middle of July, which fairly boiled
the perspiration out of our foreheads."

After the two Samaritans had declined a pressing invitation to go to
Alexandria and have a drop of something, the unknown, a tall man past
middle age, wearing a blue coat and buckskin breeches, exclaimed
impatiently at the heat and then "offered very courteously," says
Bernard, "to dust my coat, a favor the return of which enabled me to
take a deliberate survey of his person."

The stranger then called Bernard by name, saying that he had seen him
play in Philadelphia, and asked him to accompany him to his house and
rest, at the same time pointing out a mansion on a distant hill. Not
till then did Bernard realize with whom he was speaking.

"Mt. Vernon!" he exclaimed. "Have I the honor of addressing General
Washington?"

With a smile Washington extended his hand and said: "An odd sort of
introduction, Mr. Bernard; but I am pleased to find that you can play so
active a part in private and without a prompter."

Then they rode up to the Mansion House and had a pleasant chat[12].

[12] This anecdote is accepted by Mr. Lodge in his life of Washington,
but doubt is cast upon it by another historian. All that can be said is
that there is nothing to disprove it and that it is not inherently
improbable.

Upon his retirement from the presidency our Farmer had told Oliver
Wolcott that he probably would never again go twenty miles from his own
vine and fig tree, but the troubles with France resulted in a quasi-war
and he was once more called from retirement to head an army, most of
which was never raised. He accepted the appointment with the
understanding that he was not to be called into the field unless his
presence should be indispensable, but he found that he must give much
of his time to the matter and be often from home, while a quarrel
between his friends Knox and Hamilton over second place joined with
Republican hostility to war measures to add a touch of bitterness to the
work. Happily war was avoided and, though an adjustment of the
international difficulties was not reached until 1800, Washington was
able to spend most of the last months of his life at Mount Vernon
comparatively undisturbed.

Yet things were not as once they were. Mrs. Washington had aged greatly
and was now a semi-invalid often confined to her bed. The Farmer himself
came of short-lived stock and realized that his pilgrimage would not be
greatly prolonged. Twice durin