To be a hero jou must Ie I good as great So pray first and always that God will make you good The little enthusiast looked deep and grave into th < generals eyes suddenly kissed the kind mouth hard said I s ill and sliding down rode off with his groom always a better man for that caressing whisper When it was still long from the stately state-ly festival dinner George Washington Mij ped away from the crowd at the house and wandered off by himself though with great dread that some pale young man should jump out from a bush and fire a birthday ode at him Now he was off Mount Vernon farm and bv a lane away from the main I road In tiif corner of the lane in a most deserted newly cleared spot about fifty feet back in the bushes was the newest of tiny cottages with unpainted un-painted walls and rough timbers and a newly laid out garden at the back George Washington looked from the wood through which he was wandering and paused That was not there when I had time i before the war to run about said he I Who can they be Theyre not Africans Afri-cans Oh no For from the house cam a bright voice that was certainly Virginian Now Jack said the voice you I must not be lazy because there is ever so much to do before father comes home f i I aint lazy Martha said another I Voice unmistakably the shrill one of ahoy i r a-hoy Im doing what dad saidIm r i looking after you and protecting you Oh Jack do you call eating raisins and sitting on tin table protecting It me Well it Is If anyone was to come round now to hurt you even King F George himself wouldnt I be ready tot to-t kill him f Well < < said Martha with a laugh I dont expect Kin George this morning morn-ing Our George bless him Hooray Has boxed his ears Dut there Is work to be done I dont see any You are looking only at the raisins r How do y u expect to eat if you dont L work And how am I to get supper for daddy in the evening Oh I have thought of that Ill go fishing and youll fry them j Oh and who would protect me while I youre fishing please I You can come too If you wont alI al-I i I I > T ways call out Mind you dont fall in Be good Jack and fetch me some water from the well and chop a little firewood The general had been listening and chuckling Always the sound of chil drens voices brightened his eyes Nw he suddenly stepped up to the open door of the little new house and bowed He was dressed very plainly for his muddy I walk and his boots were spattered and he looked quite frlain and homely He saw a neat little woman of 12 or 13 busy in her kitchen and a pert bright eyed snubnosed young rogue of 7 sitting sit-ting on the table I wish you good morning maam said the general Good morning sir said the maiden with a frightened curtsy Halloa said Master Pert seizing a carving knife Where did you come from Are you a friend of King George I am a true Youre not an Englishman I am a Youre not a royalist 1BC Because if you were Id have to kill you thats all Be quiet Jack youre very rude I said his sister reprovingly Please sir hes only a little boy and sometimes some-times they are a little vexing but hes a good boy Is there anything I can do for you sir If it were not too much trouble a glass of water Oh certainly said the willing housewife and ran off Up came Jack and stood very erect in front of the I visi lorI lor-I do believe said the little boy youre the biggest man I ever saw Aint you How could I tell you that Master I JackAre Are you bigger than myfather Do you know my father My fathers a big man bigger than me a good deal My fathers just come to live here and farm Do you live near here Were you in the war Did you kill any Englishmen Eng-lishmen Did you get hurted My I father fought in the var and got a bullet bul-let through his nose It makes him look awful funny Youve a big nose A boy hit me on the nose once and it bleeded awful I guess your nose would I bleed lots wouldnt It Oh what a nice clrn Wont you show me your watch oh what a nice watchwill I you show me the inside After said the general with his arm gently around the child after wee given up thinking of going fishing I fish-ing and brought the water for sister and chopped some wood Jack looked quite startled and I turned red The big kind yet firm eyes looked into Master Perts and Master Pert stuffed his knuckles into the corners Tout toot said the general come Ill help you fao me graveeyed pleasantfaced little girl coming back found the father fath-er of his country breaking up wood at a great rate while her little brother was laughingly gathering chips hOh sir said Martha with amaze what a man youd be around the house AIII she was still mor < amazed at the effect her words had upon the stranger who dropped his ax and threw his head back with quite a roar of laughter until for the pure happiness of it little lit-tle Jack and Martha laughed too I like you said Jack grabbing tho generals hand as they went into the house Come and see us often and Ill show you where the best fishing places is h My lather would be glad to welcome you sir said the courtly maiden His business takes him away just I now almost every day but in the I spring I thank you kindly said the gen t uIli li rethf g j eral and as I live near here I hope I shall be friends with my new neighbors I neigh-bors But this is milk I hI thought youd like it better than water sir And please try these cakes I which I made this morning because be-cause causeCause Cause its her birthday cried Jack Shes 13 and Im 7 Now that is a happy coincidence said the general because it is also my birthday I beg tq wish you many happy returns of the day And he bowed very low and she I bobbed her very best curtsy and Jack I cried out You look so you was dancing I Time was getting on but the general was loth to go He was enjoying himself him-self for the first time In a long time I He brought water he mended the win dowlatch he planned out a liower bed I He was thoroughly happy in the merry I company of these children who only thought him a passing unusually good natured stranger But at last he went with a grimace at the thought of all the laced and silken crowd waiting for him III The two children quite brightened by his presence worked about busily and played about merrily and made things pleasant for father at sundown But an hour from sundown came riding rid-ing by two people who called themselves them-selves gentlemen but nobody really thought them so Thy had been merrymaking merry-making and one mans horse had lost a shoe and his drunken dignity was such that he must pause at the cottage to send for a blacksmith to come to him or else have his horse led to the blacksmiths black-smiths while he waited It was evident evi-dent the dwellers at the cottage were poor folks and these gentlemen felt assured as-sured their lordly orders would be obeyed Now Mss Martha was civil if frightened but Master Jack was sullen sul-len and when the young wineheated man bade him lead the horse or fetch the smith Jack flatly refused to do either eitherhat What what Youll be paid shouted the owner of the horse Come young mistress have you no wine for weary traveler I Indeed no sir said Martha but further on the post road Ill go no further on the post or any I other road Haste rov Flibbertigibbet Flibbertigib-bet and do as youre told hril stay here to protect my sister j said Jack as father made me Ha ha A brave protector But III truth a pretty sister Come my dear let me also be a brother He staggered up and Jack Jack flew at his throat like a terrier The girl reamed the other man raised his riding rid-ing whip and struck down on the boy Jack yelled from rage and anguish but clung to the choking thr6at nevw heeding the first blows rained on him The cottage was in a dreadful uproar when in rushed the stranger of the morning and It Is said but you need not believe it unless you want tohe used a dreadfully bad word Those two foolish young men never were in such trouble before In George Wash Ingtons great right arm swung one of them helpless and in the left another and bump bump bumpety bump went the two empty foolish braggart blag gard heads cracking against each other like cocoanuts on a tree in a storm When they were almost senseless the general laid them down with force and thrashed them with their own whips and so mangled and maltreated and mashed them that when at last they got to their knees and begged for mercy their own loving mammas would have indignantly repudiated them as being offsprings of theirs In I the meantime Jacky Pert danced about cheering on his new friend and Martha I Mar-tha sobbed in a corner hiding her face and begging Mr George for so the general had called himself not to kill anybody and not to get hurt himself And then the general threw aside his whip and made the rascals stand up before him but they could only face that ragged righteous eye with bowed heads and bowed knees General Washington they mur bled please let us go Itit was only the wine There was no harm done He waved them out but the mischief 1 was done At the words General Washington little Jacks jaw dropped and he shook like a felon at the thought he had threatened to kill the best and greatest man In that or any I other country Martha dropped to her knees but the general made her rise and accept the birthday gift he had run I to Mount Vernon and back to get for her Still it was not the same and the general felt saddened as he went homeward I home-ward just as everybody has felt saddened sad-dened because he could not be a boy again However said he to himself with II a smile as he was dressing in gorgeous costume for the ball in the evening I I have not had so much fun on a birthday since I chopped up that old I cherry tree |