Heights of Abraham, announcing that the struggle was over. The deaths of the two heroes, Montcalm and Wolfe, were worthy of the great event they helped to bring about.

Washington retained his seat in the House of Burgesses fifteen years, or until the Revolution. His life during this period differed very little from that of most Virginia planters around him. As a member of the assembly he spoke but little. His motto was not to speak except on important subjects, or on those which directly concerned his constituents, and then calmly, and wholly to the point of fact.

Notwithstanding the extensive business on his hands, and the many calls upon his time, he was his own book-keeper. Exact in every thing, he required those with whom he dealt to be the same. He was compelled to import all his wardrobe, farming utensils, harness, etc., from England. Twice a year he made out a list of the things he wanted and sent it to his correspondent in London. An order on his tailor illustrates the ideas of dress in those times. In giving the description of a coat he had requested to be made, he said he did not wish a rich garment, but a plain one, "with gold or silver buttons."

There is another little anecdote showing how he always adhered to facts. The church in the parish of which he was vestryman, having become dilapidated, it was resolved to pull it down and build a new one. But a difference of opinion arose respecting the spot where it should be placed, the present site not being central. Washington, taking a practical view of the matter, wished it located where it would be most convenient to the parishioners. George Mason, his friend and neighbor, on the other hand, was anxious to retain the old consecrated spot, hallowed by so many sweet and sacred associations. After several meetings had been held without coming to a decision, a final decisive one was appointed

When the people assembled, Mason, the leader of the party wishing to retain the old site, arose and made a long and eloquent harangue, pouring out rhapsodies over the spot made sacred by so many joys and tears--by the worship there rendered and the dead there buried, till he almost convinced his audience that to remove it would be sacrilege. It was evident he had carried the day, for Washington was no orator like Brutus to destroy the effect of this impassioned appeal. But while Mason was studying his eloquent ha rangue, the former, like an old surveyor as he was, had been cautiously making a map of the whole parish, with all its dwellings, showing the precise relation which the old and new site held to them. Coolly drawing this from his pocket, at the close of Mason's speech, and unrolling it before the people, he bade them look at the matter exactly as it stood, and told them it was for them to determine whether they would be carried away by an impulse, or act like men of sense and reason. This map acted as a condenser to all of Mason's vapor-he was deserted in the very moment of victory, and retired discomfited from the field.

This clear, practical view and stubborn adherence to fact, was one of the most striking characteristics of Napoleon, and we are reminded of a similar anecdote of him. On his way to Egypt, a group of savans, that accompanied the army, discussed one starry night on the deck of the ship the existence of a God. It was finally proved to a demonstration that there was none. The young Napoleon heard them through, and then turning his eye upward toward the bespangled sky, he waved his hand saying, "Ail very well, gentlemen, but who made all these?"

Peace had returned to the country, and to all human appearance the future history of Washington was to be that of a Virginia farmer. But he carried the same character in his social relations that he had borne in public life. The soul of honor and the incarnation of justice, he became the

depository of sacred trusts, and the umpire between parties throughout the entire region. To a friend he wrote that if his son wished to pass through college, he could draw on him for one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year throughout his course. Deeds of kindness and acts of benevolence came in between his more important business matters, binding his whole life together with golden links Among other things in which he became deeply interested was the payment of the soldiers and officers under his command. He was one of the commissioners to close up for the colony its military account, and pushed forward the matter so energetically, that he soon had the satisfaction of seeing every claim settled; and where the original holder hai died, arranged it so that the heirs would obtain the land. He did not overlook even Vonbraam, the interpreter who had deceived him so grossly at the Great Meadows, and then fied to England. The man had never been condemned legally, and he therefore considered him entitled to his share.

In October, 1770, he once more passed over the route where had transpired the most memorable events of his life. Taking with him his old friend Dr. Craik, who had been with him from the commencement of his military career, he set out on horseback for the Ohio, to see the western lands for himself, in anticipation of having them surveyed and laid off in tracts for the army. As they passed through the wilderness, almost every step recalled some scene of interest. They paused by the grave of Braddock, and mused together on the Great Meadows, where Washington suffered his first defeat. To him it was like living his life over again.

In twelve days he reached Pittsburg. Remaining here. three days, dining with the officers of the garrison, and holding a council with some chiefs of the Six Nations, he on the 20th, with a few companions, embarked in a large

canoe down the Ohio. They were now beyond the settlements of the whites. An unbroken forest shut in the river, whose bosom, dotted with islands, was disturbed only by the paddle of the red man or the plash of wild fowl. Night coming on they hauled their boat ashore, and kindling a fire on the banks lay down to rest. At daylight they again pushed off. The third day it snowed, and along the white banks, and through the colonnade of trees the solitary boat shot downward now dancing over the rifts, and again suddenly brought up on a shoal, threatening to upset all in the stream. Toward evening they saw smoke rising from amid the trees below them, and on turning a bend of the river suddenly came upon an Indian village of twenty cabins. Running the boat ashore, they encamped here for the night, and were entertained hospitably by the natives. Hearing that two traders had been killed a little farther on, they hesitated about proceeding, but at length concluded to venture forward, and kept down the river, stopping occasionally to allow Washington to examine the lands along the creeks and streams that put into the Ohio. The call of the wild turkey and the scream of the water-fowl were the only sounds that broke the stillness of the solitude. They scared the wild deer quenching his noonday thirst with the crack of their rifles, and roused the beast of prey from his lair, in solitudes hitherto unvisited by the white man.

On the 28th they came upon the Indian chief Kiashuta, with his hunting-party, by whom they were kindly received, and detained till nine o'clock next morning. Cold autumn rains and snow drenched them by day and chilled them at night, but Washington continued his investigations, now piercing several miles inland, and again accompanying the boat on foot along the bank. At length they reached the Great Kanhawa, the end of their journey. He had now gone two hundred and sixty-five miles from Pittsburg,

through a country claimed by the Indians, and where the claim of the white man had never been reared. Passing up this river to observe the land they proceeded ten miles and encamped. Next morning they pushed on four milest farther, and then encamped to go hunting. The forest soon rung with the report of their pieces, and before night the party had brought in five buffaloes and three deer. The next day they set out on their return. Strange wild fowl, with a cry he had never heard before, huge trees, with trunks forty-five feet in circumference, together with every picturesque object of nature, arrested Washington's attention, as well as the rich bottoms which were destined soon to be crowded with an enterprising people.

He was absent nine weeks in all, not reaching Mount Vernon till the first of December. This was his fifth trip to the Ohio, and served to keep up his familiarity with the fatigues of a camp life that he was fast forgetting in the luxuries of home. All this time he was not an indifferent spectator of the strife between the colonies and the mother country respecting their mutual rights, but sympathized deeply with the former.

How strangely Providence shaped the life of this man, to fit him for the high destiny that awaited him. Five years of better training could not have been devised. Stark and Putnam and others, had an experience fitting them only for partisan warfare, while such generals as Artemus Ward were not inured to the hardships and trials through which Washington had triumphantly passed. Besides, as commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, he was obliged to bear with undisciplined militia and a contradictory and officious governor-left to carry on a campaign without supplies-keep together half-starved and half-clothed troops-compelled to be patient under abuse and neglect to have courage when others desponded, and win universal confidence by his integrity and justice. In short he had