g the year he was seriously ill, and in
September was laid up for more than a week. His brother Charles died and
in acknowledging the sad news he wrote:

"I was the first, and am, now, the last of my father's children by the
second marriage, who remain.

"When I shall be _called upon to follow them_ is known only to the Giver
of Life. When the summons comes, I shall endeavor to obey it with
good grace."

And yet there were gleams of joy and gladness. "About candlelight" on
his birthday in 1799 Nelly Custis and his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, were
wedded. The bride wished him to wear his gorgeous new uniform, but when
he came down to give her away he wore the old Continental buff and blue
and no doubt all loved him better so. Often thereafter the pair were at
Mount Vernon and there on November twenty-seventh a little daughter came
as the first pledge of their affection. As always there was much
company. In August came a gallant kinsman from South Carolina, once
Colonel but now General William Washington of Cowpens fame, and for
three days the house was filled with guests and there was feasting and
visiting. November fifteenth Washington "Rode to visit Mr. now Lord
Fairfax," who was back from England with his family, and the renewal of
old friendships proved so agreeable that in the next month the families
dined back and forth repeatedly.

Nor did the Farmer cease to labor or to lay plans for the future. He
entered into negotiations for the purchase of more land to round out
Mount Vernon and surveyed some tracts that he owned. On the tenth of
December he inclosed with a letter to Anderson a long set of
"Instructions for my manager" which were to be "most strictly and
pointedly attended to and executed." He had rented one of the farms to
Lawrence Lewis, also the mill and distillery, and was desirous of
renting the fishery in order to have less work and fewer hands to attend
to; in fact, "an entire new scene" was to be enacted. The instructions
were exceedingly voluminous, consisting of thirty closely written folio
pages, and they contain plans for the rotation of crops for several
years, as well as specific directions regarding fencing, pasturage,
composts, feeding stock, and a great variety of other subjects. In them
one can find our Farmer's final opinions on certain phases of
agriculture. To draw them up must have cost him days of hard labor and
that he found the task wearing is indicated by the fact that in two
places