rather to sleep in ye open Air before a fire as will appear hereafter. Wednesday 16th We set out early & finished about one oClock & then Travell'd up to Frederick Town where our Baggage came to us we cleaned ourselves (to get Rid of ye Game we had catched ye Night before) & took a Review of ye Town & thence returned to our Lodgings where we had a good Dinner prepar'd for us Wine & Rum Punch in Plenty & a good Feather Bed with clean Sheets which was a very agreeable regale. Sonday 20 finding ye River not much abated we in ye Evening Swam our horses over & carried them to Charles Polks in Maryland for Pasturage till ye next Morning. Monday 21st We went over in a Canoe & Travell'd up Maryland side all ye Day in a Continued Rain to Coll° Cresaps right against ye Mouth of ye South Branch about 40 Miles from Polks I believe ye worst Road that ever was trod by Man or Beast. Tuesday 22d Continued Rain and ye Freshes kept us at Cresaps. Wednesday 23d Rain'd till about two oClock & Clear'd when we were agreeably surpris'd at ye sight of thirty odd Indians coming from War with only one Scalp. We had some Liquor with us of which we gave them Part it elevating their Spirits put them in ye Humour of Dauncing of whom we had a War Daunce there manner of Dauncing is as follows Viz They Clear a Large Circle & make a Great Fire in ye middle then seats themselves around it ye Speaker makes grand Speech telling them in what Manner they are to Daunce after he has finish'd ye best Dauncer Jumps about ye Ring in a most comicle Manner he is followed by yo Rest then begins there Musicians to Play ye Musick is a Pot half of Water with Deerskin Streched over it as tight as it can & a goard with some Shott in it to Rattle & a Piece of an horses Tail to it to make it look fine ye one keeps Rattling and ye other Drumming all ye while ye others is Dauncing Journal of My Journey Over the Mountains, by George Washington while Surveying for Lord Thomas Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, in the Northern Neck of Virginia, Beyond the Blue Ridge. Copied from the Original with Literal Exactness, and Edited with Notes by J. M. Toner, M.D., pp. 15 to 33. How Lord Fairfax Read Washington's First Journal It was a winter night. Lord Fairfax had gathered about him a merry company, Washington was there, but grave and reserved in contrast with the others. Mr. Gist, the explorer, was present, and with him had come young Owler, an Indian runner, to hear the violins. A number of young hunters and trappers and fur-traders had stopped at the Court for the night to share the bountiful baron's hospitality. The stories of the surveys of his immense estates were Lord Fairfax's delight. Washington kept journals of his surveys, and Mr. Gist was a natural story-teller. Lord Fairfax spread the journal of young Washington and its records of surveys out on the great oak table. He began to read the diary. The men listened eagerly, ready to applaud any incident of the narrative which should excite their interest. [After his lordship had read the diary through, he said:] men. Washington is a brave boy, it is hardship that makes A man's power in life is in proportion to the resistance he meets when he is young. George will become a strong man one day." The journal gives a correct view of the manner that the young surveyor passed a period of his early days. He was then scarcely more than a boy. The Boys of Greenway Court, Hezekiah Butterworth, pp. 77 to 88. Conflicting Claims to the Ohio Country While George was acting as county surveyor, and for several years afterward, the trouble between the English and French for the settlement of the country along the Ohio river was rapidly approaching a crisis. The French claimed all the territory watered by the tributaries of the Mississippi river by right of the discoveries of Joliet and Père Marquette of the Mississippi in the north, and their settlement of Louisiana in the south. The English based their claim on a supposed purchase of all the territory west of the mountains and north of the Ohio from the Five Nations of Indians in council. But 'possession is eleven points in the law," and the French were not only coming down from Canada and making settlements in the disputed territory, but also making friends with the Indians. This they were able to do because of the work of French Catholic missionaries and of the fact that many of the French pioneers had intermarried with and lived among the red men. Virginia was especially interested in this dispute, as a sort of syndicate of gentlemen had formed what was known as the Ohio Company, whose business was to traffic with the natives and settle the country. The Washington Story-Calendar, Wayne Whipple, May 8 to 14, 1910. Labored Love Lines Who [the] "Low Land Beauty" was has been the source of much speculation, but the question is still unsolved, every suggested damsel-Lucy Grymes, Mary Bland, Betsy Fauntleroy, et al.-being either impossible or the evidence wholly inadequate. But in the same journal which contains the draughts of these letters is a motto poem "Twas Perfect Love before But Now I do adore" followed by the words "Young M. A. his W [ife?]," and as it was a fashion of the time to couple the initials of one's wellbeloved with such sentiments, a slight clue is possibly furnished. Nor was this the only rhyme that his emotions led to his inscribing in his journal: and he confided to it the following: "Oh Ye Gods why should my Poor Resistless Heart At Last surrender to cupid's feather'd Dart For her that's Pityless of my grief and Woes He sleep amongst my most inveterate Foes However woe-begone the young lover was, he does not seem to have been wholly lost to others of the sex? and at this time he was able to indite an acrostic to another charmer, which, if incomplete, nevertheless proves that there was a "midland" beauty as well, the lady being presumptively some member of the family of Alexanders, who had a plantation near Mount Vernon. "From your bright sparkling Eyes I was undone; None can you equal in your bright array; "I Used Often to Wish He Would Talk More" In his earliest days, there was perseverance and completeness in all his undertakings. Nothing was left half done, or done in a hurried and slovenly manner. The habit of mind thus cultivated continued throughout life; so that however complicated his tasks and overwhelming his cares, in the arduous and hazardous situations in which he was often placed, he found time to do everything, and to do it well. He had acquired the magic of method, which of itself works wonders. In one of these manuscript memorials of his practical studies and exercises, we have come upon some documents singularly in contrast with all that we have just cited, and with his apparently unromantic character. In a word, there are evidences in his own handwriting, that, before he was fifteen years of age, he had conceived a passion for some unknown beauty, so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, and to make him really unhappy. Why this juvenile attachment was a source of unhappiness we have no positive means of ascertaining. Perhaps the object of it may have considered him a mere schoolboy, and treated him as such, or his own shyness may have been in his way, and his "rules for behavior and conversation" may as yet have sat awkwardly on him, and rendered him formal and ungainly when he most sought to please. Even in later years he was apt to be silent and embarrassed in female society. "He was a very bashful young man," said an old lady, whom he used to visit when they were both in their nonage, “I used often to wish that he would talk more. ' Life of George Washington, Washington Irving, Vol. I, p. 57. County Surveyor at Seventeen About this time the influence of Lord Fairfax and my brothers obtained for me the place of surveyor of the county of Culpeper. I saw, a few years ago, in the records of Cul |