Part 16 (2/2)

He pa.s.sionately desired to become a sailor. His mother at last gave an unwilling consent. His trunk was packed and all was ready. But when the hour for parting came, the quiet entreaty of his mother, ”Don't go, George,” with tears running down her cheeks, changed his purpose.

This good mother lived until 1789, when she died at the age of eighty-two. Her lot was a rare one. She lived to see her son the most ill.u.s.trious of living men, with a spotless fame, and as much admired for the purity of his character as for the greatness of his deeds. It is said that she used to listen to praise of him in silence, and only answered: ”Yes, George was always a good boy!”

=200. His Faithful Work as a Surveyor in the Virginia Wilderness.=--It seems strange now, as we look back on his early life, to see how Was.h.i.+ngton unconsciously prepared himself for his great future. He employed a trainer and took a severe course of lessons in skillful fencing and sword drill, and, besides, he made a careful study of military science and tactics.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON.]

He became prominent as a young man of superb vigor, fond of study and work, and full of promise of great achievements. So Lord Fairfax, an eccentric n.o.bleman, who was a great fox hunter and who much admired his young friend's bold riding, selected him to survey the thousands of acres of forest land that the king had granted to him beyond the Blue Ridge. This was a pretty large undertaking for a boy of sixteen! But the youngster was enough of a man to do it. He and his a.s.sistant took each a horse, a gun, an axe, surveyor's tools, and camp outfit. They spent months in the vast forests and among the mountains; cutting their paths through woods, fording rivers, facing the drenching storms, surveying and measuring by day, and writing out the notes in the light of camp-fires by night; living on the game they shot,--wild turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, and deer; often meeting Indians.

All this was just the school to prepare him for coming duties and for the great career he never then dreamed of. Here he gained in a high degree the hardy virtues of courage, self-reliance, promptness in danger, quick and prudent foresight, and unflinching endurance under difficulties.

On his return, young Was.h.i.+ngton had done his work so well that the Governor appointed him public surveyor. It was a prominent office, and he filled it honorably. His surveys were so correct that it is said they are used even to this day.

Lord Fairfax lived many years after this. He was bitterly opposed to the war of the Revolution. One day he heard the people shouting and cheering near his home. He asked his old negro servant what it all meant, and he was told that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered to General Was.h.i.+ngton. At this the old man groaned, ”Take me to bed, Joe; it is high time for me to die!”

=201. His Work as an Army Officer.=--Was.h.i.+ngton was twenty-three years old when he was appointed on the staff of General Braddock. We have read in Chapter VIII the story of this disastrous campaign. The choice proved the Governor's insight into Was.h.i.+ngton's remarkable character. His surprising bravery, his insensibility to fear amid the whistling of bullets, his coolness in danger, and his maturity of judgment, really saved the whole campaign and rescued Braddock's shattered forces from total ruin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON CROSSING A RIVER ON A RAFT IN THE WILDERNESS DURING MID-WINTER.]

Shortly afterwards Was.h.i.+ngton withdrew for a while from military life.

In 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow with two small children and a large fortune. A short time after their marriage Colonel and Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton, or Lady Was.h.i.+ngton, as she was called, retired to Mount Vernon, a fine estate of eight thousand acres which he had inherited from his brother Lawrence. His many visitors who expected to see a heroic figure could not have been disappointed in his personal appearance.

Was.h.i.+ngton was a man of n.o.ble presence, six feet two in height, of dignified and courtly manners and a n.o.ble military air. With health and wealth, a happy home and all that makes life pleasant, he was enjoying his honors and the comforts of rural life.

=202. Advancement in Political Honors.=--So high was the trust reposed by all in Was.h.i.+ngton that he was now elected to the Virginia legislature, the House of Burgesses, a signal proof of popular confidence. He always studied the business of every day carefully, though he seldom made speeches. When he first entered and took his seat, in 1759, the Speaker of the House rose and in eloquent language returned thanks to him in the name of the colony for his services during the war.

Was.h.i.+ngton stood up to reply; blushed, stammered, trembled, and could not utter a word.

”Sit down, Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton,” said the Speaker with a smile; ”your modesty equals your valor, and that surpa.s.ses the power of any language I possess.”

For the next sixteen years Was.h.i.+ngton's life pa.s.sed quietly and contentedly. Then was heard the distant thunder of the coming Revolution.

We may be sure that Was.h.i.+ngton studiously watched the course of events, and often went back to Mount Vernon from the public meetings with an anxious mind.

=203. Becomes Commander-in-Chief of the American Army.=--Soon a problem presented itself before the Continental Congress of which Was.h.i.+ngton was a member. Who shall be chosen Commander-in-Chief of our armies? Who shall be singled out for this most difficult task?

There was one man to whom all turned. On a motion of John Adams of Ma.s.sachusetts the choice was George Was.h.i.+ngton--”a gentleman from Virginia who is among us, and very well known to all of us.” The choice was unanimous. It was a spontaneous tribute to his superior military experience and skill; to the strength and purity of his character, the ardor and unselfishness of his patriotism, and the perfect confidence which his whole career had inspired.

Was.h.i.+ngton, in the course of his brief and modest speech of acceptance, said his service would be freely given without salary, asking that only his expenses be paid, and of which he would keep a careful record. His expense-books, kept during the Revolution in his own neat handwriting, are still carefully preserved.

With the promptness which was a part of his self-training, he began at once his new duties. In a few days, as we have read in Chapter XII, he took command of the patriot army at Cambridge.

We know how Was.h.i.+ngton's well-planned siege shut up the British army in Boston all that summer and all the next winter until March, when his admirable strategy compelled the proud Howe to sail silently away. This achievement of the brave Virginia officer, and of his raw farmer-soldiers against the much larger force of British regulars, well deserved the gold medal given him by Congress.

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