e matter.
"Her delicate health, or perhaps her fond affection for the only father
she had ever known, so endeared her to the 'general', that he knelt at
her dying bed, and with a passionate burst of tears prayed aloud that
her life might be spared, unconscious that even then her spirit had
departed." The next day he wrote to his brother-in-law: "It is an easier
matter to conceive than describe the distress of this Family: especially
that of the unhappy Parent of our Dear Patey Custis, when I inform you
that yesterday removed the Sweet Innocent Girl [who] Entered into a more
happy & peaceful abode than any she has met with in the afflicted Path
she hitherto has trod."

Before this John Parke Custis, or "Jacky," had given his stepfather
considerable anxiety. Jacky's mind turned chiefly from study to dogs,
horses and guns and, in an effort, to "make him fit for more useful
purposes than horse races," Washington put him under the tutorship of an
Anglican clergyman named Jonathan Boucher, who endeavored to instruct
some of the other gilded Virginia youths of his day. But Latin and Greek
were far less interesting to the boy than the pretty eyes of Eleanor
Calvert and the two entered into a clandestine engagement. In all
respects save one the match was eminently satisfactory, for the Calvert
family, being descended from Lord Baltimore, was as good as any in
America, and Miss Nelly's amiable qualities, wrote Washington, had
endeared her to her prospective relations, but both were very young,
Jack being about seventeen, and the girl still younger. While consenting
to the match, therefore, Washington insisted that its consummation
should be postponed for two years and packed the boy off to King's
College, now Columbia. But Martha Washington was a fond and doting
mother and, as Patty's death occurred almost immediately, Jack's absence
in distant New York was more than she could bear. He was, therefore,
allowed to return home in three months instead of two years, and in
February, 1774, was wedded to the girl of his choice. Mrs. Washington
felt the loss of her daughter too keenly to attend, but sent this
message by her husband:

"MY DEAR NELLY.--God took from me a Daughter when June Roses were
blooming--He has now given me another Daughter about her Age when Winter
winds are blowing, to warm my Heart again. I am as Happy as One so
Afflicted and so Blest can be. Pray receive my Benediction and a wish
that you may long live the Lovi