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reckon with confidence upon his income, and, with his reckless style of living, he is often in debt. He despises small economies, and looks down upon the merchant and trader, whose business it is to watch closely what they receive and what they pay

out.

The Virginian does not often go far from his plantation. His chief journey is to the capital, at Williamsburg, where he goes when the colonial House of Burgesses is in session. Then he gets out his great yellow coach, and his family drive over rough roads and come upon other planters and their families driving through the woods in the same direction. At the capital, during the session, are held balls and other grand entertainments, and the men discuss the affairs of the colony. They honor the King and pay their taxes without much grumbling, but they are used to managing affairs in Virginia without a great deal of interference from England. The new country helps to make them independent; they are far away from King and Parliament and Court; they are used to rule; and in the defense of their country against Indians and French they have been good soldiers. But what is the Virginian lady doing all this time? It is not hard to see, when one thinks of the great house, the many servants, the hospitality shown to strangers, and the absence of towns. She is a home-keeping body. She has to provide for her household, and as she can not go shopping to town, she must keep abundant stores of everything she needs. Often she must teach her children, for very likely there is no school near, to which she can send them. She must oversee and train her servants, and set one to spinning, another to mending, and another to sewing; but she does not find it easy to have nice work done; her black slaves are seldom skilled, and she has to send to England for her finer garments. There is no doctor near at hand, and she must try her hand at prescribing for the sick on the plantation, and must nurse white and black.

In truth, the Virginian lady saves the Old Dominion. If it were not for her, the men would be rude and barbarous; but they treat her with unfailing respect, and she gives the gentleness and grace which they would quickly forget. Early in this century some one went to visit an old Virginian lady, and she has left this description of what

she saw:

"On one side sits the chambermaid with her knitting; on the other, a little colored pet learning to sew; an old decent woman is there with her table and shears, cutting out the negroes' winter clothes; while the old lady directs them all, incessantly knitting herself. She points out to me several pair of nice colored stockings and gloves

she has just finished, and presents me with a pair half-done, which she begs I will finish and wear for her sake."

CHAPTER III.

THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON.

THE old lady thus described was the widow of George Washington, and so little had life in Virginia then changed from what it had been in 1732, that the description might easily stand for a portrait of George Washington's mother. Of his father he remembered little, for though his mother lived long after he had grown up and was famous, his father died when the boy was eleven years old.

It was near the shore of the Potomac River, between Pope's Creek and Bridge's Creek, that Augustine Washington lived when his son George was born. The land had been in the family ever since Augustine's grandfather, John Washington, had bought it, when he came over from England in 1657. John Washington was a soldier and a public-spirited man, and so the parish in which he lived-for Virginia was divided into parishes as some other colonies into townships-was named Washington. It is a quiet neighborhood; not a sign remains of the old house, and the only mark of the place is a stone slab, broken and overgrown with weeds and brambles, which lies on a bed of bricks taken from the remnants of the old chimney of the house. It bears the inscription:

Here

The 11th of February, 1732 (old style) George Washington

was born

The English had lately agreed to use the calendar of Pope Gregory, which added eleven days to the reckoning, but people still used the old style as well as the new. By the new style, the birthday was February 22, and that is the day which is now observed. The family into which the child was born consisted of the father and mother, Augustine and Mary Washington, and two boys, Lawrence and Augustine. These were sons of Augustine Washington and a former wife who had died four years before. George Washington was the eldest of the children of Augustine and Mary Washington; he had afterward three brothers and two sisters, but one of the sisters died in infancy.

It was not long after George Washington's birth that the house in which he was born was burned, and as his father was at the time especially interested in some iron-works at a distance, it was

determined not to rebuild upon the lonely place. Accordingly Augustine Washington removed his family to a place which he owned in Stafford County, on the banks of the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg. The house is not now standing, but a picture was made of it before it was destroyed. It was, like many Virginia houses of the day, divided into four rooms on a floor, and had great outside chimneys at either end.

Here George Washington spent his childhood. He learned to read, write, and cipher at a small school kept by Hobby, the sexton of the parish church. Among his playmates was Richard Henry Lee, who was afterward a famous Virginian. When the boys grew up, they wrote to each other of grave matters of war and state, but here is the beginning of their correspondence, written when they were nine years old.

"RICHARD HENRY LEE TO GEORGE WASHINGTON :.

is told that she had given an agent directions how to do a piece of work, and he had seen fit to do it differently, because he thought his way a better one. He showed her the improvement.

"And pray," said the lady, "who gave you any exercise of judgment in the matter? I command you, sir; there is nothing left for you but to obey."

In those days, more than now, a boy used very formal language when addressing his mother. He might love her warmly, but he was expected to treat her with a great show of respect. When Washington wrote to his mother, even after he was of age, he began his letter, "Honored Madam," and signed it, "Your dutiful son." This was a part of the manners of the time. It was like the stiff dress which men wore when they paid their respects to others; it was put on for the occasion, and one would have been thought very unman

"Pa brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them nerly who did not make a marked difference

in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and
elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send
you one of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little Indian
boy on his back like uncle jo's sam pa says if I learn my tasks
good he will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your
ma to let you come to see me.
RICHARD HENRY LEE."

"GEORGE WASHINGTON TO RICHARD HENRY LEE:
"DEAR DICKEY I thank you very much for the pretty picture-
book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and
I showed him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the
tame elephant took care of the master's little boy, and put him
on his back and would not let anybody touch his master's
little son. I can read three or four pages sometimes without miss-
ing a word. Ma says I may go to see you, and stay all day
with you next week if it be not rainy. She
says I may ride my
pony Hero if Uncle Ben will go with me and lead Hero. I have a
little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me, but I
must n't tell you who wrote the poetry.

"G. W.'s compliments to R. H. L.,
And likes his book full well,
Henceforth will count him his friend,

And hopes many happy days he may spend.
"Your good friend,
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
"I am going to get a whip top soon, and you may see it and
whip it." *

It looks very much as if Richard Henry sent his letter off just as it was written. I suspect that his correspondent's letter was looked over, corrected, and copied before it was sent. Very possibly Augustine Washington was absent at the time on one of his journeys; but at any rate the boy owed most of his training to his mother, for only two years after this, his father died, and he was left to his mother's care.

She was a woman born to command, and since she was left alone with a family and an estate to care for, she took the reins into her own hands, and never gave them up to any one else. She used to drive about in an old-fashioned open chaise, visiting the various parts of her farm, just as a planter would do on horseback.

The story

between his every-day dress and that which he wore when he went into the presence of his betters. So Washington, when he wrote to his mother, would not be so rude as to say, "Dear Mother."

Such habits as this go deeper than mere forms of speech. I do not suppose that the sons of this lady feared her, but they stood in awe of her, which is quite a different thing.

"We were all as mute as mice, when in her presence," says one of Washington's companions; and common report makes her to have been very much such a woman as her son afterward was a

man.

I think that George Washington owed two strong traits to his mother,—a governing spirit, and a spirit of order and method. She taught him many lessons and gave him many rules; but, after all, it was her character shaping his which was most powerful. She taught him to be truthful, but her lessons were not half so forcible as her own truthfulness.

There is a story told of George Washington's boyhood unfortunately there are not many stories which is to the point. His father had taken a great deal of pride in his blooded horses, and his mother afterward took great pains to keep the stock pure. She had several young horses that had not yet been broken, and one of them in particular, a sorrel, was extremely spirited. No one had been able to do anything with it, and it was pronounced thoroughly vicious, as people are apt to pronounce horses which they have not learned to master. George was determined to ride this colt, and told his companions that if they would help him catch it, he would ride and tame it.

Early in the morning they set out for the pasture, where the boys managed to surround the sorrel and then to put a bit into its mouth. Wash

* From B. J. Lossing's "The Home of Washington."

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ing about the field, rearing and plunging. The
boys became thoroughly alarmed, but Washington
kept his seat, never once losing his self-control or
his mastery of the colt. The struggle was a sharp
one; when suddenly, as if determined to rid itself
of its rider, the creature leaped into the air with a
tremendous bound. It was its last. The violence
burst a blood-vessel, and the noble horse fell dead.
Before the boys could sufficiently
recover to consider how they should
extricate themselves from the
scrape, they were called to break-
fast; and the mistress of the house,
knowing that they had been in the
fields, began to ask after her stock.

"Pray, young gentlemen," said she, "have you seen my blooded colts in your rambles? I hope they are well taken care of. My favorite, I am told, is as large as his sire."

Of

The boys looked at one another, and no one liked to speak. course the mother repeated her question.

"The sorrel is dead, madam," said her son. "I killed him!"

And then he told the whole story. They say that his mother flushed

to remember the wonderful things he did before he was famous, and Washington's playmates, when they grew up, used to show the spot by the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg where he stood and threw a stone

to the opposite bank; and at the celebrated Natural Bridge, the arch of which is two hundred feet above the ground, they always tell the visitor that George Washington threw a stone in the air the whole height. He undoubtedly took part in all the sports which were the favorites of his country at that time-he pitched heavy bars, tossed quoits, ran, leaped, and wrestled; for he was a

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THE HOUSE NEAR FREDERICKSBURG WHICH WAS WASHINGTON'S HOME DURING EARLY BOYHOOD.

with anger, as her son often used to, and then, like him, controlled herself, and presently said, quietly:

powerful, large-limbed young fellow, and he had a very large and strong hand. (To be continued.)

The illustrations on this page are copied from the original pictures in Mr. B. J. Lossing's "Mt. Vernon and its Associations," by permission of Messrs. J. C. Yorston & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

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THE KING OF THE FROZEN NORTH.
BY JOHN R. CORYELL.

If we did not know it to be so, it would be hard to believe that any animal could make its home in the midst of the almost perpetual snow and ice of the far north. And yet many more animals than are generally supposed to do so live in that intense cold, and have accommodated themselves to their surroundings. For example, the mosquito, which we are wont to think of as belonging only to the hottest climates, has been found, with wings and bill in good working order, as far north as man has ever gone.

However, it is not the mosquito, but the white bear, which claims attention just now, and it deserves attention for the manner in which it has adapted itself to its strange mode of life.

It is not called an amphibious animal, but might probably be so called, for it is perfectly at home in the water, indeed it has been known to pursue and capture so nimble a fish as the salmon. Nor is it only a swift swimmer; it can swim very great distances, as it often needs to do, for it is frequently carried far out to sea on the huge cakes of ice which, as spring comes on, break off and float away to the south.

The polar bear's foot is unusually long and broad even for a bear's foot, and this peculiarity aids in enabling it to swim so rapidly. But the great foot is of most use in crossing the slippery ice or crusted snow. The under part of the foot is covered with long, soft fur, which answers the double purpose of keeping the foot warm in spite

of constant contact with the cold ice, and of preventing the awkward slipping which would certainly occur if the sole of the foot were hard and smooth.

As a rule, the white bear avoids man and exerts all its strength and cunning in capturing its prey. It prefers some member of the seal family, probably because the seals are usually so plump and tender. Apparently a baby walrus is a choice morsel for it, for it never neglects an opportunity of pouncing on one.

In the water, the walrus would be more than a match even for the polar bear, its huge tusks and terrible strength making it the most formidable of sea mammals; but on the ice, despite the fierce courage with which both parents fight for their offspring, the battle is too unequal, and the unlucky little walrus, caught napping, usually falls a victim to the big bear. And it frequently happens that one or both of the parent-walruses are killed in the vain attempt to rescue their baby.

Nennook, as the white bear is called by the Eskimo, frequently displays great cunning in capturing the wary seal, which, fearing its enemy, takes its nap on the ice close by the edge, ready to roll into the water at the first alarm. The bear slips quietly into the water a long distance from the sleeping seal, and then swims under water, stopping occasionally to put out his head and breathe, until he is in such a position that the seal cannot get into the water without falling into his clutches.

BIG HANS AND LITTLE HANS.

CHAPTER I.

By H. H. BOYESEN.

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patch of wheat, may be induced to grow by dint of much coaxing; for the summer, though short, is mild and genial in those high latitudes, and has none of that fierce intensity which, with us, forces the vegetation into sudden maturity, and sends our people flying toward all the points of the compass during the first weeks in June.

In was on such a sunny little slope, right under the black mountain-wall, that Halvor Myrbraaten had built his cottage. Halvor was a merry fellow, who went about humming snatches of hymns and

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