General himself."

This break on the evening hours was quite unusual, Washington himself
saying in one place that nine o'clock was his bedtime, and he wrote of his
hours after dinner, "the usual time of setting at table, a walk, and tea,
brings me within the dawn of candlelight; previous to which, if not
prevented by company I resolve, that as soon as the glimmering taper
supplies the place of the great luminary, I will retire to my writing
table and acknowledge the letters I have received; but when the lights
were brought, I feel tired and disinclined to engage in this work,
conceiving that the next night will do as well. The next comes, and with
it the same causes for postponement, and effect, and so on."

The foregoing allusion to Washington's conversation is undoubtedly just.
All who met him formally spoke of him as taciturn, but this was not a
natural quality. Jefferson states that "in the circle of his friends,
where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in
conversation," and Madison told Sparks that, though "Washington was not
fluent nor ready in conversation, and was inclined to be taciturn in
general society," yet "in the company of two or three intimate friends, he
was talkative, and when a little excited was sometimes fluent and even
eloquent" "The story so often repeated of his never laughing," Madison
said, was "wholly untrue; no man seemed more to enjoy gay conversation,
though he took little part in it himself. He was particularly pleased with
the jokes, good humor, and hilarity of his companions."

Washington certainly did enjoy a joke. Nelly Custis said, "I have
sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and
extravagant spirits," and many other instances of his laughing are
recorded. He himself wrote in 1775 concerning the running away of some
British soldiers, "we laugh at his idea of chasing the Royal Fusileers
with the stores. Does he consider them as inanimate, or as treasure?" When
the British in Boston sent out a bundle of the king's speech, "farcical
enough, we gave great joy to them, (the red coats I mean), without knowing
or intending it; for on that day, the day which gave being to the new
army, (but before the proclamation came to hand,) we had hoisted the union
flag in compliment to the United Colonies. But, behold, it was received in
Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech had made upon us, and
as a signal of submission."

At times