soon, and you may see and whip it."

You see the boys in those old days were fond of books, and toys and
hors-es just as the boys of to-day are; and there is a tale of George,
and a young colt, which shows that he was a brave and strong boy, who
did not fear to tell the truth, though he had done wrong. He and some
of his boy-friends were in a field, in which were kept some young colts,
some of which had been used.

The boys caught one colt, put a bit in its mouth, and held it, while
George sprang on its back. The colt, mad with fear, sprang in the air,
tore through the field, and tried in vain to throw the boy; at last he
leaped with such force, that he broke a blood ves-sel, and fell to the
ground dead. Just at this time George's moth-er came out, and saw the
dead colt. She asked the boys if they knew how he died. "Yes, mad-am,"
at once said her own boy; and then he told the whole truth. There are
more tales of the boy-life of George and all show that he was a brave,
strong boy, full of life and fun, and at the head in games and sports
of all kinds.

His fa-ther died when he was on-ly e-lev-en (11) years old; but his
moth-er lived to be an old, old la-dy, who was, you may be sure, ver-y
proud of her great son.

Af-ter his fa-ther's death George made his home with his broth-er,
Au-gus-tine, un-til he was six-teen (16) years old; and the short notes
which he wrote to his moth-er were not like those he sent to his
boy-friends, or like those which you boys and girls write to-day. He
be-gan, "Hon-ored Mad-am;" and end-ed the stiff lit-tle note,--"Your
du-ti-ful son."

In those days folks lived on great big farms, or plan-ta-tions, as they
were called, and raised to-bac-co, which was sold for much mon-ey in
Eng-land. George's fa-ther had a ver-y large plan-ta-tion and ma-ny
slaves to work on it; some day this would all be-long to George, and so
he was taught how to write in a big round hand, how to do sums, and to
look out for those who were in his care.

All through these years there was talk of war; for a cru-el war be-tween
the French and Eng-lish, known as King George-'s War, had be-gun; and
the boys, who heard so much talk of war, of course played at it; and
George was ev-er at the head, ev-er lead-ing these bands of young
sol-diers; he longed, just as boys would to-day, to throw a-way his
books, to leave school, to go to the true war and bear a real gun; and
when he was fif-teen, his broth-er Law-rence, who was