ipe her nose," could not have been so very terrible!

She was beloved by her servants and when she left Mount Vernon for New
York in 1789 young Robert Lewis reported that "numbers of these poor
wretches seemed most affected, my aunt equally so." At Alexandria she
stopped at Doctor Stuart's, the home of two of her grandchildren, and
next morning there was another affecting scene, such as Lewis never
again wished to witness--"the family in tears--the children a-bawling--&
everything in the most lamentable situation."

Although she was not the paragon that some writers have pictured, she
was a splendid home-loving American woman, brave in heart and helpful to
her husband, neither a drone nor a drudge--in the true Scriptural sense
a worthy woman who sought wool and flax and worked willingly with her
hands. As such her price was far beyond rubies.

As has been remarked before, no brilliant sayings from her lips have
been transmitted to posterity. But I suspect that the shivering soldiers
on the bleak hillsides at Valley Forge found more comfort in the warm
socks she knitted than they could have in the _bon mots_ of a Madame de
Stael or in the grace of a Josephine and that her homely interest in
their welfare tied their hearts closer to their Leader and
their Country.

It is not merely because she was the wife of the Hero of the Revolution
and the first President of the Republic that she is the most revered of
all American women.

CHAPTER XIV

A FARMER'S AMUSEMENTS

No one would ever think of characterizing George Washington as frivolous
minded, but from youth to old age he was a believer in the adage that
all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy--a saying that many an
overworked farmer of our own day would do well to take to heart.

Like most Virginians he was decidedly a social being and loved to be in
the company of his kind. This trait was noticeable in his youth and
during his early military career, nor did it disappear after he married
and settled down at Mount Vernon. Until the end he and Mrs. Washington
kept open house, and what a galaxy of company they had! Scarcely a day
passed without some guest crossing their hospitable threshold, nor did
such visitors come merely to leave their cards or to pay fashionable
five-minute calls. They invariably stayed to dinner and most generally
for the night; very often for days or weeks at a time. After the
Revolution the number of guests increased to such an ext