Washington because so many hogs had been killed,
whereupon the manager replied that when he put up the meat he had
expected that Mrs. Washington would have been at home and that he knew
there would be need for it because her "charitable disposition is in
the same proportion as her meat house."

[Illustration: Weekly Report on the Work of the Spinners]

She had a swarm of relatives by blood and marriage and they visited her
long and often. The Burwells, the Bassetts, the Dandridges and all the
rest came so frequently that hardly a week passed that at least one of
them did not sleep beneath the hospitable roof. Even her stepmother paid
her many visits and, what is more, was strongly urged by the General to
make the place her permanent home. When Mrs. Washington was at home
during the Revolution her son and her daughter-in-law spent most of
their time there. After the Revolution her two youngest grandchildren
resided at Mount Vernon, and the two older ones, Elizabeth and Martha,
were often there, as was their mother, who married as her second husband
Doctor Stuart, a man whom Washington highly esteemed.

It would be foolish to deny that Mrs. Washington did not take pleasure
in the honors heaped upon her husband or that she did not enjoy the
consideration that accrued to her as First Lady of the Land. Yet public
life at times palled upon her and she often spoke of the years of the
presidency as her "lost days." New York and Philadelphia, she said,
were "not home, only a sojourning. The General and I feel like children
just released from school or from a hard taskmaster.... How many dear
friends I have left behind! They fill my memory with sweet thoughts.
Shall I ever see them again? Not likely unless they come to me, for the
twilight is gathering around our lives. I am again fairly settled down
to the pleasant duties of an old-fashioned Virginia-housekeeper, steady
as a clock, busy as a bee, and cheerful as a cricket."

That she did not overdraw her account of her industry is borne out by a
Mrs. Carrington, who, with her husband, one of the General's old
officers, visited Mount Vernon about this time. She wrote:

"Let us repair to the Old Lady's room, which is precisely in the style
of our good old Aunt's--that is to say, nicely fixed for all sorts of
work--On one side sits the chambermaid, with her knitting--on the other,
a little colored pet learning to sew, an old decent woman, with her
table and shears, cutting out