one's education. Washington was probably neither
better nor worse than the run of Virginia boys, of gentle stock, in
those days--just a good-natured, fun-loving youngster, not especially
bright as a scholar, but known as a plodder. One of his early
playmates was Richard Henry Lee, who also grew up to be a famous
Virginian; and between the two some droll schoolboy letters passed.

Washington was to be, like his father, a Virginia planter; and this may
have had something to do with the sort of education he received, which
was not very extensive. But along with his early training for farm
life there were many echoes of the military, which must have had a
lasting influence on the growing lad. His brother, Lawrence, had been
a soldier in His Majesty's service, and his stories of campaign life so
fired George's imagination that he was for throwing his books away, at
fifteen, and going into the navy. He was too young for the army, but
Lawrence, who rather encouraged him, told him that he could get him a
berth as midshipman.

It is related that the young middy's luggage was actually on board a
British man-of-war anchored in the Potomac, when Madam Washington, who
all along had been reluctant to give her consent, now withdrew it
altogether; and the "dutiful son" was saved from the navy for a larger
arena.

The boy was then just turned fifteen, and seems to have rebelled from
the humdrum life of the plantation. He was at the restless age, and
his naturally adventurous disposition sought a more active outlet.
This proved to be surveying--a profession then greatly in demand.
There were great tracts of wilderness in Virginia still inhabited by
Indians and infested by wild animals, which had never heard the sound
of the woodman's axe. These tracts had been included in grants from
the King, but their boundaries had never been exactly determined. To
make such surveys was a task requiring both skill and courage.

Washington was naturally an exact and painstaking boy. He now applied
himself to geometry and trigonometry; and at the ripe age of sixteen
was ready to sling his somewhat crude surveyor's instruments across his
shoulder and subdue the wilderness. It promised excitement and
adventure--and the work was well paid.

Washington was even then a strapping big fellow, tall and muscular, and
nearly six feet in height. He afterwards exceeded this height, but at
sixteen there were naturally some hollows which remained to b