Show f au r akl efm r installment 1 washington was cast GEORGE for career by a very scant and homely training augustine washington his father lacked neither the will nor the means to set him handsomely afoot with as good a schooling both in beoka and in aff nire as was to be bad he would have done all that a liberal and proal dent man should do to advance his boy in the world had be lived to go with him through his auth lie owned land in tour countley count lea more than five thousand acres all told and lying upon both the rivers that refresh the fruitful northern neck besides several plots of ground in the promising village of fredericksburg which lay opposite his lands upon the Happa bannock and one twelfth part of the stock of the principle iron corn pany whose mines and furnaces in maryland and virginia yielded a bet ter profit than any others in the two colonies his father once a sailor lie had commanded a ship in his time as so many of his neighbors had in that maritime province carrying iron from the mines to england and no doubt bringing convict laborers back upon bla voyage home again he himself raised the ore from the mines that lay upon bis own land close to the potomac and had it car ried the easy six miles to the river clatters were acry well managed there colonel ayrd said and no pains were to make the business profitable captain washington had represent ed his home parish of truro too in the house of burgesses Dur gesses where his athletic figure his ruddy skin and frank gray eyes must have made him as conspicuous as hia constituents could have wished he was a man of the world every inch generous hardy independent he lived long enough loo to eee how stalwart and capable and of liow noble a spirit his young eon was to be with how manly a bearing he was to carry himself in the world and had loved him and made him bis companion accordingly he inherits a farm but the end came for him before he could see the lad out of boyhood ho died april 12 1743 when he was but fory nine years of age and before george was twelve and in bis will othere was of course for george only a i aunger son e portion the active fent leraan had been twice married and thero were seven children to be for two sons of the first marriage survived the bulk of the went as virginian custom die bafit I 1 awrence the eldest augustine the second son fell most of the rich lands in westmoreland george the eldest born of the second marriage left to the guardianship of his young mother shared with the four younger children the residue of the estate lie was to inherit his fathers farm upon the rappahannock Rappa hannock to possess and to cultivate it be would when he should come of age but for the rest his fortunes were to make he must get such serviceable training as he could for a life of independent endeavor the two older brothers had been sent to england to get their schooling and preparation tor life as their father before them had been to get his lawrence to make ready to acke his fathers place when the time should come augus tine to fit himself tor the law george could now look tor nothing of the kind lie must continue as be had begun to get such elementary and practical instruction as was to be had ot schoolmasters in virginia and the young mother s care must stand him in the stead of a fathers and oversight A wise and provident mother fortunately mary washington was a wise and provident mother a worn an of too firm a character and too steadfast a courage to be dismayed by responsibility she had seemed only a fair and beautiful girl when augustine washington married her and there was a romantic story told of bow that gallant virginian sailor and gentleman had literally been thrown at her feet out of a carriage in the london streets by way of intro where she too was a visiting stranger out of virginia but she had shown a singular capacity tor business when the romantic days of courtship were over lawrence washington too though but five and twenty when his father died and left him head of the family proved himself such an elder brother as it could but better and elevate a boy to have for all he was so young he had seen something of the world and bad already made notable friends he had not returned home out of eng land until he was turned of twenty one and he had been back scarcely a twelvemonth twelve month before he was off again to seek service in tho war against spain his brother a captain the colonies had responded with an unwonted willingness and spirit in 1740 to the home government s call for troops to go against the spaniard in the west indies and lawrence washington had sought and obtained a commission as captain in the vir finlan regiment which bad volunteer ed for the duty he had seen those terrible days at cartagena with ver fleet and Went arm when the deadly heat and blighting damps of the tropics wrought a work of death which drove the english forth as no alre from the spanish can non could he had been one of that devoted force which threw itself twelve hundred strong upon fort san lazaro and camo away beaten with six hundred only he had seen the raw provincials out of the colonies carry themselves as gallantly as any veterans through all the trial had seen the storm and the valor the vacillation and the blundering and the of all the rash affair and had come away the friend and admirer of the gallant his head strong folly and sad miscarriage he had reached home again late in the benr 1742 only to sea hie father pres endy snatched away by a sudden ill ness and to find himself bacomo head of the family in his stead all thought of further away from home was dismissed he accept ed a commission as major in tho colonial militia and an appointment as adjutant general of the military dis brict in which his lands lay but he meant that tor the future his duties should be civil rather than military in the llo he set himself to live and turned very quietly to the business and the social duty of a proprietor among his neighbors in fairfax coun ty upon the broad estates to he gave the name mount vernon in corn to the brave sailor whose friend he had become in the far un happy south lawrence marries and settle marriage was of course his first edep towards domestication and the woman he chose brought him into new connections which suited both his tastes and his training three months after his fathers death he married anne fairfax daughter of william fairfax his neighbor william granduncle thomas third lord fairfax who bad in that revola flonary ear 1646 summoned colonel henry washington to give into his hands the city of worcester and who had got so sharp an answer from the king a stout soldier but the Fair faxes had soon enough turned royalists again when they saw whither the parliament men would carry them A hundred healing years had gone by since those unhappy days when the nation was arrayed against the king anne fairfax brought no alien tra dillons to the household of her young husband her father had served the king as her lover had with more hardship than reward as behooved a soldier in spain and in tho bahamas Da hamas and was now when turned of fifty agent here in virginia to his cousin thomas sixth baron fairfax in the management of his great estates lying upon the northern neck and in the fruitful valleys beyond william fairfax had been but nine years in the colony but he was already a vir finlan like his and as col lector of his majesty s customs tor the south potomac and president of the kings council no small figure in their affairs a man who had seen the world and knew bow to bear himself in this part of it lord fairfax arrive in 1746 thomas lord fairfax him self came to virginia a man strayed out of the world of fashion at fifty five In forests of a wild frontier the better part of his ancestral es tates in yorkshire had been sold to satisfy the creditors of his spead lawrence washington thrift father these untilled stretches of land in the old dominion were now become the chief part of his patrimony said too that he had suffered a cruel misadventure in love at the hands of a fair jilt in lon don and so had become the austere eccentric bachelor he showed himself to be in the free and quiet colony A man of taste and culture he had written with addelson and steele tor the spectator a man of the world he had acquired for all his reserve that easy touch and intimate mastery in dealing with men which come with the long practice of such men of fash ion as are also men of sense he brought with him to virginia though past fifty the fresh vigor of a young man eager for the free pioneer life of such a province lord fairfax builds a lodge he tarried but two years with his cousin where the colony had settled to an ordered way pt living then he built himself lodge eha dowed by spreading piazzas and fit led with such simple appointments as sufficed for comfort at the depths of the forest close upon seventy away within the valley of the shen where a hardy frontier people bad but begun to gather the great manor house he had meant to build was never begun the plain comforts of greenway court satis fled him more and more easily as the years passed and the habits of a simple life grew increasingly pleasant and familiar till thirty years and more had slipped away and he was dead at ninety one broken hearted men said because the kinge govern had fallen upon final defeat and waa done with in america bred in good company it was in the company of these men and of those who naturally gathered about them in that hospitable country that george washington was bred A stranger had no more to do bays heverley but to inquire upon the road where any gentleman or good housekeeper lived and there be might depend upon being received with hos pit allty and certain many besides strangers would seek out the young major at mount vernon whom his neighbors had hastened to make their representative in the house of burgesses and the old soldier ot the soldierly house of fairfax who was president of the kings council and so next to the governor himself A boy who was much at mount vernon and at mr seat Delvo lr might expect to see not a little that was worth seeing of the life of the colony george was kept at school until he was close upon sixteen but there was ample vacation time tor visiting mrs washington did not keep him at her apron strings lie even lived ft hen it was necessary with his broth er augustine at the old home on bridges creek in order to be near the best school that was accessible while the mother was tar away on the farm that lay upon the Rap nock mrs washington saw to it nevertheless that she should not lose sight ot him altogether apprenticeship in the woods when he was fourteen it was proposed that he should be sent to sea as so many lads were no doubt from that maritime province but ane pro dent mother preferred he should not leave virginia and the schooling went on as before the schooling of books and manly sports every lad learned to ride to ride colt or horse regard less of training gait or temper in that country where no one went afoot except to catch his mount in the pas ture every hafl black or white bond or free knew alere to find and how to take the roving game in the forests and young washington robust boy that he was not to be daunted while that strong spirit sat in him which he got from his father and mother alike took his apprenticeship on horseback and in the tangled woods with characteristic zest and ardor the art of mastery he was above all things else a capable executive boy he loved mastery and he relished acquiring the fogt effective means of mastery in all practical affairs his very exercise books used at school gave of it they were filled not only with the rules formulae diagrams and ex of surveying which he was taking special pains to learn at the advice of his friends but also with careful copier of legal and mercantile papers bills of exchange bills of sale bonds indentures land warrants leases deeds and wills as if he meant to be a lawyers or a merchant s clerk it would seem that passionate and full of warm blood as he wa he conned these things as he studied atu use and structure of his fowling piece the bridle he used for his colts his saddle girth and the best ways ol 01 mounting ha copied these forms ol 01 business as he might have copied beverley s account of the way fox or possum or beaver was to be taken or the wild turkey trapped the men he most admired bis elder brothers mr fairfax and the gentlemen planters who were so much at their bouses were most of them sound men of business who valued good surveying as much as they ad mired good horsemanship and skill in sport they were their own mer chants and looked upon forms ol 01 business paper as quite as useful as plows and hogsheads hog careful axer else in such matters might well enough accompany practice in the equally formal minuet in virginia and so this boy learned to show in almost everything he did the careful krecl slon of the perfect marksman goes to mount vernon in the autumn of 1747 when he was not yet quite sixteen george quit his formal schooling and presently join ed his brother lawrence at mount vernon to seek counsel and compan lawrence bad conceived a strong affection tor bis manly young broth er himself a man of spirit and hon or he had a mans lik ing tor all that he saw that was ina and well purposed in the lad a generous man s tenderness in looking to the development of this thoroughbred boy and he took him ruins of school washington attended into his confidence as if be had been his own eon not only upon his vaca eions now but almost when ho would and as it be were already himself a man with the rest he could live in the comradeship that obtained at belvoir and mount vernon men of all sorts it seemed took pleasure in his company lads could be the companions of men in virginia their outdoor life of sport adventure put them as it were upon equal terms with their elders where spirit auda city invention prudence manliness resource told for success and corn rade ship young men and old can be companions in arms in sports in woodcraft and on the trail of the fox not an indoor life of con I 1 ference but an outdoor life of affairs I 1 in this rural colony I 1 TO CONTINUED |