he uses the dates 1782 and 1783 when he obviously meant 1802
and 1803.

There was no hunting now nor any of those other active outdoor sports in
which he had once delighted and excelled, while "Alas! our dancing days
are no more." Happily he was able to ride and labor to the last, yet
more and more of his time had to be spent quietly, much of it, we may
well believe, upon the splendid broad veranda of his home.

Unimaginative and unromantic though he was, what visions must sometimes
have swept through the brain of that simple farmer as he gazed down upon
the broad shining river or beyond at the clustered Maryland hills
glorified by the descending sun. Perchance in those visions he saw a
youthful envoy braving hundreds of miles of savage wilderness on an
errand from which the boldest might have shrunk without disgrace. Then
with a handful of men in forest green it is given to that youth to put a
Continent in hazard and to strike on the slopes of Laurel Hill the first
blow in a conflict that is fought out upon the plains of Germany, in far
away Bengal and on most of the Seven Seas. For an instant there rises
the delirium of that fateful day with Braddock beside the ford of the
Monongahela when

"Down the long trail from the Fort to the ford,
Naked and streaked, plunge a moccasined horde:
Huron and Wyandot, hot for the bout;
Shawnee and Ottawa, barring him out.

"'Twixt the pit and the crest, 'twixt the rocks and the grass,
Where the bush hides the foe and the foe holds the pass,
Beaujeu and Pontiac, striving amain;
Huron and Wyandot, jeering the slain,"

The years pass and the same figure grown older and more sedate is taking
command of an army of peasantry at war with their King. Dorchester
Heights, Brooklyn, Fort Washington, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine,
Valley Forge, Monmouth, Morristown, the sun of Yorktown; Green, Gates,
Arnold, Morgan, Lee, Lafayette, Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis--what
memories! Lastly, a Cincinnatus grown bent and gray in service leaves
his farm to head his country's civil affairs and give confidence and
stability to an infant government by his wisdom and character.

Here, with bared heads, let us take leave of him--a farmer, but "the
greatest of good men and the best of great men."

THE END

INDEX

Adams, Abigail, letter of husband to about Washington's retirement, 306.
Adams, John: believes Washington was made by marriage with Custis money