aid down were the ones used by the new States years and years
af-ter his death.

Now, for weeks at a time, he was a-lone in the woods with the In-di-ans;
liv-ing in their camps, and learn-ing of their life; they taught him
ma-ny things; and they, in turn, learned to love and trust him; this
lone-ly life made him a grave and qui-et man; one who talked lit-tle;
and it taught him to think for him-self, at an age when most boys are
told what to do by their par-ents and friends.

When he was not in the woods, hard at work, he was at Mt. Vernon;
and here the talk was of the great lands in the west; and of the war
bet-ween the Eng-lish and the French, who were each try-ing to drive
a-way the oth-er, and were both try-ing to force out the In-di-ans. It
was pret-ty hard for the In-di-ans, who now had not on-ly to fight each
oth-er, but the white men, too. At last they took sides, some with the
Eng-lish, some with the French; and a fierce war broke out o-ver the
land near the O-hi-o River; no white men had yet lived there, and both
sides wished to own it.

The French moved ver-y fast, and built great forts, and sent men there
to keep the Eng-lish a-way; it was no "play-war" in which Wash-ing-ton
now took part; he had real men under him; but, just as he be-gan to
learn what real war was, he had to go to the West In-dies with his
broth-er Law-rence, who was ver-y sick. They spent the win-ter there,
but Law-rence did not get well, and came back to Mt. Ver-non in the
spring, where he died in Ju-ly, 1752.

He left his land in charge of Wash-ing-ton, who now made his home
there; and when his broth-er's daugh-ter died he be-came the own-er.

Now, while Wash-ing-ton had been a-way, the French had been ver-y
ac-tive; they had made friends with the In-di-ans, and had e-ven dared
to send some Eng-lish tra-ders in a ship to France.

At this act Eng-land was up and in arms, and sent o-ver great ships and
ma-ny men to help fight the French. The first step that Eng-land took
was to send men to warn the French a-way from the Eng-lish forts in
Penn-syl-va-ni-a; and Wash-ing-ton, who knew bet-ter than a-ny one else
the rough wild woods, and who was a friend of the In-di-ans, led a
lit-tle band of sev-en men through the dense, dark woods and o-ver
riv-ers filled with float-ing ice, up to the French lines. He told the
chief man of the French troops just what the Eng-lish said, but this
French man would not give up one inch of ground that he ha