, though, they
added, he was apt to be a ceremonious and grave one.

In this round of rural occupation, rural amusements and social
intercourse, Washington passed several tranquil years, the halcyon
season of his life. His marriage was unblessed with children; but
those of Mrs. Washington experienced from him parental care and
affection, and the formation of their minds and manners was one of the
dearest objects of his attention. His domestic concerns and social
enjoyments, however, were not permitted to interfere with his public
duties. He was active by nature, and eminently a man of business by
habit. As judge of the county court, and member of the House of
Burgesses, he had numerous calls upon his time and thoughts, and was
often drawn from home; for whatever trust he undertook, he was sure to
fulfil with scrupulous exactness.

About this time we find him engaged, with other men of enterprise, in
a project to drain the great Dismal Swamp, and render it capable of
cultivation. This vast morass was about thirty miles long, and ten
miles wide, and its interior but little known. With his usual zeal and
hardihood he explored it on horseback and on foot. In many parts it
was covered with dark and gloomy woods of cedar, cypress, and hemlock,
or deciduous trees, the branches of which were hung with long,
drooping moss. Other parts were almost inaccessible, from the density
of brakes and thickets, entangled with vines, briers and creeping
plants, and intersected by creeks and standing pools. In the centre of
the morass he came to a great piece of water, six miles long, and
three broad, called Drummond's Pond, but more poetically celebrated as
the Lake of the Dismal Swamp. It was more elevated than any other part
of the swamp, and capable of feeding canals, by which the whole might
be traversed. Having made the circuit of it and noted all its
characteristics, he encamped for the night upon the firm land which
bordered it, and finished his explorations on the following day. In
the ensuing session of the Virginia Legislature, the association in
behalf of which he had acted was chartered under the name of the
Dismal Swamp Company; and to his observations and forecast may be
traced the subsequent improvement and prosperity of that once desolate
region.

CHAPTER XIII.
COLONIAL DISCONTENTS.

Tidings of peace gladdened the colonies in the spring of 1763. The
definite treaty between England and France had been signed at