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legislator of the school; thus displaying in boyhood a type of the
future man.

CHAPTER II.
WASHINGTON'S YOUTH.--FIRST SURVEYING EXPEDITION.

The attachment of Lawrence Washington to his brother George seems to
have acquired additional strength and tenderness on their father's
death; he now took a truly paternal interest in his concerns, and had
him as frequently as possible a guest at Mount Vernon. Lawrence had
deservedly become a popular and leading personage in the country. He
was a member of the House of Burgesses, and adjutant-general of the
district, with the rank of major, and a regular salary. A frequent
sojourn with him brought George into familiar intercourse with the
family of his father-in-law, the Hon. William Fairfax, who resided at
a beautiful seat called Belvoir, a few miles below Mount Vernon, and
on the same woody ridge bordering the Potomac.

William Fairfax was a man of liberal education and intrinsic worth. Of
an ancient English family in Yorkshire, he had entered the army at the
age of twenty-one; had served with honor both in the East and West
Indies, and officiated as governor of New Providence, after having
aided in rescuing it from pirates. For some years past he had resided
in Virginia, to manage the immense landed estates of his cousin, Lord
Fairfax, and lived at Belvoir, in the style of an English country
gentleman, surrounded by an intelligent and cultivated family of sons
and daughters. An intimacy with a family like this, in which the
frankness and simplicity of rural and colonial life were united with
European refinement, could not but have a beneficial effect in
moulding the character and manners of a somewhat home-bred school-boy.

Other influences were brought to bear on George during his visit at
Mount Vernon. His brother Lawrence still retained some of his military
inclinations, fostered, no doubt, by his post of adjutant-general.
William Fairfax, as we have shown, had been a soldier, and in many
trying scenes. Some of Lawrence's comrades of the provincial regiment,
who had served with him in the West Indies, were occasional visitors
at Mount Vernon; or a ship of war, possibly one of Vernon's old fleet,
would anchor in the Potomac, and its officers be welcome guests at the
tables of Lawrence and his father-in-law. Thus military scenes on sea
and shore would become the topics of conversation. We can picture to
ourselves George, a grave and earnest boy, with an expandin