Mrs. Washington and her husband sometimes attended balls and parties given by fashionable persons at Alexandria and Annapolis. They also attended the theatrical performances at Williamsburg and Annapolis, of which they were very fond. This intellectual amusement had been introduced into America (first at the Virginia capital) before this noble couple were born.

To persons of habits like those of Washington and his wife this participation in amusements, in hunting scenes, in the enjoyment of social intercourse, and in the performance of official duties, was not incompatible with due attention to the house and farm at Mount Vernon. They gave zest to domestic and agricultural employment. The master was methodical in all his ways, and such a careful manager of his estate that he made it profitable. He personally superintended all out-of-door operations. He left his bed at four o'clock in the morning at all seasons of the year. The time before breakfast (at seven o'clock in the summer and at eight o'clock in the winter) was spent in his library and in visits to his stables and kennel. After a frugal meal of Indian cakes, honey, tea or coffee, he would mount his horse and ride sometimes ten or twelve miles between breakfast and dinner, visiting every place on his farms where work was going on, and frequently directing his overseers, in detail, the methods to be pursued. He was always abstemious at table, and invariably retired at nine o'clock in the evening, summer and winter. The mistress was also a very early riser, leaving her pillow at the dawn of day at all seasons, and becoming at once actively engaged in her household duties.

There was nothing which seriously disturbed the serene

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atmosphere of domestic and social life at Mount Vernon before the ominous clouds which overspread the political firmament during the decade preceding the old war for independence, began to appear.

As

From the beginning of her residence at Mount Vernon Mrs. Washington was greatly beloved because of her abounding charities towards the needy, and her motherly care of all the servants on the great estate. She ever tried to conceal her deeds of charity from all but the recipients, not allowing her left hand to know what her right hand was doing; but the voice of gratitude continually revealed the secrets. her daughter grew towards womanhood, the mother impressed upon the maiden's mind and heart the conviction that men and women are merely stewards of their Father's bounty, and that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." That sweet young woman- the "dark lady," as she was called, because of the deep brunette of her complexionalso came to be regarded by the poor and the afflicted as an angel of mercy. She might often be seen on her pony, attended only by a single servant carrying a basket, making quite long journeys on her holy errands to the homes of the suffering.

CHAPTER III.

AFTER the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, which filled the colonies with indignation and alarm, another class of visitors than hitherto frequented Mount Vernon. It was composed of patriotic citizens who came to confer with. Colonel Washington on the aspect of public affairs. His friend and neighbor, George Mason, a leading spirit of the time, was often there; also his early playmate in Westmoreland, Richard Henry Lee, and the impetuous Patrick Henry.

When, in the spring of 1769, Colonel Washington received copies of the proceedings and resolutions of merchants in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, by which they agreed to cease importing certain articles from Great Britain until the grievances of which the colonists complained should be reduced, he sent them to Mason with a letter of strong approval of the scheme. "In my opinion it is a good one," he wrote, "and must be attended with salutary effects, provided it can be carried pretty generally into execution." Mason cordially acquiesced, and immediately drew up a series of articles in the form of an "Association" to the same effect, to be laid before the Virginia Assembly.

Mason was not a member of that body but Washington was, and when the Burgesses met soon afterwards he laid the paper before them. The Burgesses passed such bold resolutions that the governor, the good Lord Botetourt

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(Norbonne Berkeley), though secretly in favor of their action, was constrained by duty to his sovereign to reprimand the members for their disloyalty, by dissolving the Assembly. The members immediately met in a private room, and adopted Mason's non-importation agreement by unanimous voice. Every member signed it. It was printed and sent broadcast among the people for their signatures.

Washington scrupulously adhered to the agreement, and his wife cheerfully banished tea (one of the proscribed articles) from her table. In his orders for supplies from London, her husband enjoined his correspondents to omit every article enumerated in the agreement, until the obnoxious laws of Parliament should be repealed. From that time he was more and more away from his beloved home on public business, and much of social intercourse between neighboring families was suspended.

Botetourt died, and John Murray (Lord Dunmore) became governor of Virginia. He found the people so restless and disaffected that he did not call a session of his Assembly until the spring of 1773, when that body, as bold as in 1769, put in motion, by resolutions, the powerful engine for promoting unity of sentiment and action among the colonies known as Committees of Correspondence. Washington gave his cordial approval of the measure.

It was while Washington was in attendance upon public duties at Williamsburg that the first occurrence which seriously disturbed the happiness that reigned at Mount Vernon was felt. Now a dark cloud of grief overshadowed that domestic paradise where only sunshine had hitherto prevailed.

No children had blessed the union of George Washington

and Martha Custis. Upon his wife's son and daughter Colonel Washington bestowed, in full measure, the wealth of his affection for the young, with which he was abundantly endowed. He was especially tender towards her only surviving daughter, the gentle Martha Parke Custis-the "dark lady" of Mount Vernon, whom he loved as his own child. Always delicate in physical constitution, she received from Colonel Washington and her mother the most tender care until she approached the realm of full womanhood, when alarming symptoms of declining health appeared.

Early in 1773 Martha's cheeks began to show the warm glow of the hectic flush of incipient pulmonary consumption. She was then about sixteen years of age, sweet and gentle in temper, graceful in form, with winning ways, and very beautiful in every feature and expression of her face. The incipient malady was rapidly developed as the spring advanced. The mother's heart grew fearful and sad, and after her husband's departure on public business to Williamsburg, her frequent letters to him expressed the deepest anxiety. At length, just as he had completed arrangements to accompany Lord Dunmore to the region of the Ohio River, an alarming letter reached him which impelled him to hasten to Mount Vernon. He found his dear ward in the last moments of her earthly existence. She had barely strength to lay her thin, feverish hand in his, and, with a smile, to say farewell.

The great heart of Martha Parke's guardian was sorely smitten with grief, and kneeling at her bedside he audibly and earnestly prayed for her recovery of health; but while he prayed her freed spirit had ascended to the bosom of God. She expired on the 19th day of June, 1773, when in