sent to Lon-don for
things need-ed in the way of dress for his fam-i-ly and slaves, for
tools, books, drugs, etc. Some of the things he bought for the chil-dren
I think you boys and girls would like, too. He sent for "tops, lit-tle
books for chil-dren to read, a doll, and oth-er toys."

[Illustration: MARTHA WASHINGTON.]

Wash-ing-ton loved hors-es and was ver-y fond of hunt-ing. The name of
his pet horse was "Blue-skin"; he must have looked ver-y fine when he
was on horse-back; for he was a big man, with bright blue eyes and high
color, and he wore a red vest with gold lace on it, and a dark blue
cloth coat. Mrs. Wash-ing-ton rode in a fine car-riage drawn by four
hors-es, and her driv-er wore the Wash-ing-ton col-ors of red, white
and gold. These old days were full of life and fun, but there was work
as well, and soon came more talk of war.

All through these twen-ty years this land was grow-ing big-ger and
big-ger; and at last came the time when folks did not see why they should
not be free from Eng-land and rule their own land in their own way.

At last Eng-land made a law called the "Stamp Act," which put so high a
tax on goods that folks here would not pay it; tea was one of the things
on which this tax was put; and when Eng-land sent o-ver three ships
full of tea to Bos-ton, our men would not let it be ta-ken from the
ships, but broke the great chests and threw all the tea in the wa-ter.
This act is known as the "Bos-ton Tea Par-ty"; and now the first signs
of war were seen; a fierce fight took place at Lex-ing-ton, one Sun-day
morn-ing, be-tween the Brit-ish and A-mer-i-can troops; and now, all
o-ver the land, went up the cry, "To arms! To arms!"

This is how the great War of In-de-pend-ence be-gan; and you know the
name of the man who was at once put at the head of the A-mer-i-can
ar-my--George Wash-ing-ton, of course! Now he is not an Eng-lish-man
fight-ing for his king, but an A-mer-i-can fight-ing to free his own
land. A long, hard fight it was, too, but not once did Wash-ing-ton
or his brave men lose heart. He drove the Brit-ish out of Bos-ton, and
then, for fear they would go to New York, he sent men there; but the
Brit-ish ships went to Can-a-da in-stead, and made that land theirs.

It was just at this time that Rich-ard Hen-ry Lee, the boy-friend of
Wash-ing-ton, made a move in Con-gress that our land should say to
the whole world that it would be free from Brit-ish rule; and so the
Dec-lar-a-tion