in the number" [of the advance troops]. "If any argument is needed to obtain this favor, I hope without vanity I may be allowed to say that, from long intimacy with these woods, and frequent scouting in them, my men are at least as well acquainted with all the passes and difficulties, as any troops that will be employed."

He had his way in this. He had his way also, though he cared less for that, in showing the folly of the course pursued in opening a new road. However, the expedition succeeded, for when the general reached Fort Duquesne, the French had withdrawn their forces to meet a demand elsewhere, and had burned the fort.

The English now took possession of that part of the country. People forgot the mistakes which had been made. A new fort was built and named Fort Pitt (whence came the modern name of Pittsburgh), and Washington led his men back to Winchester.

There was no longer any need of an army to be kept in the field, now that the French had been driven from the Ohio Valley, and Washington resigned his commission. He had given up any expectation of receiving a commission in the British army, and he had indeed no longer a desire to be a soldier by profession. As with his brother Law rence before him, something now occurred in hi life which made it easy for him to be a Virginia planter.

CHAPTER XII.

WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON.

NEAR the end of May, 1758, Washington was ordered by the Quartermaster-General of the British forces to leave Winchester and make all haste to Williamsburg, there to explain to the governor and council in what a desperate condition the Virginia troops were as regarded clothing and equipments. The army was making ready for its expedition against Fort Duquesne, and so urgent was the case that the young commanderin-chief of the volunteers was sent on this errand. He was on horseback, for that was the only mode of travel, and accompanied by Billy Bishop, once the military servant of General Braddock, but, since the death of the general, the faithful ser vant of the young Virginian aid who had read the funeral service over his dead master.

The two men had reached Williams Ferry, on the Pamunkey River, and had crossed on the boat, when they met Mr. Chamberlayne, a Virginian gentleman living in the neighborhood. The hospitable planter insisted that Washington should at once go to his house. It was forenoon, and dinner would be served as usual, early, and after

that Colonel Washington could go forward to Williamsburg, if go he must. Besides all that, there was a charming young widow at his house -Colonel Washington must have known her, the daughter of John Dandridge, and the wife of John Parke Custis. Virginia hospitality was hard to resist, and Washington yielded. He would stay to dinner if his host would let him hurry off immediately afterward.

Bishop was bidden to bring his master's horse around after dinner in good season, and Washington surrendered himself to his host. Dinner followed, and the afternoon went by, and Mr. Chamberlayne was in excellent humor, as he kept one eye on the restless horses at the door, and the other on his guests, the tall, Indian-like officer and the graceful, hazel-eyed, animated young widow. Sunset came, and still Washington lingered. Then Mr. Chamberlayne stoutly declared that no guest was ever permitted to leave his house after sunset. Mrs. Martha Custis was not the one to drive the soldier away, and so Bishop was bidden to take the horses back to the stable. Not till the next morning did the young colonel take his leave. Then he dispatched his business promptly at Williamsburg, and whenever he could get an hour dashed over to White House, where Mrs. Custis lived. So prompt was he about this business, also, that when he returned to Winchester he had the promise of the young

widow that she would marry him as soon as the campaign was over.

So runs the story told by the grandson of Mrs. Custis, for when she married Washington, January 6, 1759, she had two children, a boy of six and a girl of four.

Washington took his wife and her little children home to Mount Vernon, which was his own, since Lawrence Washington's only child had died, and his widow had married again. Martha Custis added her own large property to her husband's, and Washington was now a rich man, with large estates and with plenty to occupy him if he would devote himself to the care of his property.

From the time of his marriage until his death, Washington wore a miniature portrait of his wife, hung from his neck by a gold chain. "My dear Patsy," he calls her in his letters, and he was never happier than when living with her in quiet at Mount Vernon. They never had son or daughter; but Washington loved dearly the boy and girl whom his wife brought to him. The girl died when she was sixteen; the boy grew up, married, and became the father of several children.

Washington was broken with grief when his wife's daughter died, and when the son died, he adopted as his own the orphan children whom John Custis left behind.

It was no light matter to be a Virginia planter,

when one had so high a standard of excellence as George Washington had. The main crop which he raised was tobacco, and the immediate attention which it required was only during a small part of the year; but, as we have seen, a successful planter was also a man of business, and really the governor of a little province. Many planters contented themselves with leaving the care of their estates and their negroes to overseers, while they themselves spent their time in visiting and receiving visits, in sports, and in politics. That was not Washington's way. He might easily have done so, for he had money enough; but such a life would have been very distasteful to a man who had undergone the hardships of a soldier, and had acquired habits of thoroughness and of love of work. It would have been no pleasure to Washington to be idle and self-indulgent, while seeing his fences tumbling down, and knowing that he was spending more money for everything than was necessary. The man who attends to his own affairs, and sees everything thriving under wise management, is the most contented man, and Washington's heart was in his work.

He

So he looked after everything himself. rose early, often before light, when the days were short. He breakfasted lightly at seven in the summer and at eight in winter, and after breakfast was in the saddle visiting the different parts of his estate, and looking after any improvements