wash-wo-man, so folks would not know her, and made
a start for her home, but the British had set fire to a bridge she had
to cross on the way and then she begged an A-mer-i-can sol-dier to row
her o-ver the riv-er. He would not do so un-til she told him who she
was, and then he was ver-y glad to take this brave lit-tle la-dy in his
boat. On-ly black ash-es marked the spot on which the White House had
once stood, so she had to go to her sis-ter's home, where the
Pres-i-dent soon joined her.

The Eng-lish troops now tried to take Bal-ti-more, but our brave men
drove them back; and when they tried to make a raid on New Or-le-ans,
Gen-er-al Jack-son and his troops fought so hard that the foe could
not get in-to the cit-y.

This was the last fight of this war, and peace was signed at Ghent,
De-cem-ber 24th, 1814. From that day Eng-land has had to leave our ships
a-lone and to treat A-mer-i-ca as one of the great nations of the world.

In 1817 Mad-i-son was not sor-ry to go back to his old home, and here
ma-ny hap-py years were spent, for the fair la-dy of the White House
kept o-pen house in her own home, and guests from far and near were
glad to come here. One of Mad-i-son's dear-est friends was old Thom-as
Jef-fer-son, who oft-en rode o-ver from his home at Mon-ti-cel-lo,
which was on-ly thir-ty miles from Mont-pel-ier.

Mad-i-son wrote a good deal at this time; and once a-gain was seen in
pub-lic life. In 1829 he was at the head of the great change made in
all the laws of the whole land.

He died af-ter a long sick-ness at his home in Mont-pel-ier on
June 28th, 1836.

JAMES MON-ROE.

James Mon-roe was, like Wash-ing-ton, Mad-i-son and Jef-fer-son, born in
Vir-gin-i-a. Our first Pres-i-dent was just twen-ty six years old when,
in West-more-land County, on A-pril 28th, 1758, was born the boy who was
to be the fifth Pres-i-dent. His fa-ther, Colo-nel Spense Mon-roe, owned
a big farm and was quite rich. Lit-tle James was sent to good schools
and did not have to work to earn the means to stay in school. He learned
at first to hunt, to skate and to swim; and was good friends with all
the boys; but through all the fun and school work came up the talk of
war; of the long strife with Eng-land and the fierce red men. It was
hard for a brave boy to hear such talk and yet keep on at his books,
and though Mon-roe did go to Wil-liam and Mary Col-lege, he did not stay
long, for we hear of him in 1775 at the camp near Bos-